Seeking Hobby Ideas for My 10-Year-Old Daughter

[CuriousPebble]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice and inspiration. My daughter is 10 and currently doesn't have any hobbies that she’s really passionate about. She’s tried a few things like dance, guitar, and horse riding, but none of them have really stuck. While I understand that perseverance is important, my main priority is that she enjoys what she’s doing, which is why we haven't pushed her to continue with activities she wasn't interested in. We’ve adopted a bit of a “fail fast” approach to finding the right fit.

I’d love to hear what hobbies your children are into. What activities have they found meaningful and enjoyable? I’m hoping to gather some ideas to chat with my daughter about and hopefully find something that sparks her interest.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

My 10yo daughter does Stage School. She is definitely not the most confident type of kid and never puts herself forward in the auditions for main parts etc but she really enjoys going, learning the songs (always belts them out in the car on the way home- much more confident with no one else watching!), seeing her friends who attend. The Stage School has junior and senior classes which she has moved up through and now harbours an interest to be a helper in the junior class (some of the older seniors like 15-17yo were young helpers to her when she was in the junior class like age 6-7yo).

She also does Brownies, she has been going since Rainbows and she’s technically old enough to move up to Guides but there isn’t space yet so she’s hanging on in Brownies for now. I wouldn’t say it’s a passion but she enjoys it and I hear (from others who’ve moved up) that Guides is even better in terms of independence- camp outs/sleepovers in the church hall etc.

Things tried here, not all have lasted, mind.

Tai Kwando
Instrument and orchestra
indoor hockey (floorball)
sailing
kayaking
scouts
gymnastics

Of these the ones that are still going in some form or another are instruments and orchestra, sailing, floorball and kayaking.

Was a struggle with some of these, but we stood firm in that after three goes they had to commit one way or another and once subs were paid they were going for that year. Now they love the ones that they still go to.

Learning a brass instrument. She can then join a brass band, and will have hundreds of friends FOR LIFE. Trust me. It's the way. I see so many people posting on here saying they have no friends, whereas I meet up with at least 30 of my friends twice a week, plus socials/concerts at weekends, and helping out at other bands.

Has she mentioned what she didn’t enjoy in each of those ?

I mean, for ex dance (which is the one I have most experience with at that age, was it the social aspect / competitiveness (depending on the setting, it can start incredibly early, it’s not just on Dance Moms😊) / clothing (ex ballet, leotard is quite light on covering up + changing in front of everyone in a 10min chaos).

Just wondering also, as you mentioned quite specific ones in your OP, has she tried out different types of dance, different instruments, etc ?

That’s how it worked out for me, although I was a bit younger, in those cheap community type settings on school holidays (that I got subsidised as low income).
They did multi-sports type weeks for instance, where you try a different one each day, same for dance and music.

Youtube can be a rather interesting option also, free and avoids wasting money on subscriptions they give up right after the trial deadline 🙃.

As it happened for me :

• Sports : hated the lot of it (and all sports days! so no huge surprises there🙂)
• Dance : loved ballet & lyrical/contemporary, so continued with that (and still do, although at a lower level) ; ambivalent about the others, and there weren’t enough funds anyway as I then switched to a proper dance school for the ones I chose
• Weren’t any artistic ones available
• Horse riding and gymnastics I wasn’t allowed to try out, out of fear I would enjoy it, as it would have been too expensive
• Music : loved harp (but too expensive), hated flute & guitar (so that’s the general idea of my initial question, as it is close to the harp), so just stuck with piano (cheaper) which was ok but I wasn’t great at it ;it was a helpful foundation though, as my interests changed later (as an adult, love pan flute)

There were others, but you get the idea.

It does depend a lot on your budget tbh.

English isn’t my first language (although these experiences were in the UK, living here for a couple of years, only came back somewhat recently) and so I don’t know what you mean by a ‘fail fast approach’ though, sorry!

Sorry that was so long, hoping it was at least a tiny bit helpful to compensate for the length 😅

my kids over the years have done: (3 kids and mix of girl/boy)

organised hobbies
Gymnastics
ballet
tap
football
minecraft coding club
french club
coding club
beavers/cubs/scouts/explorers
taw kwondo
piano/guitar/flute lessons
swimming
musical theatres
actors stage school

solo hobbies
sewing (with machine) and other crafts
baking/cooking
fossil hunting

to be honest DS1 has ASD so didnt enjoy any team stuff. He did start a lunch time map club in primary school but as the others didnt draw the maps 'properly' he stopped it 😂
DD has done lots over the years and really enjoyed all of it. She only does explorers/volunteers with beavers and then has some more solo hobbies such as sewing and cooking.
DS2 tried stuff but his main hobby is fossil hunting.

@BrieAndChilli can't lie, the not drawing the maps properly made my laugh out loud... I feel DS' pain! I'd be annoyed too. 😂