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How important are extra curriculars for only children?

3 replies

Chihowhow · 03/01/2024 20:19

Do the benefits outweigh the cost?

Dd is 6. At the moment she attends a forest school once a week in the summer, and goes to dance class once a week year round. We have play dates but all her friends do extra curriculars and so it can be tricky organising them, so we have one every two weeks or so.

She really wants to give ice skating lessons a go. Money isn’t in great supply, so I would have to cut back to pay for them, but we would manage if it was just the lesson cost.

I think it could be really good for her as she is really insular and shy, but I’m worried about the cost of two activities. Is ice skating one of those activities that soon racks up financially? I was a bit shocked when she started dance as it isn’t dedicated ballet/tap, it is just a fun class, but then they had to buy a £20 t shirt and £40 jumper for the uniform, the tickets to the shows are expensive (£20 each) and then there are the tickets to the children’s parties and trips to the theatre, so I’m worried that this might be the same. We tried rainbows and beavers but she hated both, and I’m not sure of any other low cost activities near us.

OP posts:
ValerieMoore · 03/01/2024 20:44

It isn’t very important. Just take her to skate and let her figure it out

theduchessofspork · 03/01/2024 20:53

Gym class might be cheaper?

I think extra classes are good for giving kids a cohort outside school, which means they aren’t so dependent on school relationships going well.

Seadreamers · 03/01/2024 20:56

We have an only child and he does several activities out of his choice. I think it’s good to do perhaps two regular activities/clubs, and I was going to suggest Rainbows/Beavers as a good budget option but I see she didn’t like that.

You could see if she can do a taster session for the ice skating first, and also enquire about additional costs too. She might not even like it. Or maybe a roller skating club - our leisure centre runs several sessions for different ages and abilities and it costs about £3-4/session.

Our school has 3rd party companies come in to do clubs which are cheaper than if you approached the company direct ie we have football, Street Dance (very popular), karate, and badminton. Does your school do similar?

Or do some research of lots of clubs and see what the costs are vs what she might like and see if anything might work?

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