which clubs/ extra curriculars do your children do?

[samy23]

What after-school clubs / extra curricular activities do your children do? And how did you decide on that club/activity?

[Alyantavid]

We don't do any clubs. My oldest does play a few sports (basketball, baseball, golf and football), but that's it.

We decided on those because he attends a super tiny public school and these were the only things offered. Except golf, he does that because he loves it and dh works at a golf course so we all golf for free.

[LuckyMommaToo]

It's mostly driven by schedule for us, along with what DS's interests are. The thing is, though, that he's interested in almost everything! Right now he does Chess Club (super easy for me -- right after school, in the building, I don't have to bring him), baseball (which he truly loves), and a Jedi training/fencing class (because really, what 6 year-old boy would pass this up?? And again, the timing of this one is really good for us).

DS is extremely extroverted and honestly, one activity a day in addition to school wouldn't be too much for him. I can't swing that either financially or schedule-wise, though. But three a week we're both happy about.
-e

[mtiger]

In ES and MS, I tried to keep it to a combination of a sport and an activity/club per season for each. In HS, pretty much what they wanted to do, could make transportation arrangements (i.e. car pools, which I did participate in) and still maintain their grades.

My son does music all year round, plus Lit Mag, drama, Science League, Math League, Peer Tutoring. And he works p/t. My daughter plays field hockey year round, plus drama, Project Terrapin, Sub Club (no, they don't eat them - they build & race them, the submersible kind) and I know I'm missing something.

[staceychev]

DD is 4.5 and in Pre-K. A lot of her friends do dance class or "Little Gym" or the like. We're intentionally keeping her unscheduled for as long as we can get away with it, for financial reasons, scheduling reasons, and "keeping it simple" reasons. That being said, she comes from a family of musicians, and we just got a piano, so the idea of piano lessons is really appealing!

[Hey Mama!]

Oldest-guitar, Girl Scouts (I'm going to try to get rid of this one next year and do 4-H instead, our council stinks around here). She will do softball and swim team in the summer.

Middle-Girl Scouts and dance class. She will do t-ball this summer.

Youngest-dance class. She will aslo do t-ball this summer.

We live in a small town and not much is offered here, so we take what we can get. Oh, and I fully admit I enroll them because I never got to do any extracirricular stuff as a child. I don't force them to do anything though, when sign ups come around I ask if they want to, if they do I sign them up. But, once I do they have to finish the season out.

[Mirzam]

Only sports here as I have two high performers in their respective disciplines, soccer and rock climbing, and they train pretty intensively. It was really a no-brainer when it came to deciding, we simply followed their love. Before finding their thing, my children also tried, Judo, acting, piano, gymnastics and dance. DS's school does offer some neat after school activities/clubs like Marimba (which he enjoys but does during school hours also), lego, science/math, ultimate frisbee, but because he trains a lot for soccer he can't unfortunately participate. DD is also too busy climbing to participate in her after-school clubs/activities, although she does want to try and fit in volley ball if she can.

[EFmom]

My junior high schooler does Select Chorus and Chamber Orchestra, as well as Tae Kwon Do. She also takes private violin lessons and volunteers at a dog rescue clinic every Saturday. She's very musical, so the extra music groups were her idea and a natural fit. She also wanted to try TKD a few years back and it's good for her as she's very athletic, but doesn't like team sports.

[Storm Bride]

DS1 does gymnastics and Ultimate. He's in choir (credit class at high school, but outside regular school hours). He's in the Interact Club (volunteer work). He just started at an acting workshop. He took one session of trapeze courses. When he was younger, he was in guitar lessons, Tae Kwon Do and Scouts. We didn't decide on any of them. He did.

DD1 is in ballet. She also wants to take piano lessons, and maybe circus classes. (They're not exactly extra-curricular, as she's homeschooling.) She chose the ballet

DS2 is in a dance class, called "Stomp'N'Boyz", which I found for him when he wanted to take "boy's ballet" and I couldn't find any ballet classes for boys.

[Peony]

Only sports here. DD1 does tap, ballet, and gymnastics regularly. The dance is 9 months of the year, gymnastics is year around. In the winter she is an avid snowboarder, in the summer she swims a lot. She qualified for the swim team but we can't make it work with her other sports so she had to choose. They are now offering a summer swim team so we might try and do that. We have other classes that we do infrequently, clay once in a while, etc... kayaking, and skateboarding are new ones that we are going to try this summer. The child has WAY too much energy and it must be harnessed, hence the many sports.

DD2 takes a gymnastics and a dance class.

[ollyoxenfree]

DS is 17 y.o. He participates in a community youth band (the only strings player in the band!!). He also plays hockey, but the season just ended. At school, he's in various string and music ensembles - he attends a performing arts high school. His most absorbing activity though is his band. They just played their first gig in a club, and aside from the ticket sale proceeds, they made money from CD sales (recorded with the help of Garage Band - thanks Apple/Mac!) and buttons. I think t-shirts may be in production soon. He also works 2 nights a week in a cafe.

In the past, at various times, he's played soccer, basketball, martial arts (judo), run cross-country, taken animation and film classes, acted in a theatre group and sang in a couple of school choirs. I'm sure I'm forgetting some things.

DD, age 13, participates in her school's orchestra, and takes private violin lessons. She has a weekly theatre group, but their next production is soon, so rehearsals will increase soon. She's just finished a 2 month course in forensic science offered by the engineering department at the university. Earlier this year she did a film workshop for a couple of weekends. She also had a job this winter at the hockey arena as the timekeeper/scorekeeper for the house league, but that's over now.

