Extracurriculars

[SamanthaCarter]

I'm not sure how to approach extracurriculars. I want my children (8 and almost 6) to be exposed to music and some kind of sport or (trained) physical activity, but I've been in sticker shock for years. We haven't done much for lack of funds. Can we talk about what options will give the best bang for our $$$$?

 

I have my DS in a regional choir that's $230/semester. He's learning music and the cost is better than what it would take to learn an instrument. I'd like to start them on piano one day, when we actually HAVE a piano and the space for it. The only PE type thing they've got is once a week gym class at the Y. We had DS in Taekwondo for a while, but he started having some shoulder and back pain that made the pediatrician tell us to back off on that. Without going into specifics, I think he'd be fine with a more fluid martial arts like KungFu. 

 

DD wanted gymnastics classes for quite a while but we just couldn't afford it or justify it as something that could be useful through adulthood. She's also wanted ballet, and it looks like it would be less expensive. Still not something she could use as an adult, but I think that there are some cognitive benefits to dance. Convince me.

 

I just recently found a good option for art at our museum. So I'm excited about that. 

 

Also, how do you manage the time commitments? 

[SamanthaCarter]

Well! I guess I should read that other thread!

[lea_lpz]

The YMCA class is fine for those ages and will expose them to a variety of sports. If you can afford the price of the choir I would wait longer on piano. Honestly what you have going seems ok to me. If you want more AWANA and AHG are affordable.

[Ottakee]

What classes does the YMCA offer?  In our area those are quite affordable and don't require a huge commitment.  They have some sports leagues and then a lot of recreational classes.

[Sherry in OH]

I manage the time commitment by putting my two children in the same activities.  They either participate at the same time or in back to back sessions.

 

Unless your ds is really interested in trying a sport, I would stick with the gym class at the Y.  Add some swimming lessons at some point.  Bicycles and family walks or hikes are low cost physical activities.

 

Both dance and gymnastics strengthen the core and improve coordination. Where I live the cost difference would be a wash.  Recital costumes are expensive.  Both dance and gymnastics strengthen the core and improve coordination.  If your dd is 6, wouldn’t that be pre-ballet?  Does the studio offer tap or other dances that might interest her?  How about ballroom dancing?  You could enroll both children. (I have boys who would love to try ballroom.  Nothing for children near us.)

 

[desertflower]

Something to think about with ballet classes. In the end of the school year there usually is a recital. I don't know about the Y. But it can be costly.

 

My dd is attending ballet classes at a church and it's only $27/month including the recital fee, dress and tickets.

[FrogMom5]

First, it's great that your ds is in a choir and learning music.  That is an area I have neglected for my kids.  For the piano, could you buy a good keyboard instead of waiting for the space for a piano?  Keyboards are not the same, but they are less expensive and take up less room.

 

For ballet, well, dance is one of the best ways to learn where your body is in space.  It teaches coordination, strength and discipline.  I think it has life long benefits.  Anything that requires physical movement, especially when parts must move in different ways at the same time, have cognitive benefits. 

 

As for balancing time, I do not put my kids in classes that occur during the school day unless there is no other choice.  We have a once per week class that is early afternoon and the driving to and from is very disruptive.  That day is always our short day for school work.  Everything else is late afternoon or evening so we can get our work done. 

 

Also, try to cooking dinner ahead of time.  Remember, cook once, eat twice.  A crockpot comes in very handy, too.  No complicated meals, just meat and broth or tomato sauce.

 

For P.E., can you schedule nature walks in the morning instead of attending the class at the Y?  If you or your dh runs, plays tennis, rides bikes, could you do one of those activities with your kids in the evening instead?  In the young yrs., you can usually teach them a sport or two yourself and then put them into organized sports when they are a little older.  They have the skills so can step in at an older age, depending on the sport.  Fwiw, I am not convinced young children should be put into organized sports.  But, that's just my opinion.

 

I hope some of that helps you.  It's good that you are thinking all of this through now while your kids are young.

Denise

[SarahW]

I second community rec leagues, the Y, and churches. If you're still lost, try going to the Y and ask the person at the desk about low cost options. When I did that I found out about a county swimming program that was nearly free.

 

My kid takes his ninjitsu class through a church. $100/semester. Yes, thank you. I don't mind that class ends in prayer.

 

For piano I have him watch Hoffman Academy and then plink around with a keyboard. Not fancy, but he's still young, and I still remember something about the piano from my own lessons as a kid. Maybe next year I'll suss out an affordable "real" option.

 

The local library has the Watercolor for Kids DvD's, and I'm going to try to schedule that in at some point soon.

