Missed sessions / how regular attendance?

[lljkk]

DD does 2 activities a week (swim + dance). She probably misses about ... 1 in 4 sessions, saying 'I feel tired', etc. How often do your DC skip out their usual activity, what kind of attendance rate do you think they should maintain, to make it worthwhile to you (costwise) and them?

If they're ill, they're ill, and there's not a lot you can do about that. But I wouldn't let children skip paid-for activities because they "feel tired".

Having said that mine have never done loads of extra-curric, so when they have I've made commitment part of the deal.

ds2 has been learning piano for just over 2 years now, and has only missed one lesson ... and that was because we'd just come back from hols and we completely forgot about it!

How many activities do your DC do, roison?

DD (6yo) is mostly very keen about going, but I think she'd get stressed if she had to go every week (swimming we pay for in advance, but at least dance is only pay when we go).

She wants to do more activities, but... I think she's too flakey for me to want to pay for other activities with her current miss rate. Or am I unrealistic in thinking she should go to almost every session?

I wouldn't accept "I feel tired" unless I knew that for some reason they were. And in that case it would be straight home, quick tea and bed. But I am notoriously tough But I do give mine the opportunity to drop activities every term before I sign the cheque.

Oh dear, y do I excel at starting threads nobody cares about? [Pout]. Ta to Seeker & Roison anyway.

In less dd is ill we go to them. I feel I payed for them and it a waste of money not to go. Plus it encouages her to commit to things. If she really doesn't like lesson she is expected to finsh the block before giving up. We've only had that happen once with gymnastics didn't like the teacher.
She now swims (twice a week)and rides every fortnight because ballet/jazz dance and trampolining groups have all stopped.

Mine are 9 and 10 now, but have hardly ever done more than two things per week. For a long time they both had weekly swimming lessons, and then have done a variety of other things.

Our school do quite a lot of after-school clubs/courses on a 5-week basis, which is great. It's not a huge commitment and you can keep up the momentum for 5 weeks!

Atm ds1 does 1 activity and ds2 does 3.

I think there's a difference between different activities. For instance: a music instrument lesson where you are 1 to 1 would be rude to miss; to miss a performance rehearsal or a sports match would be bad - you would be letting down other people; to miss a session at eg. swimming club (where there are 6 sessions a week and you are doing another 4 or 5 and there isn't an expectaton of 100% attendance) is fine.

If you are very ill, missing anything is acceptable (always with as much notice as possible), if you are slightly ill or tired then you should struggle in to an activity where it will let others down if you don't.

I always say "you'll feel better when you get there" and mostly he does. If I didn't do things when I was tired I would never do things.