Crepeys/Hagsnet - come to the candlelight!

[MrsSchadenfreude]

As the last thread is now full...

No, lucky!

After school stuff is OK as they make their own ways home, but stuff like cubs / youth club involves ferrying.
To be fair, at least the weekend sports clubs mean that they are out most of the day

Ah, yes, Brownies etc. I have managed to dodge that

Mind you dance and swimming are whoppingly expensive. I dare not work it out.

Bt you it's not as much as 6 hours gymnastics !

Piano lessons. They are v. expensive. And then you have all the tiger mother hassle of getting them to practice. Aaaaaargh. Ds is starting lessons in September and dd now wants to change teacher to do jazz piano instead. Will she practice more? Feh! Every morning we have the piano practice argument (dd), the recorder practice argument (ds) and the dog howls as soon as either of them start actually playing. I wish they were both no bloody good and then we could give up.

We have a digital piano (I think that is what they are called) which has some tunes programmed into it, ds 'plays' these - dp and I shout 'not convinced' down the stairs as we don't think he's up to Rachmaniov just yet (if I hear Yankee Doodle one more time I may commit some violence....)

I do sometimes think blimey I never had all this - Brownies was the long and the short of it!

I only let them do 3 activities each - and one of the activities has to be swimming until they have learnt properly. dd is a very good swimmer and now does a lifesaving class, which she loves, jazz dance and piano. ds does Colourstrings music, swimming and Beavers. Colourstrings is being dropped for piano. He wants to do loads more things, such as Stagecoach and Tae Kwando. No chance, unless we give up food.

dd did sailing for a year, but only because I made her. Now she realises that sailing is v. cool, so wants to start again. I'm quite liking that idea because I get to loaf about round the sailing school and look at buff olympic bods .

Colourstrings music???
Some of the stuff ds does is run by the school so tres cheap compared to piano!

Colourstrings He's been doing it since he was 9 months old.

Looking at the list of stuff that my dcs do also makes me realise why we can never afford a holiday. Or to go out anywhere.

You hothousing him Stropp

Er well. His headteacher has suggested that we teach him chess too and another language. So maybe, yes

I was hoping he'd be a sailing type, but I don't think that's going to happen.

How old is he? (not that I can talk - ds does Spanish and we taught him to play chess but he is a bit kamakaze in approach at the moment - hasn't quite learnt the 'long' game...)

DD has a great piano teacher - not only does she only charge £10 per 40min lesson, she also does not charge when we / she (more often she!) cancels, which suits fine as DD never practices But best/worst of all, DD LOVES her, as do all of her pupils, so won't give up!

Blackduck - ds is 6 going on 13. Dh has recently taught him the basics of chess, but ds being ds already fancies himself as Gary Kasparov. I cannot be arsed with chess, I'm afraid, so I just leave them to it. I'm supposed to be getting my act together to teach him German, but, er, haven't started yet.

bigTilly - yup, that sounds like a good deal. We pay £13 for 30 mins. Dd is on to her 3rd teacher and gets on OK with this one, but now wants someone young and funky. Not sure I can afford young and funky...

We have a fair amount of after-school hell, although it varies by term. The worst are the clubs that don't allow me to get home and come back again, so I end up in some cafe with the remaining grumbling DCs, spending a fortune on cake to keep them happy.

Thursdays are pretty grim too; they all do cycling club after school, so in the morning I have to heft three bikes onto the bike-rack on the back of the car, then unload at school, then do the same in reverse at 4.15pm. It always seems to rain on a Wednesday, so I arrive at work damp, frazzled and oil-smeared.

I don't remember getting that kind of service from my parents when I was young. A brief burst of piano lessons, and that was my lot!

Strop, DD's teacher IS young and funky - that's why DD loves her

CV, where do they do a cycling club? All the children that I know who do cycling club do it at the local velodrome where you use their fixed-wheel bikes - no brakes ! So no hefting bikes onto the car! (I couldn't get ours onto the car, I don't think - one of the few jobs DH is able to do )

wow £10 for 30 mins - where are you? Ds's teacher charges £25 an hour which I suppose isn't bad. Dp thinks ds has a slight crush on her - he gets all shy and giggly. He gets away with an outrageous amount of minimal practise (dp comes from a musical family - brother is a professional player and dp could have been - so I suspect he gets it from there). Cycle club - I am in awe - though would love to find somewhere that could teach ds to ride....

Inner London

Re: learning to ride, do you mean initial learning or proper cycling on roads, etc?

Learning - we are still on stabilisers - I'd like to find somewhere that would take him for a day and send him back balanced on two wheels!

Lots of people swear by the balance bikes. Or take off the pedals (and stabilisers, obviously!)
Or try taking the stabilisers off and letting him go down very gentle slopes in the park again and again till he can pedal and keep his balance!

Can't get peddles off (second hand bike - rusted on!!) Pretty sure a day with someone other than me would do it. MAy look around this summer.

Definitely try the slopes in the park - hold the seat, he puts feet on pedals and pedals as you let go.

I am Slackest here by far. DD1 has guitar (@ £17 per 30 mins) and ukele both evening/after school (uke is stopping after next week) DD2 has zilchio.