Suggestions wanted - clubs and activities for 4.5 year old ds?

[3littlebears]

Hello,

My big boy is about to start school (reception), but after-school activities don't kick in until he is in year 1. He is a lively and energetic (euphemisms always used by mothers!) little boy - should I be signing him up for football or dance classes or judo or music lessons or bl**dy mandarin or whatever? When do people start sending kids to these things? Don't want to be pushy, but want to give him lots of opportunities and stop him getting bored. What do others do and enjoy? Or is it too early? All advice and experience gratefully received please.

ds 2 is the same age and he does swimming after school one day and goes to mini tennis another day after school. We go out with friend to s park or play area another night and he also does tramploining on a weekend.

Like you his school activities don't start until after reception class but I don't think he will do too much anyhow at school.

Wait and see how he finds reception first - there is a reason as to why most schools don't have loads of afterschool activities for reception age! If he still has a lot of physical energy to release then you may find that just unstructured playing outdoors (an hour in the park say) is better for him than having a structured session somewhere. Some children thrive on structure in classes etc, and some don't (and dare I say a number of "lively and energetic boys don't!).

If he is bored at school in reception then are you sure that it is the right school for him?

just wait and see how he gets on being in reception to start with - there's no rule about going to after school clubs and you shouldn't feel pressured. Ds went to karate from age 4, but that's all until later on when he did French and Beavers and a drama club...

My 4.5yo did a pre-school gym class that he really loved (all mine did it it's fab) so he is going to do the after-school version of it too.

DS1 did it but didn't enjoy it (it is a lot harder) so we will suck and see with DS2.

He is also desperate to do saturday morning football training we will see about that.

All mine do swimming as well (DS2 since January).

Don't rush in to too much - he will be very tired going to full time school at first.

My ds is 5y6m and just started in primary 1 (scotland). He has 1 hr swimming lesson, goes to an hour of football coaching (but that is fairly unstructured at his age - seems to involve a lot of running round and yelling at the top of his voice) and goes to the church kids midweek club (very like the football by the sound of it, though they also have a story adn a craft activity and a snack). Swimming and kids club are the same night which is a bit of a bummer, I feel awfully like a pushy Mum taking them to both (his big sister also does both activities), but they seem to like it.

The rest of the time he plays outside after school, when the other boys (all a little older then him) who live round here get home. We live on a safe estate with no roads in front of the houses - all nice wimpey grass and paths! So there is a lot of bike riding, dressing up as Darth Vader (current star wars obsession is ongoing!) and staging mock battles, and unstructured running around and yelling going on!

He likes the structure of the classes too though - but he is posss even more than a year older than your ds due to scottish school start dates, so that might make a difference.

We have deliberately chosen NOT to hve weekend activities so we are free to do things together at the weekend, and restricted it to 2 nights a week so all our kids have plenty time to 'just play'.

My DS is now 6 and I haven't really done any after school activities with him yet. There were a couple available to reception at our school - arts and crafts and yoga but he wasn't interested.

In Yr 1 we tried Aikido but the teacher wasn't great and DS didn't enjoy it so stopped. We did do swimming one night a week but at a friend's house - it was a 1-on-1 lesson with tea and a playdate with best friend.

He has done Sat morning football for 2 years - loves it (DH takes him usually - Daddy/boy bonding time!). We can also go along on Tues and/or Thurs but it is 30 mins from school so I don't encourage it! We went a couple of times but he isn't that bothered.

This year he will do tennis one day a week and maybe one other club if he wants to.

As others have said Reception is very tiring for them so I wouldn't be too worried for this year.