Do you involve your children in any extra activities outside of school?

My daughter is involved in gymnastics. She is in her second year of it. She has class/practice once a week which is a good amount of time since she is only in preschool. My son is only 2 years old so he isn't invloved in anything yet. My husband and I have agreed that we will allow our children to decide what they want to be invloved in, but there can be no more than 1 activity per week in the beginning. Two activites once they get older. They still need time to be kids!

My 6 year old goes for keyboard classes...I take singing (classical) at home...he goes for yoga classes every morning at a neighbour's. During the holidays and weekends, we do craft work at home.

I am a little on the lean side with money at the moment as well, but I have had the children enrolled in all sorts of things from gymnastics, ballroom dancing, soccer, keyboard and flute lessons. All of which lasted about a year then they went off them. I suppose that's what parenting is all about....

My son goes to karate. He goes twice a week for forty-five minutes. I found a cheaper one closer to home, but he want's to stay where he is at :-(. It's okay, he get's along with the instructor's and that means a lot.

I have my oldest in dance, gymnastics, ice skating, and junior cheerleading. I don't have a whole lot of money and I have to do some of it through a waiver from the YMCA. You can get a family waiver to join here. It would be something to look into. The others I just shopped around for the cheapest place with monthly payment plans.

I homeschool my daughter so I try to get her involved in activities in the community. She loves these activities and many are free or very cheap so that's nice. I can't afford to send her to expensive activities so that's out but I like to give her a chance to do some of the things she enjoys doing when I can.

We didn't have our son involved in any extra curricular activities in his younger years, but he was always busy doing something. When he was older, i.e. in High School, he chose to do certain things. Most of them were involved with the school, i.e. school plays, drama group and rock eisteddford but he was always in the background doing props and things like that. Then he decided to play football, which meant training 2 afternoons a week as well as the Saturday games of course. He could go to training directly from school but we did have to drive into town (20 kms one way) and collect him. Of course he had friends who did a variety of other things too, but he was happy doing what he chose. I often think that there can be too much structure in the life of children with all the extra curricular activities they are involved in.

My brother and I used to do extra activities with the school and mom never like made us. If I wanted to do gymnastics she was there but if I didn't want to that was fine too.

I wish I could take them to other classes outside of school. But I have seven children and am not currently working...unless you want to call myLot a job. ha ha Sure is horrible pay per hour. LOL Anyways, since I do not work, we do not have the extra money to send the kids to any other things. Even when my son was doing football for school, it was killing us because of gas. Driving everyday to pick him up was really costing! Then he wanted to do wrestling. But we had to say no because that would require the shoes, guards, and tournament fees. Plus, they expected every parent to join the booster club to support the wrestling and that costs $25...and when one joins the booster club, it requires a minimum of 10 additional names so they could send out requests to those people asking for donations to support the wrestling club. I haven't even one name that I could give them! But on the other hand...if I were working, I wouldn't have the time to take them here and there for extra things after school. When I was working last year, I worked so many hours, I barely saw my children! So, at present time...no, my kids do not do anything outside of school.

My grandson who lives here is not, because of finances, and because my daughter in law and son do not have the time to take him. I take him to church and a Wednesday noght class. Maybe after the first of the year I can do more. His sister has chosen to live with the other grandma--she has the money and the schedule flexibility to do stuff like that with her.

My parents started me doing judo when I was about 4, I got really good and got on the world class start programme, I am still doing it now, I found it was really good from a social perspective, as it widens your network and now I am at university and I have a lot of friends who aren't students but are at judo and it means that I have a better social life. I found that judo has helped to mould me as a person, and I find it easier to interact socially because doing judo all over the country and even in other countries means you are liable to meet new people all the time and have to deal with each meeting differently, even . Years ago I also used to be a rainbow, brownie and then a girl guide, this did not cost a lot, and it was very useful practically, I dont think the girl guide movement is as popular as when I was a child (which seems weird because I am only 19) but I think it is a good thing to get children into...extra curricular activites don't have to cost a lot, I mean my judo costs an awful lot and I never realised how much my parents had to pay until I had to start physically handing over the money myself whilst at university, but these extra curricular activites dont have to cost the world, you can find a local club or something that gets your children involved in extra curricular activities...as sticking with merely school work can stunt a child's childhood. An alternative could be to take you children out for walks and to the park etc....jsut to give them their own time to burn off the hassle of school etc..i dunno if this has really helped but thought i would let it out. cheers.

My son played little loop football during regular season and will play again. As for the costs of things....there are alot of activities for free in my community we have a wonderful recreation program in the summer along with a brand new boys and girls club. He enjoys both and there is great supervision while the kids are there. We live in a rural community and I am thankful that there are some extras for the kids here. As parents we keep pretty busy here around the house/farm and its great to see the kids get out and socialize!

My kids are involved in Royal Rangers and Rainbows. The Assemblies of God church has that for boys and girls ages 3 and up. It's like the Christian version of boy and girl Scouts.

yes i have enrolled him in a drawing class and swimming. he likes to draw a lot plus he also like colorin things..he has colored almost all the walls in my house.:):) so u can see. letss see currently he seems to be very much interested in drawing and painting ..but dunno whether this hobby of his will fade over a perio

My children were always involved in something. I wish that they would get their children into extra-curricular activities as well. My granddaughter would love to take dance lessions, my grandsons would like to do wrestling. I know that they don't have extra money. But even if they enrolled them in Boy or Girl Scouts it would be so beneficial to them. If I had the money I would get them into something to occupy their time.

My baby goes for Dance class

They are usually in girl scouts, gymnastics & cheerleading in the fall & winter. Then in the Spring the middle child is in gardening, story time, arts & crafts, cooking & soccer. My oldest is in cooking & soccer.

A couople of activities are great but kids need to be kids and not a life support system for a schedule. Pick one or two things they love and go with it!!

Yes I do-- My daughter is in basketball right now-- Its not a school league (not until 7th grade- she is in 5th) She loves it and I love to watch- Practices are every mon and wed night and games on saturdays- She also was just in dance for a couple of years-- She had to drop it due to conflicts with basketball practice.. She is also just picking up softball drills on sundays- she loves summer softball.. I think extra activities are great- Most of hers are sport related-- Exercise, and learning to be a team player- great question!