In the past, she's played soccer or baseball in the summer, hockey in the winter, judo, tennis, horse riding, danced (ballet, jazz, tap), taken animation and film workshops, and sang in the school choir. Again, I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff.

Oh, and they both attended Saturday School for language and cultural heritage lessons for about a half-dozen years, up until 3 years ago.

We just follow their interests and let them attend activities that they want to do.

Edited to add: I was just reminded that they were swimming at the local pool weekly for many summers for fun, and they took swimming lessons too.

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by ollyoxenfree

DS is 17 y.o. He participates in a community youth band (the only strings player in the band!!). He also plays hockey, but the season just ended. At school, he's in various string and music ensembles - he attends a performing arts high school. His most absorbing activity though is his band. They just played their first gig in a club, and aside from the ticket sale proceeds, they made money from CD sales (recorded with the help of Garage Band - thanks Apple/Mac!) and buttons. I think t-shirts may be in production soon. He also works 2 nights a week in a cafe.

In the past, at various times, he's played soccer, basketball, martial arts (judo), run cross-country, taken animation and film classes, acted in a theatre group and sang in a couple of school choirs. I'm sure I'm forgetting some things.

He sounds a lot like my ds1...except for the job part.

[becoming]

We only do one activity for each kid at a time. DS1 is starting guitar lessons next week. In the past, he's done tae kwon do, soccer, tee-ball... he's still trying to find his niche. I thought he might want to try pitching machine this year, but he said he would rather take guitar or piano lessons, so we're doing that instead. If guitar doesn't work out (which I hope it does, I can see him really enjoying it), we'll try piano.

DD is 4 1/2 & takes ballet/acrobatics/tap right now, but next month she's trying out for a cheerleading show team that is really popular in our area. She's so excited she's finally old enough -- she's been waiting for this for like a year & a half! Her dance classes will be over in May, and she starts cheer practice in early June, so it works out well. We're also working on getting a song together so that she can do special entertainment for a local festival in October, so we're practicing for a few minutes every day on that.

DS2 will be 3 in July and isn't doing anything yet. He's definitely going to play tee-ball next spring/summer, and probably soccer in the fall. He is very into sports already.

[ollyoxenfree]

Originally Posted by Storm Bride

He sounds a lot like my ds1...except for the job part.

And the elite athlete part! Doesn't your ds compete at a high level? My ds is definitely a recreational sport kind of guy.

It's cool that they have fun with both athletics and arts. DS just left on a school trip to Boston with the orchestra and band. I asked him what he knew about Boston and got a long list of rock bands who started out there! I'm hoping some of the other history sinks in once they get there.

[mija y mijo]

DD dances (ballet, tap, and jazz) and is on the swim team. She also sings in the choir at church.

DS takes a music class, takes swimming lessons off and on, and will be starting t-ball on Saturday.

[AllisonR]

Nothing. It's me that needs the extra curricular activity (yoga for health and stress). Mine are 3 yo and 5 yo. My 3yo will be old enough for gymnastics in the fall. I may sign my 5 yo also, or he may do soccer or something else, though he starts school in the fall and that will be a huge adjustment already.

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by ollyoxenfree

And the elite athlete part! Doesn't your ds compete at a high level? My ds is definitely a recreational sport kind of guy.

No. DS1 competes at a fairly low level, but gymnastics finals are broken into levels. He took the gold for his level. He's training a lot in the off-season this year, though. I think he's hoping to jump two whole levels by next year.

It's cool that they have fun with both athletics and arts. DS just left on a school trip to Boston with the orchestra and band. I asked him what he knew about Boston and got a long list of rock bands who started out there! I'm hoping some of the other history sinks in once they get there.

Yeah - ds1 was supposed to do a trip to New Orleans this year. Unfortunately, due to some...stuff with scheduling and budgets and stuff, they got redirected to Banff. Banff is cool, but it definitely doesn't have the same "oomph" as New Orleans.

[Mountaingirl79]

We do soccer, when we can manage to get in by the due date and there are spots left. Obviously not this spring, by my tone. Haha

Also, we do summer day camps of different kinds. One year it was cooking camp, one year gymnastics and swimming, etc. That's about all we can handle, with homework and family time and all.

[aussiemum]

Both of my kids do Little Athletics (track & field sport), DD takes horseriding/dressage lessons & DS plays soccer. They also both play instrumental music at school (with afternoon practice). They don't usually do any summer sports, with the exception of this summer when they had state athletics training.

[ollyoxenfree]

Originally Posted by Storm Bride

No. DS1 competes at a fairly low level, but gymnastics finals are broken into levels. He took the gold for his level. He's training a lot in the off-season this year, though. I think he's hoping to jump two whole levels by next year.

Ahhh - I get it. Sounds like he's committed and diligent though, and gold is terrific - always great to get results after training so hard. He sounds like a terrific young man.

Originally Posted by Storm Bride

Yeah - ds1 was supposed to do a trip to New Orleans this year. Unfortunately, due to some...stuff with scheduling and budgets and stuff, they got redirected to Banff. Banff is cool, but it definitely doesn't have the same "oomph" as New Orleans.

Too bad about New Orleans. We planned a vacation there one year almost 20 years ago - before kids. Then DH's boss wouldn't give him the time off. We've never managed to go, so I really can sympathize. Banff is awesome though!!