This year we’ve taken a bit of different approach to after school activities, partly because the kids are a bit older and seem to be more interested in doing something and partly because there is a lot more activities available this year because of the opening of a few new facilities in our area.
We’ve done a couple of weeks of trying out everything on offer and then last week, we had a sit down and decided what it is that they wanted to stick to and go on a regular basis.
So, Miss Frugal has tried sea cadets, youth club, movie making, swimming, tennis and gym sessions for kids. She’s decided to stick to tennis, swimming, the gym and the movie making classes which I think is pretty good and considering the first three are covered by a junior gym membership of under £15 a month and the movie making class is just £1 then I think that’s brilliant value. It works out at around £5 a week for swimming once or twice, the gym twice, tennis and a course where she’s learning to make movies using special effects. She also does Just Dance club (on the Wii) at school one lunchtime a week!
Master Frugal has tried judo, football, swimming and tennis and wants to stick with them all although I think if he doesn’t drop one or two of his own accord in the next couple of weeks then I’ll have to step in and have a chat with him as this little lot works out at £12 a week. Not a huge amount I know but it’s still a lot over the course of a month. He also does a couple of free after school clubs with the school which sounds quite fun – multi sports club and curl up in the corner with a book club.
I helped them choose the activities they picked because I wanted to encourage different things in them both this year – I want Miss Frugal to become more comfortable around new people and also to get some regular exercise and I want her brother to start doing things more on his own without his big sister. In the past, a lot of what they’ve done has been together and I think he’s really missing having her at school with him now she’s moved up but also, he’s really feeling the fact that she’s growing up and doesn’t want to play with him like she used to. He’s a bit lost at times so I want him to have his own activities to keep him occupied a bit more.
I’ll let you know how they get on!