 

The free Home Depot and Lowe's kids workshops aren't exactly "fine" art, but it's a nice no-cost activity.

[73349]

If you live in/near a largeish town, look into the Parks & Recreation Department. Around here, non-residents can take classes for just a few dollars more than residents.

[RKWAcademy]

My kids (boy/girl 5 year old twins) are both in gymnastics.  Additionally, my daughter is in ballet and my son is in speech therapy.  I allow only 2 extras (my son thinks speech is fun and doesn't really show any interest in any other sport than gym), and two of them are back-to-back on one day. 

 

My daughter is an exceptional athlete and gymnastics is her passion.  Her ballet and gym classes cost about the same (Recital fees are included in our monthly fee for dance).  As she gets older (hopefully next year), she'll have to give up ballet in order to do more gymnastics, which is her dream.  I am hoping my son finds a sport he loves, as well.  I have heard from others around here that martial arts are much more than I'm paying for gymnastics.  My kids get a great workout and just love it.  So, gymnastics is the best bang for my $$$ right now.  But if I could afford more (and didn't mind more time committments), I would require piano lessons.  We are working on aquiring my mother's piano, so I hope to teach them at home soon.  I'm not sure I offered much help but this is what my kids enjoy.  At a minimum, stick with the YMCA! 

 

Oh, while I don't have visions of college scholarships for my girl, I love her excitement and want to foster that in her.  The excercise helps her concentration, attitude, and behavior.  The biggest plus is that it has put some meat on my tiny girl's frame! 

[SamanthaCarter]

That's interesting. It must really vary regionally. Between ballet, martial arts and gymnastics, gymnastics is the most expensive here, even tumbling at the Y. Works out to about $18-20 per hour. People around here say it's because theres only one real academy in our city. Supply and demand. I don't have numbers on costume/recital fees on ballet. That part didn't occur to me...

[lea_lpz]

^^ sounds about going rate here. My kids did gymnastics and that was $60/ mo, 1 class per kid. Dance is $70 / mo. per class plus registration and recital fees. Instruments run around that. My kids weekly riding lesson comes out $100 / mo per kid which is actually cheap! {sigh}. Crazy how much money is paid for structured activities now that kids don't just go out and play anymore. When I was a kid no one did any formal activities until at least 4th grade that I knew and they were all things that had nominal fees and fundraiser for to pay most if not all.

 

Anyway your kids are young and I think the choir and YMCA is fine.

 

We could not afford our kids to do much either. Our kids get riding lessons and dd does ballet because we get educational funds through the charter school my kids are enrolled in as independent study students. What we actually pay for is her recital fee and registration (they do monthly tuition), swim lessons in summer, and AHG ($108) and AWANA ($50 per kid) for the school year.

 

I've thought about what we could do that's affordable if we didn't do the charter school and what I came up with is -

1) AWANA

2) AHG

3) MAD - music, art , drama offered at a local church that does a volunteer program that looks like a lot if fun!

4) YMCA PE type class - free!

[maize]

Around here there are a lot of places that offer tumbling and it is less expensive than gymnastics.

 

My kids are happier when they have plenty of structured physical activity / skill development opportunities.

[SKL]

Our cheapest physical extracurriculars are the ones offered by our local city rec center.  I buy an annual membership for about $400, and the classes are under $100 per semester (they vary).  They offer swim, recreational league sports, dance, sometimes martial arts, sometimes gymnastics, an occasional family yoga / zumba or such like.  Sometimes they offer visual arts, cooking, kindermusik.  It's also nice to just go swimming or run around the track if there's nothing else to do.

 

Other stuff we do is more expensive, but you can get a lot of bang for the buck.  At The Little Gym, a family only pays full price for 1 class (one kid); you get a discount on the 2nd and 3rd kid/class, and all the other classes are free for the whole family.  I've had my girls in as many as 5 classes per week x 2 girls for a total annual cost of $2,000 (9 mos school year).  At age 6 they were doing dance, hiphop, karate, and two gymnastics classes at The Little Gym.

 

Our TKD studio has a deal where you pay a one time fee of about $3,000 for the whole family, and that covers all the classes you care to attend (every day if you want) until you have your black belts.  While $3,000 sounds like a lot, when you divide it over several years of unlimited classes for the whole family, it really isn't much.  (We do have to pay for belt tests, $40 each.)

[SKL]

Another thing - look into what your local libraries offer.  Ours has a variety of fun stuff, and as far as I know, it is all free.  Can't beat free.  :)  And your local museums may have free or cheap kid classes.  Also our healthy food grocery has cooking classes.

