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We were talking about different activities our kids do in the NSW thread. Alexzander does gymnastics & Dee takes Matthew to Gymbaroo. I was thinking about getting Zander into doing something else on another day as well, but I'm not sure what just yet.
So I wondered.....
What activities do your kids do? How often?
What sort of cost is involved?
Why did you pick that activity for them?
Are they enjoying it?
Gabriella has been going to storytime at the library since she was around 1. Granted as a young un she was sometimes completely uninterested in the actual story and more interested in the kids around her but it was still good to get out and do something different. Mots libraries offer storytime followed usually by some sort of craft associated with that days stories and best of all its free! Both my DH and I are avid readers hence why we chose to take her, she loves it and looks forward to it every week.
We have also been doing swimming lessons since she was 4 months old, We chose that because especially over here in WA we lead such an outdoor lifestyle that it made sense for her to be "waterwise". Usually it is once a week for a term (altho here in Karratha they do twice a week for half a term) and the average cost is $70-90 per term. She loves the water although she does go thru stages where she doesnt want to do things or is "scared" but that soon passes.
Have tried gymbaroo but only did that for a term, found it a bit monotonous. We are considering doing some form of dancing lessons when she turns 3. She is also starting to learn how to play guitar - she is very musically inclined but we are only doing this cause DH plays and can teach her otherwise we wouldnt be paying for lessons at this age.
Hope that helps!:)
Gabysmum - what kinds of swimming lessons does Gabriella do now that she's almost 3 - is it still water familiarisation with a parent in the water or is it just the teacher and them now??
Matilda does gym classes (well did....) I usually try for 1 organised activity like that a week. So gym or swimming lessons depending on the season of the year. And we have 1 playday a week with friends with children, every Friday arvo we meet at the park with one particular friend who lives around the corner too.
But she also goes to family day care 2 short days a week, so she gets social interaction both those days with 4 children & they do craft & songs & storytime daily.
Matilda is an extremely social child who gets very very stir crazy when she goes a full day without seeing other children. So by 4.30pm she's climbing the walls wanting to play with other kids (screaming their names) so I often have to take her down the street to the neighbours if we've gone the whole day without playing with other kids.
Good thread, as I have been wondering this myself.
At the moment we go to playgroup/mothersgroup once a week, but numbers are lacking, it is still good for Maggie to get out of the house though. She goes to childcare one day a week, so she gets some activity there. When we can another mum & I get together normally once a week.
I am now looking into Mini Maestros or Hey Dee Ho as Maggie seems to like music and dancing. They are about $10 per week. I am undecided as yet, seems a lot of money for what it is. DH wants to take her swimming, so I have left that to him to look up.
Jaspen - she is still doing water familiarisation as in me in water with her. Since we have moved to Karratha we ahve gone a bit backward as the pool is closed for 6 months of the year - too cold?! Anyway she is starting up again in a couple of weeks but we are doing private lessons with one other child so will see how we go.
Oh Gaby also goes to playgroup every Friday monring - cost is $25 per term.
I am wanting to start Seth into Gymbaroo... but its soooooo expensive!
Its $175 per term which IMO ($20 off 4 y.o. kinder in fact!) is alot especially when they aren't teaching anything really iykwim? Paris does Ballet and its only $95 per term and they do a concert and everything and she's learning LOTS! I just don't know how they think they can justify it!
I'd love to get Seth into something physical but I'm not going to fork out *that* much money. So if anyone knows of anything in the SE Subs that *isn't* gymbaroo let me know LOL!
*hugs*
Cailin
music classes are great for little kids! they also get to dance in there aswell.
Cai: try your local YMCA, they normally have similar but much cheaper.
some local swimming pools will have a toddler pool so by the time kids can walk, they go alone without their parent.
Do you guys have local libraries? They do story time and toy library?
We dont do anything structured other than MG every fortnight.
I try and get her out doing all the "balanced" stuff every week though.
So in the last week she has had music morning, drawing morning, playing in the park x 2, visiting family morning, and morning tea out, plus playing with kids. Other things I mix into it are swimming with dad in our pool at home, morning bathies with mum, outdoor play, animal play, reading and I want to start going to the reading time at the library.
I would love to go to something structured, but I dont know how much she will get out of it when I know its stuff I can do at home wiht her? Sure its good for the interaction, but she loves being with other kids in the park.
I think the only thing I am really missing out on is interaction with other kids. Is that really worth $100-$200 a term??
