to think the prices for kids activities round here are insane?

[deliverdaniel]

We live out of the UK and not sure what the prices for these types of things are back 'home'. Just looking into some basic activities for our kids to do after school (really don't need anything fancy)

Pretty much everything ofr kids (eg football, ballet, gymnastics, group music type thing) or for toddlers (baby music etc etc) is the equivalent of 15- 20 quid per class (usually more like 20) . There seem to be almost no cheaper options. Is this this same in the UK? How much do you pay for kids activities?

Lit, not light!

We pay £165 for a term at stagecoach for DD aged 4, which I think is good value for what she gets. Was thinking about music lessons and a sports club, but can't affoed the extra 20-25 per week this would set us back!

thanks for the great suggestions! luckily DS 1 also has an 'enrichment' class at his school each term included in his afterschool programme. But the choices are a bit random and limited.

Does not surprise me at all. I had my godmothers best friend visit us from Canada. She is a qualified electrician and used to work on the highways repairing road lights. She was horrified at our electrics and extended her stay so she could rewire our home for us! She said she couldn't leave without doing it herself because she just didn't trust any of the contractors we brought in. The inspector was shocked at how good a job she did and said it was the first time he has passed an electrical job first time.

DS:

£120 a year for scouts
£90 a year for rugby (boots £30, gumshield £10)
Karate - £30 per month for lessons, £20 per grading (twice a year)
Parkour - £10 per week for an hour lesson

For my DD aged 6 we pay £10 month for football at the YMCA, £70 term gymnastics, £18 month swimming, £22 term Rainbows and £3 per session for roller skating plus £40 per year membership of skating club. She's also doing guitar through school for £50 per term.

I pay 25quids a month for karate for DD1 (5yrs old) and that's 1 class per week, 25quids a class for 121 swimming lessons (every fortnight or so - group swimming is well under 10quids but for now we want to do some 121), peanuts for rainbows, abt 10quids a week for drama class (1hr), 5quids for some group French class. DD2 (2.5yrs old) does swimming with puddleducks and that's about 13quids each class I think. I think that's it...

Aprox £2-5 per activity, each one hour long.

I don't choose the expensive ones. For swimming they wanted 18/hour!

Depends where in UK, loads of free kids activities in London, not so much rurally. Swimming more expensive outside capital but lessons are cheaper. Amazingly visiting farms in countryside is £££, London has a free farm to visit..

We live in London here's what we pay for my DD age 8:
Piano £20 for 60 minutes
Martial Arts £10 for 75 minutes
Maths tutoring £55 for 60 minutes
Creative writing £8.50 for 60 minutes
Art/French £20 for 120 minutes
Brownies £25 for a whole term!
Ballet £9.50 for 45 minutes
Tennis £18 for 60 minutes
Gymnastics £8.50 for 60 minutes
Swimming £8.00 for 30 minutes
Horse riding £20 for 45 minutes
That looks a lot when written down...

i pay about £7 for swimming and same for ballet.

The library does free group baby sing and & rhyme sessions.

Im down south.

Wowzers, some massive prices here.

Gym £4.25 (1 hr)
Swimming £4.25 (includes free swimming at family sessions - several per week)
Ballet / modern £4 each
Brownies £2
Clarinet £7 (20 mins)
Football £3 (1hr 15)

Never got why the majority of babies when DD was little went to Water Babies at £12 a pop. She's nearly completed ASA stage 6 and has just turned 7. That sounds smug but it was way beyond my budget.

To give people an idea of just how expensive activities are where I live, riding lessons at the cheapest stables is $45 for 30mins and the horses are donkeys. The descent stables have lessons that start at $80 for 45min if you buy a package of group classes.

Be so so thankful in the UK that the vast majority of kids activities are affordable. Where I am in the US it is just prohibitive unless you get a scholarship (yes you can get a scholarship to the stables, paid for by wealthy locals who also baulk at the cost of these activies and its their way of making these things available to all).

Becca, do you fit all that in weekly on top of school?

Jennifer - yes, we are busy every afternoon and all weekend... she loves everything and refuses to give anything up :) Dad does Sundays though!

I'm not sure the the pp who said activities in 'the countryside' are more expensive than London. I think they mean 'the countryside aroumd London'. I live way up north and the average class costs about £4-5 with team sports being cheaper at about £2. Obviously things like horse riding are more expensive ( about £20).

Also living in the US, my DS plays lots of different sports through the local YMCA, you don't need a membership and the sports are approximately $100 per season. Although, he's outgrown YMCA soccer so we now pay around $250 per month for him to play competitive soccer plus hotel costs almost every week!

yeah- just looked into a gymnastics class for my 3 year old to burn off some energy and they wanted over $1000 for the year! judo (basically just running around) was $200 a month and we would have to do both kids for that. DH said if we are going to spend $1k on having him burn off energy we would be better off putting the money into doing up our back garden with trampoline etc. It's so ridiculous.

Also noticed that every kids activity needs to be excessively fancy here. So if baby music, not just singing a few songs with a guitar, but studying african tonal patterns or whatever (usually total bollocks anyway) etc etc I just feel like saying "we don't need all that." just something simple for them to burn off some energy/ have some fun for a few $$ would be fine.

We are in the US and we're also shocked at the cost of classes.

In the U.K. my kids both played two sports, an instrument and did Cubs.

The instrument classes alone are more than double the price of our UK lessons ($30 per 30 mins) and that's only because I did a lot of research to find good independent teachers. There are lots of really fancy music schools charging $350 a month.

They get PE every day here so we are taking our time to find the right sports coaching. However it looks like it's about 3-4 times the cost per equivalent class at home.

The kids also get about two hours of homework a night (elementary school) so I'm keen not to over schedule them.

In general we find the cost of living higher here.

want that was lovely of your godmother's friend

songs with a guitar, but studying african tonal patterns or whatever

We lived, very briefly, in what was the real life version of Stepford, that kind of stuff was rife. I was once invited to, I kid you not, a workshop on how to stage your home to be welcoming and soothing for your husband's return from work . I wanted to go and have a good laugh but DH said it would be pissing on other people's chips and mean spirited, the spoilsport.

Gymnastics £5 for a 45 minute class and swimming £5 for a 30 minute class. Dd is only two and these are toddler classes, not sure if classes for the older groups are more expensive.

Loup I would have so gone to something like that just for the laugh. I really struggled in suburbia. Just had nothing in common with the people there.

deliver Don't do a full trampoline. Get a mini one from Amazon or Walmart. The big ones increase your home insurance almost by double.

Our YMCA is bloody expensive. Tap for DD was going to cost $1100 a year for a weekly class. It's 'only' $990 if you are a member. Family membership is $1000 a year for everyone. It covers the gym, swimming and use of the childcare they have during the day. It does not cover the cost of classes.

DD does piano and violin. Both taught to her by students. I pay $20 per hour and she has half an hour of each.

I found the student teacher as she posted on our FB mommies page looking for work during the summer. Said she had taught at a local music place so I thought I'd try her.

One of the reasons we moved back to the uk - quality of life is just so much higher (we were in Switzerland - couldn't afford anything despite being on good salaries)