 

The "rod and gun club" in my parents' county offers a variety of outdoor type sports (my kids are doing archery) for almost free.  For only $2 per class they get up to 2 hours of instruction, free use of equipment, and even a snack.  :)  Not sure how they even swing that.

[SamanthaCarter]

Nothing's free around here. 

 

I'll definitely look into the parks and rec stuff. We get their catalog in the mail periodically and I skim though it. Seems like in the past I didn't see much difference in cost between that and the Y (which is over $15/hr for just about anything), but I'll look more closely. 

[ScoutTN]

First Tee is a program that teaches children to play golf and it is very inexpensive, about $45 for a semester.

(about 10 weeks of instruction). The PGA subsidizes it and they run summer programs too. Here they provide clubs if the kids need them. It begins with age 8.

 

Many churches have excellent choir programs for kids. Free, of course.

 

Does your county or municipality sponsor anything?

 

My kids have played some Upward sports which are significantly less expensive than the Y or other leagues here. The skill level is not high, but it is a good program for youngers and beginners.

[SamanthaCarter]

First Tee is a program that teaches children to play golf and it is very inexpensive, about $45 for a semester.

(about 10 weeks of instruction). The PGA subsidizes it and they run summer programs too. Here they provide clubs if the kids need them. It begins with age 8.

 

Many churches have excellent choir programs for kids. Free, of course.

 

Does your county or municipality sponsor anything?

 

My kids have played some Upward sports which are significantly less expensive than the Y or other leagues here. The skill level is not high, but it is a good program for youngers and beginners.

 

My Ds would probably really like golf. I'll check that out for summer! 

 

I'm happy with choir. In only one semester, my DS has learned a good bit about tone, diction and control. And a little bit of music. They just did an extremely well done Christmas concert at our performing arts center. My expectations for this choir were high and I was not disappointed. :)

 

The county sponsors quite a bit, but it doesn't seem to make it low cost. Again maybe going rate is just a hard thing for me to accept. I've heard of Upward sports but don't know a thing about it. I'll look into that. Thank you!

[SamanthaCarter]

So for pre-ballet, are the students required to do a recital? I don't really see the point. If you can opt out until the she can actually dance ballet at 8 or 9, would there be some sort of stigma in opting out? 

 

ETA - well, I guess if it's a month to month thing at the Y or parks and rec, a recital wouldn't be a concern, right? Her birthday is in February and I think I'd like to do this for her birthday. Clearly I need to start doing my homework!

[happypamama]

Pre ballet and recitals would depend on the place. When DD did them with the parks and rec department in our old state, they were inexpensive, and the recitals were free, but you also weren't required to do the recitals. In our new state, she did ballet with a studio, and the recital costume plus tickets, photos, etc. was about an extra $200, although it was split up throughout the year.

 

From all those years of ballet, she has really strong legs, which make for great kicks in martial arts classes. She's also very flexible, also an advantage.

 

We manage the time commitment by having the kids in the same class. We choose to do a homeschool class in the daytime so that it doesn't conflict with bedtime and dinner. I disliked that very much about ballet; it was always in the evening, and since it wasn't right next door (30 minutes away), it was always a hassle, especially with littles. Also, lots of places offer sibling discounts.

[maize]

Sibling discounts is a good point if you can get both kids interested in the same activity.

 

If you have significant numbers of homeschoolers in the area, check for any homeschool classes already running. If there are none, look into arranging one--teachers will often offer a discounted price for daytime homeschool classes as they cannot usually fill classes during the day.

[wintermom]

In my area, homeschooler-organized physical activities are usually the least expensive. They manage to secure facility space and/or instructors at a cheaper rate than after-school or weekend time slots, or the leaders may be parents donating their time.  City run programs are usually the next best price, and they are recreational level, so great for children to try out at any age.

 

As far as music lessons go, if you simply want you child to gain exposure to an instrument, such as piano, you could hire a teen-ager as instructor. For beginning stages, you don't need a full-sized piano. You can look on-line to find used instruments to save money, as well.

 

For ballet, my children did a year at a homeschool dance program. They spent a lot of time in-class practicing for the recital. To not participate in the recital would have been a huge disappointment for them. Besides, it's great fun to watch the little ones perform!

[desertflower]

For your dd, can you try gymnastics at the Y for a few months and then ballet over the summer? We have not done ballet over the summer, but they are offered in my region.

 

I think she'll get good posture and walk gracefully from ballet. Is it necessary? No. But I think it'll be good for any girl.

 

Sorry not much help.

 

Good luck.