Fi well said... I don't know if its worth the $$ if you are getting it elsewhere. I think we do gym or swimming because we needed the activity with other children and she loves them. She craves them. We haven't gone to gym this term & haven't started swimming yet, and she asks for them every single day. I may offer the park & she looks at me & says "mmm... park later, gym?" LOL.... so I say "sorry Matilda its either park or play with blocks at home" Sometimes she chooses the blocks... but she often wants to be in the structured activities with the other children.
DD is the only social butterfly in our household atm, ill start DS when he is old enough but.......its Tuesdays Pre-school, Thursdays swimming for both its $12.50 a lesson for DD and $7.50 a lesson for DS, its expensive but worth it for me. Friday is Kindygym for DD and thats $66. a term.
I ask DD if she wants to do Kindergym but swimming is non negotiable till they no how to swim. I enjoy going to all of the above and my kids love it to. Gets us all out the shed anyway.
We do lots of things at home as well, but I like the activities they do at gym ford something different. Also Zander is very unsocial at the moment & is quite scared of other kids so it's good for him to interact with others.
Hi Sarah, DD did a little kid's music class, it was great. The teacher was absolutely fabulous, and each week they did different activities introducing the kids to rhythm and pitch, as well as teaching them how different instruments sound and how they are played. Lots of singing too! DD loved it!
How old do you think they need to be to do a musical sort of thing? Zander looooves any sort of music so it might be a good thing for him to do.
DD#1- 3 years
Monday - swimming lessons (30 mins)
Wednesday - Kindy (10-4pm)
Friday arvo - dancing lessons (30 mins).
Breaks the week up (im a SAHM), gives us all something to look forward to.
Swimming is $10 per lesson ($100 per term), Kindy is approx $32 per day, and dancing is $6 per lesson.....worth every cent, we all enjoy it :)
sarah they have toddler music. My nephew was about 2 when he joined :)
great thread, i must admit i am soooooooooooo slack when it comes to poor dd, she does nothing organised not even playgroup (trying very hard to get in that is suited to her age group etc) we did do gymnastics but in all honesty it was an expensive expense for her to bounce around a gym floor lol. i would love for her to do swimming but atm ds does it at a cost of $150 a term sheesh 2 x kids equals $300 a term WHICH WE CANNOT AFFORD, i will probably put her in swimming when she is 3 and i don't have to go in the water with her. i must check out the library etc, but in all honesty i seem to be busy running ds around everywhere and dd just fits in, i guess her daily activity is an 1hr or so after school at the park, i meet up with my old playgroup friends every week however the youngest one of them is now 4 so they are all growing up - looks like baby making days with our group are jsut about over.
cailin to reply to you
i had lani in proper gymnastics (boys did it to of course) through the YMCA at endeavour hills - it was still around $110 for the term but heaps cheaper than gymboroo and it was proper gymnastics which was suited to there age groups. maybe ring your local council or check out some local YMCA's and see if they have a similar program, the one we went to was run through gymnastics victoria and was very well run, a 45 min lesson, with first 15 minutes of free time to explore equipment, then some time on the floor to discuss different poses and then they did a sort of obstical course, with beams (very low to the ground) trampolines, rings etc etc, all suited to the young ones. we then usually spent the last 10 mins in the "pit" heaps of foam and stuff that was soooooooo much fun:
I'd love to get Seth into something physical but I'm not going to fork out *that* much money. So if anyone knows of anything in the SE Subs that *isn't* gymbaroo let me know LOL!
Christy - Jenna is the same. Loves being around other kids. Thats almost why our structured swimming lessons were too bloody hard. She just kept wanting to play with the other kids?
Whereas in the park she can go nuts, they are all different ages, and the parents are really laid back too.
We have a really, really great park down on the waterfront in Geelong, and I can almost guarantee everytime we go down there will be 10kids that she can talk to.
I think the only thing I'm really tempted with is music liek Hey de Ho or something similar.
Michelle our gymnastics sounds pretty much the same to the one you described.
Yasin just started gymnastics on tuesday. He has such a good time there - its worth every cent and even though it was only his second week this week he's already starting to catch onto the ideas of waiting for his turn and starting at the beginning of something and then going back to the beginning again. I think its good for him to do something that is a bit structured like this because most of the other places that he interacts with other children don't really teach him these kind of behaviours.
