What after-school activities do your kids do?

dogcat_2

My daughter has joined a netball club...its within her school, she just stays behind after school for an hour on a Tuesday, at no extra cost to us. She loves it.

shays_mum

karenccs67 wrote: »

Both my children belonged to St John Ambulance, subs were only £1 a wk each and they learned some fantastic life skills, uniform provided free of charge, plus the older child took part at events.

Thanks for this!, really had no idea this was about, got a DD & DS 7y & 5y so would love something they can do together, my dd keeps talking about being a doctor, the life saving bit would be a great taster

PolishBigSpender

mrcow wrote: »

Why would you need to be teaching a 5 and a 7 year old to "defend themselves" anyway?!

The truth is that they're very unlikely to be able to use it in any effective way - simple analysis of playground fights can show you that it's unlikely that it would be a straight up man-to-man contest - and if they're taught a purely striking-based art, they would be suspectible and defenceless if the attacker took the fight to the ground - which is quite likely to happen!

The problem with teaching children martial arts is that they simply do not understand that an attacker can use a variety of means to attack - and thus they're defenceless in a 'real' fight situation. I've seen a beautiful example of this, where one child was in a 'martial arts' stance - and the other child grabbed his hair and punched him repeatedly. The martial arts training clearly did nothing for the defeated child - he wasn't expecting such an attack and had no clue how to defend himself against it.

If you must send your child to such an art, then I recommend one of the arts designed to inflict maximum punishment such as Krav Maga. Something such as karate or taekwondo just won't give the skill needed.

ailuro2

1st law of Kupso - always keep your hands up, yes, that's right, both of them!!:D

Enter, shut down and finish takes them (and me) a bit longer to master. Obviously.:p

But if a 5 year old can keep manage to remember to keep their hands up and block the slap or punch, then they're doing better than the 5 year old who stands there shocked and unable to fathom out what's going on. It buys him/her vital time for the playground assistant to get over and halt the fracas.(sp?)

As for taking it to the ground, they are taught that as well in Kupso - how to block when you're on your back, how to get them off when they have you pinned down, but yes,you're right, the 5 year olds don't really grasp this.

If you think about the stats behind it - around 90% of initial attacks will be hand based, 90% of the population is right handed, so teaching them basics such as defending from a right hand slap can help prevent damage. It also has the advantage of putting an bully off their stride, if they suddenly end up facing a different direction and don't know how it happened! It might put them off repeating the action and they'll o pick on someone weaker instead.

ime, it does wonders for their confidence too - they are taught to use their voice to attract attention, to shout out for help, and to tell people they're not comfortable with to stay back. Most kids struggle with it at first, but soon find out how loud they can shout!:D

We also did a school defence class recently going through the 'how to get out of headlocks where the big guy's rubbing his knuckles on your head' type moves.:rolleyes: Hopefully they'll never end up in that situation, but if they do then they might rememebr something. Parents tell our instructor regularly about how their kids have managed to offset an attack using their Kupso.

saver_sam

My DD (7) does Brownies (£20 per term), church club (50p a week) and Badgers (£1.25 a week).
She also has a weekly swimming lesson and I pay just shy of £75 for 12 weeks :eek:.

What part of the country are the £30 swimming lesson people and who runs the lessons as I'd love to pay that little?

ailuro2

I think swimming is one of those things that if you get lucky and get a council run class it can be very reasonable, but if you go to a club where they have to pay for use of the pool it can be quite costly.

Not as bad as £20 per half hour session that you'd be charged at a private gym for a swim coach who has 6 kids to teach in the same half hour!!:eek:

However, I think if you can afford it then it's a wondeful skill for your kids to have, you never know when it might be needed!
Apart from the freedom of floating around the pool on holidays when you're older, it might save their life.

jackiegibbo

Tuesday scouts £10 per month
Wednsday piano £14 for 30mins
Friday karate £4.50 per week
Saturday art school £100 per term for 8 classes

xnatalie81x

Wow £30 must be quite a way away from here! My local leisure centre is around £75 for 12 weeks and is whata prompted me to start my swim school. I hire the pool, pay qualified teachers, insurance for all, equipment and turn a small profit on £25 per 6week term (£50 for average term) which still comes in almost 10 cheaper than all other swim schools. Rather than the expense of hiring pool a lot of it is greed! My philosophy is completely different! I want to provide lessons for everyone.

My kids do fitness classes, football, dance but i would NEVER stop their swimming before they are doing 1000m strongly as all the other activities are great for their health but swimming could one day save their lifes, or someone else's!

plzhelpmesave!

saver_sam wrote: »

My DD (7) does Brownies (£20 per term), church club (50p a week) and Badgers (£1.25 a week).
She also has a weekly swimming lesson and I pay just shy of £75 for 12 weeks :eek:.

What part of the country are the £30 swimming lesson people and who runs the lessons as I'd love to pay that little?

Hiya

£36ish is the Birmingham City Council charges for a 12 week course of 30mins lessons once a week. You can get a Passport To Leisure Card if you qualify which takes about 30-40% off that price - i ended up paying £23 each for my boys - which is brilliant! And they are loving the lessons so far!

plzhelpmesave!

Natalie - good on ya girl! Love your style and wish you all the best with your swim school. Martin would be proud of you!