Best extra curricular activities for primary aged children in birmingham

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Hi I have two sons aged 3 and 6. My eldest has tried a variety of activities and my youngest had just started swimming.

Are there any activities that you would recommend in general or any in the Birmingham area specifically?

I always thought it'd be a good idea to get them to try our something sporty, musical, arty etc so that they can see what they enjoy and develop those interests further however I'm finding it difficult to find good providers around my area - but this is probably due to my lack of knowledge!

Someone had also suggested LAMDA lessons for my eldest for could benefit from developing his confidence further.

I'd be grateful for your suggestions ☺️

I'm in Leicester and not sure whereabouts in Birmingham you're looking location wise but the activity that DD has stuck with the longest is Outdoor Pursuits.

We have the LOPC (Leicester outdoor pursuits centre) who do after school, weekend and Holiday activities as well as things like Home Education groups.

DD goes Saturdays when they do a different activity each week and some of the school holidays too, she does Bushcraft, kayaking, archery, axe throwing, air rifles, high and low aerial trek/ropes thing, orienteering, paddle boarding, team activities where they make rafts or bridges out of crates and barrels and probably some other stuff I've forgotten.

It's varied, hands on, mucky quite a lot of the time and fun.

Looking around Birmingham area you have

ackers-adventure.co.uk/activities/

Which looks similar.

Thank you @InfoSecInTheCity - this sounds perfect for my boys!

I've had a look into it and have seen that the holiday activities starts from the age of 8 but I've added it to my notes for future reference. I've also emailed them to see if there's something they do on a weekly basis like you mentioned...fingers crossed 🤞

We're in Brum, I'm not really aware of anything here that you probably wouldn't get in other big cities but the advantage of a big city is that you can pick almost any sport (sailing on the reservoir, martial arts, cricket, tennis, whatever) and there'll be something and not too far from you. For drama stuff, my youngest's best pal does stagecoach on a Saturday (they have a few locations over the city) where they learn musical theatre skills and put on a big show each year which is nice. Theres a couple of boys in my youngest's ballet classes too. Wild lives forest school is lovely for outside nature sessions too (think they're mostly south Brum but there will be equivalent organisations elsewhere). So much to choose from!

PS for music lessons we use services for education (weird name, I think they're an ALB of the council or something, they're the organisation that supply a lot of the music teachers in schools too) who again operate in both north and south and do individual or group lessons, if that's something your lads might like (though they're maybe a wee bit on the young side!). Rock up climbing centre by five ways is great for climbing.

Ask them what they want to do? DS10 tried so many different activities through wanting to get all his Cubs' badges. He's done ice skating, scuba diving, taekwondo for his Cubs' badges on top of swimming, tennis, cricket, horse riding, choir (at school), theatre school (to get into Gang Show which he's done this year), driving lessons and air pistol shooting. If he can do all of that in Cardiff, I'm sure they do the same in Birmingham?!

Thank you @Mumofmarauders ! Lots of great suggestions here. I've already looked up Wild Lives after reading your post and have booked a summer session with them 😊 I will also look into the music suggestion too as it is something I wanted to start with my eldest.

@sanityisamyth I think the problem is that they don't know what they are interested in as they haven't been able to try a huge variety of things. Thank you for highlighting scouts though as it seems like a great opportunity to help them to realise what they're interested in

For music I can recommend the Ex Cathedra children’s vocal academy. It’s one Saturday every month and then performances at the end of each term. They’re really welcoming and the Christmas concert is lovely.