What extracurriculars did you prioritize when your kids were young?

[Anonymous]

Playing outside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Playing outside.

Yeah, OP said they do a lot of that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish we started piano and a second language when my kids were that young.

+1. I feel a little bad that we didn’t do these.

Eh, I started music that young with my two. It only is helpful if they really really like it. Getting a four year old to focus on music when he isn’t interested is a painful way to waste time.

Agreed. We had a consult with a piano teacher who thought my kid wasn't ready to focus on lessons, so she kindly suggested we wait. (I've also heard it can be a good idea to wait until kids can read, which demonstrates that they have the necessary skills to read music.)

[Anonymous]

Definitely piano or violin. My parents felt that learning music was part of early education and although neither I or my siblings had any musical talent, we’re all grateful for the education and appreciation. And we’re all really good at math! They say there’s a correlation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish we started piano and a second language when my kids were that young.

+1. I feel a little bad that we didn’t do these.

Eh, I started music that young with my two. It only is helpful if they really really like it. Getting a four year old to focus on music when he isn’t interested is a painful way to waste time.

Agreed. We had a consult with a piano teacher who thought my kid wasn't ready to focus on lessons, so she kindly suggested we wait. (I've also heard it can be a good idea to wait until kids can read, which demonstrates that they have the necessary skills to read music.)

I don’t know if that’s true or not but I think it’s so interesting that dyslexic kids can read music easily when they struggle with letters and numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish we started piano and a second language when my kids were that young.

+1. I feel a little bad that we didn’t do these.

Eh, I started music that young with my two. It only is helpful if they really really like it. Getting a four year old to focus on music when he isn’t interested is a painful way to waste time.

Agreed. We had a consult with a piano teacher who thought my kid wasn't ready to focus on lessons, so she kindly suggested we wait. (I've also heard it can be a good idea to wait until kids can read, which demonstrates that they have the necessary skills to read music.)

One of my friends is a very in-demand private piano teacher and will not start students younger than six. She wants them to be able to have a bit longer attention span.

When I was a child, I was introduced to the piano around age 6 when visiting my aunt, who was a teacher but lived away from us. My mom found a music school near us that taught a little piano but was really about a general introduction to music through exposure to a variety of instruments, rhythm, singing, etc. My siblings and I all did that for 2 years before moving on to private piano lessons. Does anyone know of a similar program in the DC area?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish we started piano and a second language when my kids were that young.

+1. I feel a little bad that we didn’t do these.

Eh, I started music that young with my two. It only is helpful if they really really like it. Getting a four year old to focus on music when he isn’t interested is a painful way to waste time.

Totally disagree. I started my kids on piano before age five and they just weren’t ready. I started piano myself at 8 and had a lifelong love of playing. I think I set them up to fail by starting so young - all three quit complaining it was too hard. (We did eventually get them to other instruments at later elementary ages.)

[Anonymous]

^I meant agree haha. Disagree with the posts before that one.

[Anonymous]

Swimming and gymnastics, partly because they are healthy and fun but mostly because they were the only activities available where we lived when DD was a toddler.

I wanted her to start music lessons, but she was vehemently against it. Our compromise was dance and our family’s heritage language. Dance has helped her learn about music, counting, measures, rhythm etc. and her second language is tonal so I hope she’s developing a different part of her brain. And she can understand her grandparents, which is important.

Since pre-K we’ve used summers to sign her up for casual one-week camps to try different activities that are more of a commitment than she’s willing to make without knowing if she likes them. I think that is a good strategy once you’ve knocked out basic swimming skills and trying some kind of musical activity.

[Anonymous]

Lacrosse and football

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lacrosse and football

As a preschooler?

[Anonymous]

Swimming and now adding in one other activity that they pick - soccer for my son and gymnastics for DD. They both did fun pre-gymnastics as toddlers which was nice but not really anything more than fun. We did music together for a year with each kid and it was fabulous for our purposes. My DD memorized all the songs and would sing them and do the clapping moves etc. that was also just for fun but looking back now I can see how my more musical child got more out of it. I think at this age everything should just be fun/playful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Swimming and now adding in one other activity that they pick - soccer for my son and gymnastics for DD. They both did fun pre-gymnastics as toddlers which was nice but not really anything more than fun. We did music together for a year with each kid and it was fabulous for our purposes. My DD memorized all the songs and would sing them and do the clapping moves etc. that was also just for fun but looking back now I can see how my more musical child got more out of it. I think at this age everything should just be fun/playful.

Just adding we have tried to get my DD to try some team sports before she ages out of the fun try it out leagues but she doesn’t want to. So as long as she’s getting enough exercise I think it’s fine.

[Anonymous]

I started my dd in piano when she turned 5 and it was rough going for awhile. I'm glad we did it but I wouldn't have wanted to start any earlier, and we probably should have waited a year or so longer. It's hard when they have short attention spans and they can't even read the lesson books. Once she was a comfortable reader by age 6 I noticed her engaging with her piano books a lot more.

[Anonymous]

Swimming and soccer at 4. Skiing and tennis at 5 because I play tennis and both DH and I ski. He will be 8 next month and we are dropping soccer.

Skiing by far is his favorite so will continue that. He is pretty decent in tennis and will also continue. Swimming he is doing a pre swim team league to work more on stroke mechanics.

He also started a Spanish immersion school at 5. This so far has been an amazing experience to see him understand, read, and write Spanish. I also feel it surpasses the sports in terms of benefits, usefulness, and cognitive and executive function development.