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DD's future high school website lists 50+ after school clubs. Ranging from coding club to dance team all after school. What in the world?
How many clubs can your child realistically be involved in at the high school level? |
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IME a lot of these clubs are not really active. Somebody starts it and then they graduate and it's never taken off the list.
FWIW, one of my kids participated in two clubs semi-regularly +very involved in music. The other participated very slightly in one club + theater + a low key sports team. |
| Mine was involved in four things. MetMUNC, school newspaper, musical director for school plays, and student gov't. |
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The answer is dependent on a lot of factors like how often the clubs meets, other activities DC is involved in and just how busy they want to be. Coding may only meet once a week on Mondays for instance, but things like dance or other athletics are likely to meet daily.
At our HS (FCPS) some clubs meet during school hours using the advisory block or even a lunch block. There also may be additional meetings or activities after school and on weekends for these as well. It all depends on the leadership, size and activity-level of the club. In the early years, kids often bop back and forth between a bunch of clubs, attending as often as their schedule/interest allows. It's not until they start to assume leadership roles that regular attendance and managing scheduling conflicts is expected. |
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I was so excited by the potential club list at middle school only to learn that the actual offerings were just a small subset of the list, depending on which teachers stepped up to sponsor.
How many to do depends on how often they meet. Some are once a week year round and others might be 3-4 days a week for a short period of time. I like that there are some lunch clubs. |
This, though I would add that I think it's great that my kids' large-ish FCPS has so many options. Everyone can find their people. |
| Well, it depends on both the kid and the nature of the activity. Some clubs/teams are really only active for a few months where as others are all year. Some need a big time commitment somewhere more drop-in as you are able. So there’s no magic number here, it just depends on what they Decide to try out. But I think a good general approach is to get on the email list for lots of things at the beginning of freshman year and maybe over extend a little bit and then scale down to the things are most meaningful |
| Some HS have clubs that meet during lunch. My very involved DD was genuinely involved in about 8 activities between lunch (typically low key or paired w/ an afterschool commitment) and afterschool. |
| You only need 3 to make a club, they meet at lunch, and kids love to have "founder" of a club on their college applications |
Why are you against having a large selection of clubs? There is no requirement to participate in all of them. Maybe you would prefer it if the school offered only 3 clubs, none of them appealing to your kid? |
| My favorite high school club I saw recently was "Collage and Chill Club." |
| My kids' high school has almost 3000 students. I hope there are 50 clubs to accommodate all of them! |