An affordable approach to kids' extracurricular activities

re: An affordable approach to kids' extracurricular activities

Musician — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 16:32:35 GMT

There is nothing wrong with used musical instruments per se, as some of the best violins are 300 years old and played by quite a few people in their lifetimes. If you are going to buy something and you don't know much about it, though, for heaven's sake get the teacher to examine it first to make sure it will work. You don't want to know how many piece of crap "I got it on e-Bay!" instruments I have seen. A bad instrument can make your kid miserable and less likely to continue, or create bad technique that they will spend years fixing. High price doesn't always mean high quality, but then sometimes you really do get what you pay for...

re: An affordable approach to kids' extracurricular activities

Froogirl — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:26:38 GMT

Good, sane advice. My general rule of thumb is no more than two activities (plus religious education) at any given time. They each have one semester-long commitment, and this allows them to add shorter activities they want to try without being overwhelming.

Echoing the advice not to invest heavily in equipment, with some caveats. We participate in a host of winter sports, individually and as a family. I tend to buy quality gear, mostly new, as it gets a lot of use and is passed from one kid to another. A black thermal is a black thermal, regardless of its gender label.

But other than than, we buy the bare minimum and accept handmedowns. As they commit further to an activity, we buy the extras. (e.g., my daughter is starting her second year of ballet; I bought her a dance sweater this year, since her leotard from last year still fits).

Also, when asked by grandparents what to get the kids, I sometimes suggest contributions toward an activity. This has worked well, and I'm hoping it helps pass the message that experiences are as valuable as stuff.

re: An affordable approach to kids' extracurricular activities

JD — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:51:20 GMT

Grand piano and addition to the house is a ridiculous example for the article. Just a tad over the top, don't you think.

re: An affordable approach to kids' extracurricular activities

Advice — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 03:09:04 GMT

This is a great resource for parents, but I suggest avoiding cheap soccer cleats if your child plays competitive soccer. Four or five pairs of $35 cleats add up quickly, when buying an $80 pair to last the season saves you $60-$95. This comment is in response to the cheaper things work just as well as expensive things.

re: An affordable approach to kids' extracurricular activities

ArC — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:30:11 GMT

Wow...a Steinway Grand and then an addition to the house?!!! Talk about unrealistic expectations for a child - I just can't see any excuse for that. My parents limited the number of activities I had as a kid and teen both because of the time activities take up and because of the costs. I have a lot of good memories of just hanging out with friends, crafting elaborate bike jumps with the neighborhood kids, and things like roller blading around for fun. It also saved my mother's sanity, since she wasn't chauffeuring me and my brother around constantly!

It's frightening these days how most parents expect their children to be prodigies. Of course, every child is special, but there's a reason that prodigies are known as "one in a million". Most kids aren't one! I'm certainly not, but I think at 25, I've managed to become a reasonably happy, well-adjusted, independent adult who supports myself with a job I enjoy. I managed to get into a decent college and graduate within four years despite not doing every activity on the planet. And isn't that what all this "extra-curricular" crap is supposedly about?

re: An affordable approach to kids' extracurricular activities

jo — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:18:58 GMT

I'm a nanny of 6years and 4 families,

the expensive games, lessons, schooling, tutors, clothes, toys, hair accessories, jewlery, bikes, motorized vehicles, horses, tv sets, kareoke machines, musical instruments etc etc etc,

together with lifes social learning, ups and downs with regualr learning and schooling leave overly selfaware, inwardly aggressive, selfconcious, low self-essteemed kids who don't have enough time in the day to see what the world is. I can see why drug abuse is rife amongst the gorwn ups of this new rich nanny needing over worked to meet the needs of high flying society, and i can see that many of their kids may too feel the need for the extreem escapism.

If they suceed in a happy balanced childhood with all of that, and go to university and suceed, then pray all your waking hours that employment is either immediate or un-needed or your ill-prepared for the real world child will come down with one heck of a thud.

I spent all my years of child education creating a secure, loving environment as free as is possible from the trappings of the things we need. I found IT awareness a must, otherwise all the rest was almost wasted, if the kids weren't fed up with all the shiny expensive stuff, they were over-stressed at ages as young as 5 to manage keeping up with the jones'.

The most pathetic thing of all was I have found that a great many number of mothers and fathers increase this stressful environment by exaggerating the accomplishments of their children to other parents.

Kids are just kids, they're not all genius, and if they are, they still need to be kids.

What you want for your child, what your child wants for themself and then what they actually need can be the most varying across the board of everything in your childs' life.

There are a high proportion of kids with personality disorders, behavioural problems and other difficult to over come conciquences of the pressures society puts on them.

Teaching them to love themselves at the age of three, manage feelings of hopelessnes at massive parties, improve child-parent relations with constant re-assurances that mummy/daddy does love you even if you didn't paint a monet or manage to play every note pitch perfect, are all common threads within households that i've dealt with. The inter-twinging threat being that more often than not the parents are looking in the wrong places for the answer as to why little johnny has started wetting the bed at the age of 7, he was stressed by all the constant changing of keeping up with the trends.

re: An affordable approach to kids' extracurricular activities

K9Claudia — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:42:50 GMT

I loved this article! This is definitely one thing wrong with our society today. Kids today don't have an imagination nor have they developed a sense of creativiity, and giving them everything they want just leads them to develop that sense of entitlement that we are all having to deal with in today's workforce!

When I was a kid, we used to play baseball in our yards or on a side street, knowing when to get out of the way for cars. We played make-up and fictional games in the neighborhood, using, that's right, our imagination and creativity.

And when we did get a chance to go to something special, it was just that, "special." And we are all so much better for that experience!

Stop spoiling your kids America! Make them work for what they will be.

CityDogsNorthwest.com

re: An affordable approach to kids' extracurricular activities

CreditMom — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:29:49 GMT

I really enjoyed this post and have blogged about it myself. Last year my kids wanted us to send them to baseball clinic at $300 a child. We said it could be one of their holiday presents. Well, that was a good way to gauge their interest...they settled for a play station game!!!www.creditmomblog.com/.../kids-and-sports-8-tips-to-save-on-team-sports.html