As far as my son's extra curricular activities go, I face a dilemma.
On the one hand I want him to dip in to lots of things to discover what he's good at. A process of discovery for us both.
But on the other, I want him to learn commitment and consistency. I don't want him to give something up when it gets a bit challenging, or he fancies watching saturday morning TV instead. I think that's a really bad precident to set.
My son is nearly 8, so is now at an ideal age for learning a musical instrument. I have read that 7 year olds catch up with the earlier starters very quickly, so there is little point in starting them at 4 or 5, unless it's purely for fun. I have seen others fall into the trap of giving their child an musical instrument, say at age 5, only for it to be abandoned six months later through boredom. Some of course don't.
I would like my son to start to have music lessons soon - so would he. I hope we can arrange some taster classes, to find an instrument he likes and will be happy to practise at home. If we go ahead, I will expect commitment from him past the first few months.
This might come across as pushy, but I know my son and right now, commmitment and concentration really aren't his strong points. He has at times a naive faith in his ability. I really want him to take pride in doing something well and not expect immediate gratification for his efforts.
He goes to three 'things' a week - one of them, Sunday School/church not very regularly. He mildly complains about them, but always leaves the classes smiling and happy. One more class, I think, will be enough for now. He needs time to relax and I need time to be with him. I don't want to be constantly ferrying him to classes on my time off from work.
He also gets to play out with his friends at weekends. I think this unstructured time with minimal adult interference is just as important for him. He knows he gets to play out, as long as he's well behaved at his classes. A critical word to me from his teachers, and he is grounded.
As a child, I went to lots of extra classes and really benefitted from them. Unlike my son, I was a very shy child and lacked confidence. Doing things I enjoyed and doing them well helped build my confidence and realise that not all ability was measured by school exams.
Mind you, now I say that, I remember the benefits could manifest themselves in some strange ways: I used to go to elocution classes, and from the age of six I happily recited poems from memory. By the time I hit secondary school, I was used to memorising pages of text. So when my dreaded physics exams came along, revision was a doddle for me, even though I was the most unscientific a student as you could imagine!