Suggestions for a hobby/interest for DD 14

[Sonnet]

My eldest DD (14) ia a quiet soul. She enjoys school and has friends although finds the "catty girl thing" hard to take. She has been quite bored over the hols. We were chatting over the easter break and I suggested that maybe she needed a hobby/interest and she agreed but didn't know what. her younger interests have seemed to slip over the years. She doesd play the flute but that is all.

What do your teens do as hobbies?

Any suggestions greatly received

TIA

You need to find out everything that is avialbale at school, community education, leisure centres etc and then try something on the list. Ideally, get a friend interested in going along too.

cheerleading? My dd - 13 loves it - it is not all about pom poms - they do dance routines and gym combined . The social life is good too as they are all there for a common interest

geocaching??

is she creative?, what about sewing?. i can give you tons of links to free projects for her to try.

what about cadets? Sea/air/army? Loads of stuff going on there. Worth a try and cheap! DS1 started it, but then football training changed to the same night and football won. I'm going to get DS2 to start in a few months as he does nothing. He gave up scouts, having loved cubs, doesn't do football, loves planes.

For your DD it's probably just getting started on something that's difficult - walking into somewhere where you don't know anyone. I would speak to the leader of wherever she starts and mention that she's quite shy. perhaps they'll give her a kind of mentor, an older member who introduces her to the others.

Duke of edinburgh would be my suggestion, along with paddlesports.

I started kayaking when I was 13/14 for my DofE Bronze, I'm 22 now and a coach :) However I think you may mean she has been canoeing and is scared of capsizing a kayak? That's generally what people are scared of! The Nene's club is quite good apparently, my canoe club visit the nene regularily and a lot of our paddlers have done their whitewater courses there (we're in East Essex, it's our nearest whitewater centre!) And going through a club is safer as they will have coaches who can teach her from scratch the right way to do things, including capsizing. Not only that but on the paddlesports syllabus these days you have to Canoe and Kayak, so they'll teach her both disciplines until she's advanced enough to choose just one [if she wants to choose that is]. Paddling can be pricey though so don't go all out and get a boat/paddle/Bouyancy Aid/etc until she's been doing it for a while and won't give up, the club provides those!

Another sport is climbing, brilliant for core muscles like paddling is and great fun, it would also encourage her to save money to buy some equipment like paddling would. Northampton area has a good few climbing clubs too which look good and active.

Knitting would be good too, it's very relaxing and some suggest that it's similar to meditation in that respect!

I think DofE would be your best bet though, then she'll start a new sport, do some voluntary work, meet new people learn some new skills, do some camping and walking and so on, it's great fun and I am going to try for my Gold once I'm settled again :) Try to find her a club that isn't associated with her school, as it means she'll meet people she hasn't had a chance to meet yet and be independant from her classmates a little.

My DS is also does kayaking. We are hertfordshire and are just about within walking distance of the Olympic white water centre. He has done a competition at Nene as well. We also have a really good club for climbing, watersports and caving, but it's tucked over the other side of the railway line and not that many people know about it.
Our club also provides day trips and weekends away and you can also do DofE through that. DC's school don't start DofE until year 10.

Try not to give up completely on the theatre/drama idea. It's great for helping to build confidence and in my experience, there are no catty girls there like there are at school. They tend to become friends for life and stage school can be an escape from all the usual nastiness that goes on at school. My daughter's stage school experiences have always been very positive and when bad stuff goes on at school, she has another group of friends who are always there to support her and not judge her!! Just a thought.

Certainly Venture scouts/senior section of Guides (Ranges and young leaders to oldies like me), certainly collected the nicest, least catty girls in our area.
(DD deliberately goes to Guides in a different town to escape her school peers)
I also helped with brownies which was great fun. Ended up as a brown owl, as a young adult, which let me make friends in a strange town too.
Back stage rather than on stage at a theatre group?
I played tennis a lot, because our village club ran coaching in the holidays and a group of us got good enough to enjoy it.
Climbing, our indoor place runs drop in and clubs for all ages.
Water sports certainly DD grabs any trip going and I did too. Oh and unless you've got a splash deck on you just fall out of kayak, not frightening just cold .

another one for girl guides/ rangers. I did my Duke of Edingburgh bronze award through them.
taekowdo

I'd recommend Duke of Edinburgh Awards too.

Here's some more information on the Bronze award. Doing the awards will give your DD a chance to try all sorts of activities, some of which might start a lifelong interest.

Another vote for horse riding. DD's got really toned arms/legs and the people she rides with are a good bunch of friendly, non-catty girls. A couple of boys ride as well occasionally and every seems to get on well. Having a group of non-school friends has been a benefit.

echoing snowkitten with a vote for cheerleading, my dd used to be very shy and lacked confidence until she found cheer at the age of 8 - she's now 14. over the six years she's been doing it she has blossomed into a talkative, confident girl with lots of friends and the sport has become her life. its all she talks about, if you cut her in half she's have cheer running through her veins! :D it's fantastic exercise and you meet so many lovely new people through the sport.
i would 100% recommend it

Our local Judo club is great fun, nothing more satisfying for a girl than knowing she can flip most any lad onto the ground and pin him there in 3 seconds flat (DD has cackled whilst reading that). She also votes 4 horse-riding and "liking boys" .

Air Training Corps? Or Army Cadets? If you're into that sort of thing. It's very cheap and you do canoeing/sports/Duke of Edinburgh etc plus flying and shooting.

There are some good ideas but I wonder if a once-a-week activity like martial arts will prevent the boredom? Perhaps she needs something that she can do in all her spare moments, like a craft of some sort. I have a somewhat older daughter who sounds similar in nature, and i would ask you to try and make sure you do not try to turn her into a square peg in a round hole. Quietness and solitude are not always side effects of a lack of confidence, but can be a different sort of confidence, meaning that they do not always have to try to fit in or be stimulated in some way. You sound very sensitive to her needs, but i have met other parents who have ended up making their child feel less confident by the suggestion that their quiet behaviour needs to be sorted out!

St John Ambulance might be good. It would give her a skill that would look good on her CV and there are events at weekends and during school holidays. They seem to attract some of the shyer teens but it does help with confidence when providing first aid at public events.

I did lots of puzzle magazines (crosswords esp) at that age. Would be a sudoku addict if it were today.

yoga ?

heh. i was very similar at that age and i loved reading and playing computer games - the adventure/role playing type.

Ice skating? My two do this - DD1 only got into it at about 12 and is now very good. It can be as on your own or group based as you like as most rinks offer both one to one and group lessons. This makes it better than dance for shyer people, I think. Both of mine have made fantastic friends at the rink.

Pricey if you really get into it, though - and we do have a ridiculously long drive to the rink!

My 14 y.o. DD is in Army Cadets, and she loves it. They really build up self confidence too She gets to go hiking, shooting, camping, orienteering, all sorts!
Last weekend, she learned how to light a fire using flint. I have just ordered some on Amazon, and when it gets here, she is going to teach her brother and me how to do it as well!

What about a job? That woukld socialise her, and earn her some cash?