Extra-curricula activites for early elementary kids

[calledtobehome]

What kinds of actiivities do you allow your k-1st grade kids to participate in.

[Danestress]

at 11. But in K and 1st they did almost nothing that I had to pay for or commit to. I enjoyed those early years very much. I didn't see the point of sports programming or expensive art lessons for 5 year old.

 

I think my boys started violin lessons in 1st grade, but that was it.

 

Now that we have regular 2 hours sports practices, I am glad we were laid back during those years!

 

Edited to add that I guess they took swim lessons in first grade as well.

[Ravin]

Luthien is in a one-day-a-week enrichment program run by one of the local public school districts. She has greatly enjoyed doing this for K and will be doing it again for first grade. In addition, she has been enrolled in one class/activity at a time through the city since she turned 4. These have included two different dance classes (one last year and one this past spring), swim classes last summer which she will do again this summer, an art class last spring, and a theatre class this spring. In the fall she will do soccer, mostly because a friend of mine's kids do it and she wants to do an activity with them (they are virtual schoolers and live 20 miles away so we don't see as much of them as we'd like).

 

We're in the process of getting a Spiral Scouts troop off the ground, and we've attended an SCA court dance practice together. She wants to start SCA youth combat once she turns six, so I may find a way to get us to baronial fighter practice in the fall if they're going to be practicing youth combat.

 

For PreK and K I felt that just one (inexpensive, no more than $25 for a six week session of dance/art/theatre, a little more for swim lessons) activity was sufficient. I will likely keep the paid activities down to just one at a time for the forseeable future, but doing more things like scouts and SCA activities that don't cost much beyond our time.

[Heidi @ Mt Hope]

We've done piano lessons, Tae Kwon Do, family swim nights/lessons, children's performances through the parks & rec department, science classes sponsored by science and children's museums, and family field trips.

[Rosie_0801]

She wants to start SCA youth combat once she turns six, so I may find a way to get us to baronial fighter practice in the fall if they're going to be practicing youth combat.

 

Your kid is behind! Mine started combat training when she was one!:lol: She managed to lift the greatsword off the ground not long before she turned two, hehehe. We were so proud...

 

I don't think little kids need anything more than swimming lessons and whatever activities you participate in as a family (SCA, church, whatever) though I'd consider anything they ask for. I probably wouldn't agree to anything their motor skills weren't developed enough for though, since I'm not made of money.

 

:)

Rosie

[Ravin]

Oh, she's been slaying imaginary dragons with her wooden sword since she was 2 and saw some scenes from the Conan TV series that got her fired up. She's got a cork/marshmallow/nerf dart shooting crossbow she's practiced with since she was 3. She's been asking to do SCA combat since she was 3, and wants to do ballistas (for that she'll have to wait until she's older, though). She also wants to learn how to sew, and naalbind, and wants to register an SCA name.

 

I'd have her in martial arts now except the place DH thinks would be best is too expensive for us right now.

 

If I had to drop something, I'd drop her individual activity before I'd drop family activities. I'm sure once we add more kids to the family that will be even more true.

[myfunnybunch]

My kinder is in gymnastics, piano, karate and choir. Yeesh. That sounds like a lot when I type it out. However....

 

Gymnastics is just for him because he l-o-v-e-s it and he's good at it.

 

He takes piano with his brother, but we consider that school rather than extracurricular.

 

It costs us nothing extra for him to take karate. We've joined a homeschool karate class, and the fee is per family. He's at the gym with the rest of us anyway, so I encouraged him to join the class rather than sit and watch.

 

Choir is only 5 weeks in the spring. He loves it. His sisters and older brother are a part of the choir organization, and they all get to sing at the big spring concert.

 

Cat

[nmoira]

My 7yo does non-competitive gymnastics, Aikido, swimming lessons, and trapeze/tumbling/physical theatre. My 5yo does the same activities, with the exception of Aikido. They also go to a 2 hour free swim with Daddy once a week.

[swellmomma]

ds will be 6 at the end of Aug. He does soccer, swimming and gymnastics(though not all 3 at once), next year he is adding art lessons, piano, and beavers.

[hsmamainva]

My 7yo plays Little League baseball and she swims several days a week at the YMCA.

