after school activities?

toffifee

2 children:
Brownies x1 - £20 per term
Cubs x1 - £25 per term
Choir x2 - free
Theatre school (like Stagecoach) x2 - about £300 per term plus show and exam fees
Tap x1, ballet x 1, gym x1 - about £150 per term
Swimming x 2 - £120 per term
Cello at school x 1 - about £80 per term

So far so good, but here's the real killer:
Private piano and violin lessons x2 (1.5 hours in total) - £51 per week _pale_ plus exam fees (£100 this term) and music costs. As my daughter improves they'll need to move to 2 hours per week, probably before the end of 2012.

I can't complain. The teacher is excellent and taught me as an adult. It's my fault they wanted to learn; I play and they wanted to copy. I tell myself it's doing them lots of good and they get so much out of it. I also tell myself they'll only be young once and it's the best time for them to learn and before I know it they'll be adults and I don't want to look back and wish I'd done more for them. Still.....

We are in the very lucky position to have savings (that are gradually diminishing), otherwise most of these activities would not be happening.

DorsetGirl_2

DS1 - Scouts £6.75 a month, swimming £3.80 a week, Street dance £1 a week
DD1 - Rainbows £1.00 a week, Ballet £2.80
DS2 - Disability swim lesson £7.00 a week
DD2 - Ballet £2.80

Ada_Doom

Stagecoach is soooo expensive. If the money is becoming a problem for you it might be worth looking at other options in your area. Where I live there are a few little theatre groups for kids, one is linked to the local 6th form college. These are much cheaper than stagecoach. My 8 year old daughter does after school drama (free), Cubs (£7 per month), and Bollywood dance (£55 per term).

balletshoes

peachyprice wrote: »

I know Stagecoach sounds alot, but it is all morning, where as I pay £ 138 a term for two 45 min ballet lessons a week, so it's not actually too bad.

I don't pay by term - is that 13 weeks? I thought you were getting a good deal for twice a week there , but then you said its only for an hour and a half total.
My DD does 2 and a half hours dance on a Saturday (ballet, modern, tap and theatrecraft), costs £8.50 per week.

Mind you, with some of these children's activities you have a lot of expense for uniform, shoes etc too, which all adds up when you have a growing child.

peachyprice

balletshoes wrote: »

I don't pay by term - is that 13 weeks? I thought you were getting a good deal for twice a week there , but then you said its only for an hour and a half total.
My DD does 2 and a half hours dance on a Saturday (ballet, modern, tap and theatrecraft), costs £8.50 per week.

Mind you, with some of these children's activities you have a lot of expense for uniform, shoes etc too, which all adds up when you have a growing child.

It's 10 weeks, so £13.80 a week, £6.90 a lesson. It's gets more expensive the higher the grade too.

Don't even ask how much it costs when it's an exam term!

I've just paid £20 for a new leotard, although that will last for two grades, they've finally stopped having a new colour for each grade.

I never buy her shoes or tights from the school, I usually get them on ebay, but I do buy her character skirt from them, £35 but they last years, she's only on her second one.

Caroline73_2

DS1 - philosophy club £free
DS2 - Science Club £5 per week
- Multisports £1.50 per week

liney

DS7 - Football £0 and swimming £3.80 per week. He will be starting guitar at £7.00 a week when the school have a space for him.

I wouldn't mind if he wants to do a more expensive activity when he is older, like skiing, or Stage Coach but it would be one or the other purely because I think £45 per week is too much to spend on a child's leisure activities. ie £306/12 weeks = 25.50 + 20.00 riding.

Lunar_Eclipse

DD1, Y7: Town hockey club £100/season plus kit and £5/week match fees. She also does 5 clubs at school (4 school sport teams) at no extra charge (but a serious amount of time commitment!)

DD2, Y5: Town football club £100/season plus kit. (Swaps to cricket in Summer £50.) Also currently rugby, guitar & drama at school, £6/week

We have done swimming, tennis & Guides/Brownies outside school in the past which bumped the cost considerably.

Experiences are important, but there are plenty of invaluable cheap and free ones available.

skylight

TaekwonDo - £20pw for 2 - after school.
Violin - Free for 1 (during school).
Orchestra - £1 per week for 1 - after school
Street Dance - £5 per week for 2 - after school
Digismart and Art Clubs are run by the school and are free (1 each).
Saturday School (Extra work) £15 pw for 1.

This is for 2 kids; the other 2 are not old enough for clubs/school yet.

I think I spend more in petrol each week getting them there and back!

jjblondie

I did my local theatre company once a week, which was free but now costs about 50 quid per year or 75 for a family, choir twice a week, which was free, girls' brigade, which cost a couple of pounds a week, and I had my own band, which cost us any equipment we needed to buy. So you really don't need to spend much to be busy, especially if you use grassroots community theatre groups.