Extracurricular Activities

[muffinhead4]

What extracurricular activities do your DC's do? I have a DD who is 9 and every activity she has done in the past she has given up within 2 years. We have tried Ballet, Piano, Gymnastics so far and both of them attend swimming lessons. Any ideas what to try next? Or for my DS who has just 7 and goes to football and swimming.

Elder DD (11) does Scouts and school clubs.
Younger DD (9) does Cubs and Rugby, plus will do school clubs when they resume. She did cricket in the summer, but might not next summer depending on when she moves up to Scouts.

They did swimming lessons up until the summer.

Dd1 did brownies all the way through from beginning to end. Also does a children’s choir and tap/modern. DS does tag rugby and drums. He’d quite like to do karate but we can’t fit it in logistically. He lasted two weeks at cubs.

Why does she have to try anything else. I would just wait until she expresses an interest in something rather than sending her to things just for her to quit.

But if you desperately want her to do something try competitive swimming or rookie lifeguards but be aware if she likes competitive swimming you will be forever paying out money for galas and expensive equipment.

Follow their lead. That's where you'll have the most success.

DD (8) currently does swimming (lesson once a week & with school once a week), gymnastics & archery. She tried ballet but all felt it wasn't going anywhere (teacher was having some personal issues) so she swapped to gymnastics. She's not the most athletic of children, so we've tried to explore alternative sport activities she's tried & enjoyed such as archery.
She would like to try horse riding & possibly Brownies as her friends do them. We might try her with cricket next summer too.
DS (4) only does swimming lessons atm - he's only just started school so are giving him time to settle into that before introducing any new clubs. We have him on the waiting list for gymnastics; & have heard good things about a local martial arts class. He has no interest in ball sports really, so may need to think outside the box with him too - maybe archery as well, or something else.

My 2 older DC do scouts. One also does drama, plays an instrument, and participates in one after-school sports club. The other, who is about your DD's age, also plays an instrument and wants to join a video game coding club. He's just finished swimming - enjoys it, but not as a club. They've both given up martial arts and football as they were too much of a time commitment.

My older DS is just now coming into the territory where he wants to try things and lets me know. I think it's pretty normal to just try new things until they figure out what they really enjoy.

My dd now 16 used to do synchronised swimming twice a week, piano lessons that wasn't grade based, she learned to play her favourite pieces or songs instead do it was fun for her.
I never put pressure on her to do anything or any more than this due to homework levels

Depends whether they are sporty, arty, musical, budding thespians, etc. Look around for what's in your area. Mine tried lots of different sports and eventually settled on one they loved in their early teens. They discovered it on a summer camp for beginners and got hooked.

Slightly off piste things which have worked for us include:
Chess club (cheap as chips)
Climbing
Art club
Things which mine didn't take to ut your's might:
Tennis
Cadets
Badminton

I’ve always been of the mind that they should have at least one sport and one instrument that they can stick with through school, so we’ve been keen to keep trying things until we
land on something they really enjoy. Mine disliked ballet and gymnastics, but tennis was a winner for us.

Music is a non-negotiable in our house, so we kept trying instruments until they landed on ones they enjoyed. DD1, for example, finally settled on clarinet after cycling through piano, violin, and guitar without luck. She loves her clarinet and is now in the school band.

They can choose a third ‘fun’ activity if they want, but I don’t push that. This year, DD1 wants to do ceramics, DD2 wants to do horses, and DD3 wants to try hip hop dance. I’m less worried if they stick with those activities because they are more just for fun and are very low-commitment once/week activities (at their level, anyway).

What does she want to do? Extra-curricular activities are not mandatory.
More to the point -what do her friends do? She might be keener on an activity if she does it with someone she knows.

@Blaggertyjibbet I like that approach. What age & for how long did they pursue each instrument? DD had a few violin lessons after she turned 5 in May - enjoyed it at first but then lost interest. I didn't want to push it, but also feel an instrument is a bit of a 'non-negotiable'. I play piano and we have the odd session where I teach her a little bit, when she fancies, but that's it.

@Sipperskipper we started when they were about 7 years old. A musician friend of ours said that she finds around age 7 is when kids are really able to concentrate in lessons and progress at a decent clip (if they put in the work). The piano was a very brief passing fancy, perhaps similar to your experience, then the violin and guitar were each about 6 months of lessons. I think 6 months is a good amount of time to get over the honeymoon period and see if you like it enough to actually practice and work at it. A good teacher makes a big difference. Fortunately we already had the instruments available to us, so it wasn’t expensive to switch from one instrument to the other (and I admit we encouraged her to try the ones we had available first 😅). She settled into clarinet from the beginning of age 8 and has been happily playing ever since. DD 2 started with violin at age 7 and has never looked back. She tried to add flute after a year of violin, but it was too much work, so she has stuck with just violin for now.

Personally, I feel that musical literacy is an important life skill. Aside from the cognitive benefits and personal enrichment, I think that sticking with an instrument is a good way to develop discipline and make a habit of working toward a challenging personal goal.

DTs did ballet, lasted a year, then moved on to gymnastics, quite liked it but started riding, the riding increased so gymnastics had to go.

They did art club and science club in school and have stuck with rainbows, brownies and now guides.

They did swimming until lockdown but they had just finished stage 8 so now swim recreationally.

So now it is riding 3 x week and guides.

This appears to be the problem, nothing she says :(
So her two besties both play football and she watches as she has no interest in joining. I will try and suggest some more out of the box ideas as she might be more interested in trying them.

Some really good ideas here thank you.

DC1 is now 11 but have never stuck with gymnastics or any dance. She does swimming because I insist she learns it well. At 9, she plays the piano at school, but I also teach her playing chord progressions and easy pop music. I think it's the later that inspired her because she loves playing riffs. She's asked to learn the violin and is also doing clarinet at school.

Otherwise, she loves guides.

I think you have to find out what her interests are. Is she into team sports (eg football, hockey)? Have you tried brownies? When you say she gave up on piano, is it because it's too exam oriented?

Why does she have to do activities? She is still v young. Maybe she would like more down time/family time?

Perhaps your DD would prefer something more gentle?
DD did 'Wildlife Rangers' with our local Wildlife Trust and very much enjoyed that.

Rainbows/Brownies - big variety of activities and things to try out which DD loves, plus it isn't expensive, only about £25 per term and got the uniform secondhand. It's really helped build her confidence and making friends outside school.

At 9, DD1 was doing violin and piano. Junior strings orchestra at music centre snd orchestra at school. Brownies and swimming too. She enjoyed all she did and never gave up anything. At the same age, DD2 did ballet, tap and modern dance plus skiing.

Ballet & tap
Swimming
Brownies/Guides
Instrument
Choir
Fencing
None of these were child initiated, but they enjoyed the taster lesson and we encouraged two terms to try them out properly. As it was they did all for at least three years, and in some case never gave them up.

I think we initiated swimming - they were very young! Other than that, we followed what they enjoyed and what was offered at school.