[amsunshine]

My dds 6 and 7.5 take ballet from September through May and then, in the summer, they take swim lessons and tae kwan do through a local community center. I teach them piano myself, so although it is enrichment, I don't really consider that to be extra-curricular (even though it technically is).

[snickelfritz]

We've done clay, painting, music, dance, gymnastics, soccer, choir, Awana, swimming, pony camp, digital camera class, etc...

 

Not all at the same time, obviously. And many of these were 1 week camps that let her experience the subject without long-term commitment.

 

I keep my planner handy and have developed a feel for how much we can do and still keep our homeschool and household running smoothly. We take summers off from most of our school-year activities to try different or summery things.

 

So far, it works for us by not picking time-intensive activities. Our gymnastics and dance studios are still 1 x per week. We also found a soccer program that was 1 x per week, 3/4 of the time for practice/drills and the last bit for a scrimmage. That compares to friends that already have 2 practices and a game per week for soccer.

[Jen in PA]

My dd (she'll be 6 in July) takes ballet/tap, science at the natural history museum, and swims. We attend a weekly hs playgroup as well. She would like to add an instrument, but we haven't managed to squeeze that in yet -- I might wait another year so that she and ds can begin something at the same time just to simplify my life.

[chiguirre]

DD is finishing her K year. She's been doing Tae Kwon Do and Spanish lessons twice a week, ballet and soccer once a week, Kindermusik Young Child, CCE, a weekly hs science class, monthly science museum classes, and a 3.5 hour weekly hs enrichment program. It's a lot, but she likes to be busy and so do I. We also subscribe to the Ballet and the Children's Symphony series.

[Mommy22alyns]

Gymnastics twice a week for Becca (now that she's in the Hot Shot class) and choir once a week.

 

We also do art in the summers. We have a local center that offers a lot of one-week courses in various mediums over the summer, so I send Becca to a couple of those classes.

 

Sylvia takes gymnastics once a week.

[Desert Rat]

My 6yo is in taekwondo and soccer. Next week we are very excited to have found a homeschooling archery club to participate in! They meet twice a month so it won't add much to our schedule. This is our last season of soccer for awhile. We might add scouts in the fall.

We try to have one group activity and one individual sport for each boy. We also encourage them to try the same sports at the same time, like tae kwon do. It helps with scheduling.

If at any point they complain that our schedule is too much, we will slow down. For now, we like being busy in the evenings as we tend to do these acitivities as a family. We bring games to play with one child while the other is in class, etc.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

What kinds of actiivities do you allow your k-1st grade kids to participate in.

 

TaeKwonDo and Cub Scouts.

[battlemaiden]

Officially? Awanas...that's it.

 

We may do some sports camps over the summer.

 

We've taken it easier this year than ever. So far everyone has survived. :D

[myfunnybunch]

We take summers off from most of our school-year activities to try different or summery things.

 

We like to do this as well. The kids do a summer camp and swim lessons instead of regular activities, then hang out and play for the rest of the summer.

 

Cat

[BabyBre]

Well, I guess ds played baseball in K. They've been limited (relatively speaking) to one sport each, but they're both so eager to try everything I hate to stifle them.

 

Right now, ds 1st grade plays baseball and practices Taekwondo. Because we're getting an increase in the number of hours in a day next year ;), he'll likely be adding Cub Scouts and soccer. Maybe.

[Academy of Jedi Arts]

One thing I found is that the classes for little kids generally offered lots of cutsie stuff and very little substance. I would suggest asking a lot of questions and letting it be known upfront what you and your child expect out of a class or program.

 

My dd went to baby gymnastics, started dance at 3, and soccer at 3.5. She started piano at 6.

[Dinsfamily]

DS(5) is in soccer now. We generally do one sport per season once they turn 4 (except the summer though they offer it). I think that we are going to put him in golf lessons for 1 week this summer (he's been playing since 2, but never had any formal training) and maybe swimming lessons but that would only be for a week or two.

 

Other than that, we just play with neighbors/friends and hang out at our church a lot. I REALLY don't want to over-schedule them. I think that the negatives of being too-busy overcome the positives of the activities.