Children’s hobbies

[Cliedi]

My DD (6) has a couple of hobbies that she loves and does at the weekend and Friday evenings. She’s keen to do a gymnastics class too and learn a musical instrument. She is on a waiting list to do brownies when she turns 7. DH and I work full time so she’s at an childminder after school and any week night hobby would need to be 5pm or later and she goes to bed at 7.

Ive kept weekend nights clear so far so she gets a decent rest and we can spend time together but am now considering adding an evening class mid-week as she’s so keen. We don’t want to add more classes to the weekend as she already has 2 that we have to navigate days out etc around.

What do your 6 year olds do for hobbies? How many do they have and when do they do them?

Does the school have music teachers coming in to give lessons? If so, she can start learning an instrument in school time - sounds like it would be easier to fit that in.

My 6 year has beavers and football on 2 weeknights, then swimming lessons on a Saturday morning. I wouldn’t like to add in more as he’s tearful when tired and enjoys his downtime at home. He’s still very into imaginative play. Maybe when he grows out of that I’ll see about adding something else, but definitely not at the weekend as I don’t want the restriction

To be honest DD had too many, it wasn't until COVID hit and everything stopped that we really took stock of how much we were running around. We got caught in the dance world and what was a Saturday morning Mummy and Me class for 30 mins snow balled into, ballet, tap, modern, singing, drama etc etc and we were at the dance school most night for a couple of hours.

A couple of activities are fine and can change through the year and as she grows. Beware of going down the competitive route of anything, it starts off small but suddenly swallows up the whole weekend with traipsing around the county or further not to mention the training sessions before hand.

I'd aim for a sport, a social group and an instrument if I did our time again.

I'd have chosen rugby in the winter trading for recreational tennis or watersports in the summer.

Scouts/girl guides

If not massively musically talented singing or guitar lessons which are handy lifelong skills.

I'd do swimming lessons from 8 - they learn far quicker than starting at an earlier age, with regular recreational swimming as a family before that. DD went straight in at stage 4 and had completed stage 10 in two years, I'd taught her to swim most and water confidence she just needed help with her technique.

We try to keep weekends free for family trips out or birthday parties. DD is 6 and has a swimming lesson at 8.30am on Saturdays, and a Sunday afternoon hobby. The Sunday afternoon is a bit restrictive as it stops us going for a trip elsewhere on a Sunday, but it's only available on that day and she really wants to do it. We work around it and fit in family activities by going to the pool as a family before her hobby, and visiting places nearby afterwards.

Weekdays we do one thing every day after school. DD goes to bed at 8.45pm and doesn't get tired early, and we don't use any wraparound care so it's not too tiring for her (she gets home at 4.40pm if the class is on her school site). She does a musical instrument outside of school rather than a lesson in school time (which is offered in our school), as it's part of a music school with musicianship and ensemble groups so it's a broader base.

My DD6 does street dance, ballet, beavers, piano, tap and modern and swimming. She also has to fit in riding her pony a couple of times a week at least. It is alot but apart from the swimming it is all things she has asked to do. She regularly asks to do more things but I have said she needs to drop something before she can start something new.

Honestly, mine doesn't do any structured activities. He plays outside with friends. He helps with animal care (we live on a farm). We go hiking and swimming and cycling and camping. But he doesn't do anything in the way of classes or scheduled activities each week. My older one does a few things, and I will sign him up for Cubs next year if he's keen. We'd explore doing things he was genuinely interested in, but so far, he hasn't expressed any real interest in anything specific, so I'd like to keep things a bit relaxed until he does.

Mine did a lot, if they wanted to try it and it was feasible they did it, if they lost interest or found it too tiring or things clashed they stopped it. There were several years when we were all out doing things pretty well every night and weekend. Although I'm not sure how we managed it I don't regret it at all, they are young adults now and our weekends and evenings still revolve to some extent around the hobbies they started at late primary school age, but it is brilliant that they found their passions through childhood activities (DH and I ended up joining in some too). We still managed to find time for visiting relatives, going out for day trips etc too, just took a bit of juggling. So I'd keep an open mind, if they really want to try and it is feasible, let them try, they'll let you know if it gets too much.

When my DD was 6 she was doing one swimming & one gymnastics lesson a week on weeknights.
DS who is nearly 6 does Beavers & swimming - both on weeknights.
We try & keep weekends free.
However, DD who is now 9 currently does one swimming lesson a week, guitar at school, horse riding every other Saturday & also wants to add in lifeguard/rookie training and/or water polo.
She has also tried & dropped ballet, gymnastics, archery & cubs.

Thanks all! So fairly normal for quite a few hobbies then. The school doesn’t do musical instrument lessons but maybe the junior school she will attend next year will.

My 6 year old DD was training 12 hours a week in gymnastics, now age 9 shes 17-21 hours a week.

My 11 year old DD was training 6 hours a week not training 10 hours a week n trampolining.

I laugh at myself regularly as i said hobbies/activities wold not take over my life....yet here i am!