In a week or 2 he will start 1 day a week at a pre-school. This is mainly for my sake but I'm hoping that he will enjoy the chance to learn some things that we don't teach him at home and make some new freinds.
He used to do swimming and he loved it but until he's closer to being ready to swim on his own we're just teaching him ourselves because the lessons were getting a bit repetitive for him.
Once I have Yasin settled at pre-school I'm planning to enroll Imran for swimming lessons on wednesdays. He can't go at the moment because I can't keep an eye on Yasin and get in the water with Imran.
We also go to the playcenter down the road at least once a week. Its only $10 for the 3 of us including my coffee and its usually pretty quiet so I can relax and read thier trashy mags while they play.
Ooo I'm a bit slack.
When we were in Geelong, Gab interacted with other kids just about every day. We had playgroup too... so I didn't really need to get involved in anythign else.
Here we just go to playgroup but she doesn't see her friends nearly as often so perhaps I should look into something.
My only problem is that Neil's work hours are all over the place. I'm going to be working some days when he isn't working so I won't always be able to take Gab to whatever we join up in... depending on what it is, Neil may take her but I already know he'll go to playgroup once and never again... it won't be his cup of tea.
Mooshie - I took Cait to that gymnastics at endeavor hills ! Lots of things to do there, but Cait wasn't interested at the time, I think she was about 2.5. She's been doing dancing lessons now for a year and a half and that was mostly out of me wanting her to play with girls as all her best friends at pre school were boys ! I'm not that keen on it, there is no parental involvement, unless you want to sew costumes.
And don't anyone feel slack about not doing a class with your child ! I know it all stems from wanting your children to be able to experience as much as they can and maybe find some hidden talent or love for an activity. But it always makes me think of my SIL and her four kids who are just so overbooked into activities, sport, music, tutors, swimming lessons, dancing ... and none of them appreciate any of it.
Hi!
Louis has his swimming lessons each week we just started which he loves but thats it! We did Gymbaroo last term but I found it a bit boring.....
We're going to start playgroup in the new year...
Does anyone go to those play centres regularly? We've never been but I assume it could be worthwhile now that Louis is walking and can climb a little??
The thing with me & playcentres are... I can't stand them LOL!!! But living in QLD where it barely rains we have parks every few streets, so parks are often a better option to me. Matilda goes nuts at the play centres & its far from a fun experience, we usually have 1-2 tantrums & me chasing her around the big kids play area trying to get her out of places, I could never sit & have a drink if I wanted one... so I think its heaps cheaper & worthwhile getting outside.
Kristie - when I was in Geelong, we'd go to a playcentre once a week. A couple of the girls from MG would go every Wednesday to one and I'd sometimes meet them there. Other times I'd go with other friends to a different playcentre. Gabby loved them and I reckon her confidence was really boosted by playing there. One of the playcentres had an area for 4yo and under (tho most 4yo would go to the big kids bit) and it was totally fenced off so that they couldn't wander out into the cafe' etc. I'd grab a coffee and watch Gab having a blast (if it was quiet). If it was busy, I'd be in there with her but still having fun.
Once I went with a friend and we were the only ones in the entire centre so we took our girls up and around all the big kids stuff... down slides, on jumping castles etc. I think we had more fun than the girls!! LOL
Definitely take Louis along. During school time is good because they're usually nice and quiet.
Christy - oops... hehehe... didn't mean to contradict you there ;) Posting at the same time. Each to their own, hey? It might also depend on the individual play centre (because they can all be so different) and the area.
oh that sounds like a much better play centre than the one I went too... may have to check out some others.
Yeah playcentres all differ! There are some really great ones and some really really bad ones! I have a few faves and a few stear clears. Can you get any recommendations Christy?
*hugs*
Cailin
The closest play center to me has the same arrangement as you mentioned Deb, the under 4's area is fenced off and its totally padded so I can put both my boys in there and sit down and have a coffee while they enjoy themselves. I love it because I don't really have access to any good babysitting so when I need some quiet time I usually go there.
The other play center we use has more equipment and a giant bouncy slide that Yasin loves but I can't relax there because its always busy and there are big kids racing everywhere.
We are just beginning swimming lessons - mums & bubs sessions - on Tues. When i'm up to it (and not feeling sorry for myself with this m/s) we go to playgroup fortnightly on a Thurs. And when Ella gets a bit older i'll take her to the playcentres around here...i used to take my neice every Friday but Ella is still a bit too small for the equipment.