Activities outside school (primary age)

Janepig

DS is 6 and has been playing football since last August. An hour's training on a Friday teatime and a match or two on a Sunday morning (of about ten minutes duration). Costs me £2 per week and he loves it. He did swimming a while back but couldn't behave himself in the pool so I've knocked it on the head for a while.

DD is almost nine and does gymnastics twice a week (which she's done since she's 4, although she only used to do an hour on Saturday morning back then, which she still adds on now if she's up for it) and also rugby, same as DS, training Friday, match Sunday. Over the years she's done swimming and cheerleading too. There's an after school sports club on a Tuesday for an hour that she enjoys too and doesn't cost me anything. She's a sporty lass, I'll say that for her. But I wouldn't push either of them to do anything they didn't want to do, one word from them and they could stop whenever they wanted. I've never had to encourage them though, they love their activities and I certainly don't do them to show off or get one up on other parents.

I take my hat off to their football and rugby coaches though, they're so lucky to have some really dedicated people training them, who make it fun and don't pressurise the kids at all, and all on a voluntary basis.

Jx

meritaten

I think one out of school activity a week is fine for little ones - especially swimming lessons - but my grandkids primary have swimming lessons from a certain age and they are an hour a week. and cost the contribution to the coach hire. about £1.50 I think.

eavesdropping at the school gates I am surprised at how busy a social life some of these kids have!
some of the poor sods have activities almost every night and 'playdates and sleepovers' at the weekend! its almost a competition among some of the mums how many activities they do - and how 'good' they are for the kids social networking!
I overheard one mum asking another - so when do they go out to play then? and the other mum saying 'Play? I dont ALLOW them out to play - far too dangerous'!!!!
!!!!!! - I live in a small welsh village in the Valleys - not a sink estate in a large city!

balletshoes

kirstle99 wrote: »

Hi all,

My son started primary school last September. He is 4 1/2 (August birthday). Recently i've heard a few of the parents talking a lot about what their kids do after school - swimming, martial arts classes, dance etc.

My son doesn't do anything like that - we tend to take him out ourselves to keep him active. I was just wondering if it is seen as an 'essential' thing for kids to do stuff outside school, or just a 'nice to have'?

I'm getting worried i'm depriving him now! :cool:

its all just "nice to have", none of its essential, and if he's happy doinig things with you and he's active, theres absolutely no reason you should feel you have to send your son to any other activities .

fluffnutter

kirstle99 wrote: »

Hi all,

My son started primary school last September. He is 4 1/2 (August birthday). Recently i've heard a few of the parents talking a lot about what their kids do after school - swimming, martial arts classes, dance etc.

My son doesn't do anything like that - we tend to take him out ourselves to keep him active. I was just wondering if it is seen as an 'essential' thing for kids to do stuff outside school, or just a 'nice to have'?

I'm getting worried i'm depriving him now! :cool:

Of course it's a nice to have. It's just guilt-ridden parents indulging their kids in numerous activities to compensate for the fact that they've got no time to spend with their kids because they're too busy working to pay for all the extra activities

It's totally unnecessary. If your child shows a real desire or aptitude for something, then fine, but at four and a half I expect he's not yet decided that he really wants to be a virtuoso violin player or an olympic cyclist. Just doing stuff with his family and friends is fine - he doesn't need anything more formal.

One thing though, are you sure you mean primary school? Don't you mean infant?

Svenena

fluffnutter wrote: »

One thing though, are you sure you mean primary school? Don't you mean infant?

Primary school encompasses infant and junior school.

fluffnutter

Svenena wrote: »

Primary school encompasses infant and junior school.

Does it? I never knew that. You learn something new every day! :cool:

balletshoes

fluffnutter wrote: »

Does it? I never knew that. You learn something new every day! :cool:

I'd never heard of the infant/junior school system at all until my niece and nephew started school - as where I'm from it was all primary school then secondary school, no 3-tier system .

SailorSam

Deleted -Wrong link.

SailorSam

Is there anything in here to give you some ideas, free Ebook for today from Amazon

101 Offline Activities You Can Do With Your Child eBook: Steve Bennett, Ruth Bennett: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

fluffnutter

balletshoes wrote: »

I'd never heard of the infant/junior school system at all until my niece and nephew started school - as where I'm from it was all primary school then secondary school, no 3-tier system .

And thinking about it, it makes sense for primary to start at year 1 (or reception year). After all, there's nothing before primary is there! It's just that the terms infant and junior are more common round here because most schools are separate, i.e. you move to a different school at 7. Given that junior and primary are used interchangeably means that someone might say 'I went to infant school in such and such a street, then I went to the primary school down the road'. That's why I always thought that primary started at 7 and was just another term for junior.

I've bored even myself now. Sorry