How many clubs do your kids do?

[Franny1]

How many extra-curricular clubs do your kids do? Especially at the weekends? My kids do a fair bit but I'm quite a big believer in the benefits of boredom and I try to keep quite a few afternoons free (and at the moment my ten year old doesn't do any weekend clubs at all). But I feel like they are missing out!

(Bear in mind they are at an independent London school, so it may be that I'm surrounded by rat racey people and they're all doing too much!)

How old are your kids?

I felt like that to begin with but now they are mid primary age, they can handle a later night once or twice a week.

We have adjusted our hours so we can do one pick up at 3:15 a week, and we fit in activities then. They then have one later night activity (beavers/cubs) once a week after after school club. And then Saturdays. The orchestra that one of mine does is at school at 5pm so he goes straight from after school club.

In general also - a big factor for us is that we live in London and all of their activities are very close by, within 15 minutes walk or cycle. I imagine if you live somewhere where you need to drive longer distances for activities, it is harder.

@OhDear111 - yes - ballet and contemporary are the main things here.

I’m thinking she’ll move her sport to school - fortunately football is a mid-week sport and she can run and swim at school.

I’d like her to continue with her same piano teacher, but she’s already rumbling about taking an orchestral instrument at secondary

They have an amazing breadth of co-curricular offerings at school, but I think her time is maxed out - not just with the classes but with the practice and stretching each day.

I think she will need to both make some difficult choices and learn to be incredibly disciplined about homework.

An autocorrect miss. Misspelling.

DS1 is 17. With him, the clubs are turning into his career, so the lines are definitely blurred! He coaches a men's football team once a week & they play once or twice a week. He coaches DS3'S junior football team twice a week & they play once a week. He also does paid coaching twice a week. So 2-3 activities, 7-8 times per week.

DS2 is 14 & has SEN. He does SEN choir, Explorers & is about to start a SEN youth Club. He doesn't have friends & is mostly not in class at school, so it is vital that he socialised outside of school. The SEN clubs are the most expensive we have at respectively £8 & £12 per week!

DS3 (12) does coding Club & paid football in school, football activity & separate football team (2 x training & 1 x match per week) outside of school & Scouts. So 7 times per week, but only 3 separate activities, I guess.

I am in the car a lot! Once DS2 starts youth Club there will be something every day & often 2 things in one day. Although Youth Club will give us respite & can also lead to holiday Club, so holiday respite for us as we have very little family support.

@FallingIsLearning It fell into place at secondary for DDs as they went to boarding school. Neither were very sporty but one loved her dance and she swapped to the teacher at school.

Other DD was more musical and kept a lot of that going! Various choirs, ensembles and orchestra plus piano. Plus lots of drama and DofE bronze. By end of y10, her house mistress thought she was doing too much. She was given the House Captain role in y11, so with that, would have had 12 extra activities on the go at various times. She agreed to drop 2 things! Jazz dance and piano. They had strict prep slots so she fitted drama, MUN, Young Enterprise, house drama, school play and house music rehearsals around study! Still got 9 A stars at GCSE. They do say - ask a busy person! Still does everything full tilt as an adult!

4 and 6, both are the youngest in their years too as they are very late summer babies, and eldest very much needs her sleep! She is starting to manage some later nights now, and since my last reply she has actually been offered a place at brownies for September and it finishes at 7.45pm, so she'll have to shift back a bit that night.

How do they cope with doing after school club then an activity after that? This is what we'll be doing, do you factor in any decompression time between pick up and the club, then between club and bedtime on the later nights or is it literally home and get ready for bed?

It's hard getting the balance for them sometimes! I don't want to knacker them out, but I also don't want to be constantly working so they can't do anything they'd like to.

My 15 year old only does volleyball but that's 3 times a week training and games on weekends about once a month or so. She used to do D&D too but their dungeon master moved away.

My 8 year old is very busy - he does wrestling (once a week training), scouts, circus school and ice hockey in the winter and football in the summer (both twice a week training with occasional match days). He also does a multisports club which alternates between volleyball, ice hockey and futsal but on a very low-key just for fun level (and completely free, including transport and snack!)

DS7 only does swimming lessons. I’ve suggested loads of things but he’s not interested in doing any clubs, he just likes being home after school.

I think I felt similarly when mine were 4 and 6. But all of a sudden when they hit about 6 and 8, they just got more stamina and were able to do it. I expect it hits every child at slightly different ages.

Mine have never needed lots of decompression time either and their after school club allows them to chill out in the school library if they want. So we don't find we need to build in extra time. The 9 year old now does swimming and then cubs on one day, and he is absolutely fine with that.

It is important to us to keep one day of the weekend completely clear though as the rest of the week is so busy

Dd 15 netball training once a week then two matches on Sunday.
Ds 12 boxing twice a week, football training once a week and a match on Sunday
Ds 11 Thai boxing twice a week, football training twice a week and a match Saturday and a match Sunday. He sometimes has an extra technical training session on a Friday too.

I forgot dd also had science tuition once a week too.

My dd15 is in a football team and does army cadets twice a week.

My ds13 used to play football for a team but gave up and now he doesn't do any clubs, he sometimes will join in some sports competitions at school but he doesn't do anything after school.