How Many Clubs do your children do?

[Eesha]

Just curious really, for context I'm a single, working parent and my 2 children do dance, yoga plus a piano lesson at home. They are 5/6. It's all just fun really.

I've recently met someone with three children all under 7 who do at least 5 or 6 each. To be fair, they are also incredibly wealthy and have two parents. But is this the norm?

My daughter goes through stages when she does a lot and stages when she does little, I go with what she wants but just require that she does at least one active club. Right now she is doing a lot, with scouts, circus school (these two she's been doing long term), parkour, volleyball twice a week and jujitsu twice a week. Summer break now so will see if she continues them all in the autumn (volleyball and jujitsu will clash on one of the days then so that makes it difficult).
Thankfully none of these are expensive (well, I don't know how much volleyball costs yet because haven't been charged yet as she only started a couple of months ago) and everything except volleyball is in biking distance (and she gets a lift to that with a friend) so she can take herself so it doesn't take up our time. If we had to drive her to everything and they all cost more then I'd have to set limits.

My 4 year old doesn't do any clubs yet, will probably give gymnastics a go in the autumn, there's barely anything for his age in my town, its all for school age kids.

My DC age 6&8 both do:
Gymnastics Monday.
Swimming Tuesday
Martial arts Wednesday
Cricket Thursday
Dance class Friday
Football Saturday
Park run Sunday.

We have a busy life! 2 parent family who both work full time but luckily have flexibility to be the taxi driver, and a very generous grandparent who helps a lot.

DS1 (age 10) does swim club 6 times a week, running club once a week, football and no other clubs outside school.

DS2' (age 8) does swim club twice a week, karate once a week, and has one musical instrument lesson each week.

@PurpleChairs

Don’t they struggle with doing one activity per day? I know my son does martial arts and he has to attend classes multiple times a week plus exam classes & comps. And my daughter dances - again multiple times per week and exam prep on top. If they were doing a different activity each day they would really struggle to advance in that sport/activity at the expected pace. Or are you doing like a bit of everything then narrowing it down when they’re older?

@Kanaloa yes exactly. They are very active and if they don't have an activity they drive me and themselves bonkers. At the moment they don't 'specialise' in one activity but they definitely have favourites. It's just about exposing them to various things and then they can choose to drop them (or pick up more) they wish.

Yes, to be fair I noticed around age 8/9/10 there was a sort of filtering at my kids’ stuff. Like some kids stopped coming since they prioritised another sport more, especially when they got old enough for exams & comps. I also think it’s around that age that certain activities like Brownies/Scouts sort of fall off. I know my kids stopped with those activities to squeeze in more sports since obviously they wanted to be more prepared for exams/competitions. But I think it’s a shame. I don’t know many kids who do brownies all the way now, whereas when I was young girls up to 15-ish did guides.

Mine always did one out of school thing (their choice) and then at secondary they did school activities if they wanted.

As a family we had/have interests but not really bothered for classes etc.

My autistic DS does one, after school and run by the school. Any more and he wouldn't cope.

My eldest (10) does:
monday- fitness after school then piano
Tuesday- cycling
wednesday- hockey
Thursday- cycling
friday- scouts
saturday- cycling
sunday- free

used to be swimming on a Saturday also, but has got to a standard where they’d need to join a club and we prioritise other sports over that. Is competing at national standard at cycling hence the frequency.

youngest is same, except gymnastics is also in there before cycling on a Tuesday and hockey on a Wednesday. Swimming on a Saturday afternoon.

it is a lot, but they are not great at downtime, and are asking for more clubs to try and fit around what we already have. I make sure they have at least one clear day a week and they aren’t entering the overtraining bracket in any one sport- hours over their age.

at a young age we prioritised gymnastics (the basic movement skills for many activities) and swimming as a life skill. The cycling has come later, and looks like it will take more and more time as they get older.

9 and 10 year olds both do swimming lessons once a week, kickboxing once a week and Cubs. School do a 4-5 week long set of after-school clubs each term and they usually book onto whichever on offer interests them (things like lego, art, cooking, dance - plus they have an external sports provider who runs another club the same length on a different night - so this term they're doing fencing, last term it was archery... they'll be sorted for life in medieval England at this rate).

DS - 1 club, 2 school activities
DD1 - 2 clubs, 1 class
DD2 - 1 club

Does your school do any? We are lucky that my dcs primary school offer quite a few clubs which are before and after school so it doesn't feel much effort to just get them in a bit earlier or pick up a bit later.
My ds (aged 6) does:
Monday:football before school, beavers
Tuesday: Karate after school
Friday: swimming, cricket
My dd (aged 4) does:
Monday: football
Thursday: dance
Friday: swimming

We don't do any at the weekend as like to keep it free for family and down time.

DS (8) does:
Chess
Piano (in sch)
Swimming
Tennis

DD (4) does:
Street dance
Tumble Tots

Only SD is at weekends as we like to keep those free. However DH & I both work full time so it's difficult to do clubs unless they are at school. They both go to after school club 2-3 times per week.

DS's hobbies are very expensive but it's hard to know what to drop. I feel like he hasn't found his "thing" but how do you know what to pursue without spending endless money or time on multiple courses?