Extracurriculars at DC

djm31012

I got a letter home this week about "Learning Adventures" at DC. They have different activities depending on the age group that you can sign your child up for for an additional fee. I signed DS up for music. Its every Wednesday for either a half hour or an hour, DS will get pulled out of his normal classroom and do music (with the woman who happens to be mine/his favorite teacher so im excited ).  I think this is great and more than happy to pay the extra money...but I am wondering if this is something that most other schools include in their daily schedule. DS is almost 14 mos old...his class is 12mos to 18 mos.  I know they play music in his room all day..they have small instruments around the room to play with, but I dont know that they actually do music time so I thought this would be fun for him, and gives hima  different atmosphere every week. Is it normal that this is an extra fee or do most centers include music, gym, etc for young toddlers?

aglenn

Ours offers extracurricular classes for an additional fee, too.  At their last center they had a music teacher as part of the core curriculum but at the current one it's an extra.  They also offer yoga, dance, different sports classes, and I forget what else.  DD takes yoga.  DS doesn't take anything yet.

litzo27

My brother's kids' daycare does it but for older kids and its more sports stuff - ballet, basketball I think for 3+. Neither of the two daycares I have used had extra classes for fees but they did do at least one music and one gym-type activity per week in addition to normal circle singing and outside time, etc.

jf198400

I've seen it both ways. Personally I'm not a fan of it and glad our DC doesn't do it. I just think it adds stress of whether your child is "missing out" and pressure to pay more money (I already spend over $2000/month for my 2 kids). Plus I like being involved in my kids activities. We do dance Tuesday nights and swim lessons on Saturdays. But if you think he'll enjoy it and don't mind paying the fee, then it sounds like a great option.

djm31012

jf198400 said:

I've seen it both ways. Personally I'm not a fan of it and glad our DC doesn't do it. I just think it adds stress of whether your child is "missing out" and pressure to pay more money (I already spend over $2000/month for my 2 kids). Plus I like being involved in my kids activities. We do dance Tuesday nights and swim lessons on Saturdays. But if you think he'll enjoy it and don't mind paying the fee, then it sounds like a great option.

I am with you on this. I am signing him up because we can only do activities on saturday mornings (they dont offer anything for that young at night by me) so we are going to do Little Gym. So he will get music during the week, and I will do gym with him. Cant hurt...its not expensive either-I just wasnt sure if it was weird that it was extra.

mlee116

Our DCP does some stuff like music and art as part of their curriculum, and I think they offer ballet or  sports for the older kids but its after regular hours (I think).  I don't know, I agree with @jf198400 in that it adds stress.  Personally, I would feel guilty about not letting DS participate but at the same time, I would feel bad if all his little buddies couldn't do it too.  I wouldn't want anyone to feel left out and I'm such a sucker that I'd be tempted to want to pay for them all to do it and I def can't afford that!

QueSrah

DD's preschool is basically a center for 2-5 year olds, and they do extracurriculars like that (ballet, yoga, and performing arts, French, Spanish - though not music).  They bring in outside teachers, so I think each is more focused on their subject matter than the regular teachers.  We toured another center that did something similar, mostly for extra academic stuff.  I don't think every center does it, though.  We don't have time to do a ton of activities on the weekend or in the evening, so it works for us.

emberlee3

A lot of the centers around here do music, gymnastics, etc for extra fees. My kids' school used to include weekly music class, but the teacher moved away and has not been replaced. I signed my kids up for Kindermusic but it would be great if they could have music at DC.

KayteeGee

Our last daycare had a soccer company come in and I think it was $10/week.  I signed DS up and he LOVED it.  We changed centers and our new one doesn't offer extras but they have a TON built in (it's kind of crazy, all the "specials" that they have for 3 yo).
We now do soccer on the weekends.
(and, really, we had done weekend soccer and DS was just not into it, but man alive did this in-school soccer program make him blossom.  I was watching him kick the ball around in our front courtyard yesterday and hot damn, I was impressed!!)
All of that said, I think adding extras that happen in the middle of the day for an additional fee is kind of crappy over all.
I think when they pull them out of class for something different, which is likely seen as "more fun" during the regular day that could just wind up making some kids feel bad - not that they would internalize that at 3 I guess, but... it makes me kind of sad to think that at that young they might get conceptions of haves v. have-nots. (even if that is NOT true - i know plenty of people who have money and don't spend it on things and just as many in debt because of overspending on things)

shannm

Yes this is normal. Whether it is worth it is really dependent on the specific situation.

fitmom82

Our center just started this with music class.  I lucked out as I was telling my parents I didn't know what to do since I had just decided to sign DD up for gymnastics at a gym, and they offered to pay.    They've only had it once so far and seemed to enjoy it, I'm glad they weren't left out like some of the other kids.  I'm kind of annoyed though, I thought it would be in the morning but between the 2 kids they go from 2:50-3:50.  I can pick them up by 2:45, so now I just make sure I go to they gym that day or run some errands, but I'm kind of annoyed that we could be at the park for free except that they scheduled this so late.

UnexpectedlyExpected

My DCP offers classes like that-music, gymnastics, dance, sports, computer, languages. All the optional classes are at no extra cost. I like the idea however if I had to pay extra for them I'd probably sign DD up for classes outside of DC that I could be involved in.

MNgirl326

Our daycare does a music class- everyone does it - the teacher comes into the room and teaches to everyone  There is a permission slip that goes around every 3 months and you can check if you want them to participate or not, but everyone signs up.  The permission slip is a formality.   

 

They also offer soccer and that one is more expensive and only about 1/3 of the kids sign up.  We don't, because LO does soccer in the summer when he is home with me.   LO knows he doesn't go to schools soccer camp, and he doesn't seem to mind.   He never really even talks about it.

 

 

groovygrl

I had some reservations about the extra activities as well but honestly I kind of feel like at this age the whole 'they get to do this and I don't' mentality is not really well developed yet...they are like that about lots of things (toys, coloring books etc) that kids bring to school regardless & my kids are not really upset when they ask about some activity I don't choose to enroll them in when I tell them sorry, we're not doing that. They drop it and don't seem particularly upset.

Our preschool offers a number of extra things, most are physical activity oriented though they offer piano lessons too. Each of my kids are enrolled in 2 things and I really love it b/c we would never be able to do all these activities on weeknights or weekends b/c I commute almost an hour and on the weekends we already do swimming lessons and I feel like we have the next 12 yrs to have our weekends taken over by sports & other activities when kids are older. Plus the things we do (dance, karate) are SO much more affordable through the school program vs enrolling in an actual school- plus flexible, lots of those types of places (martial arts in particular) require you to commit to a full year and are much more costly.

So yes, I still participate in activities on the weekends w/ my kids but I like the extra options at school, esp in winter months to give them more physical activity & some new skills they probably wouldn't otherwise get.