Extra curricular that aren’t sports
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Anonymous
| My 12 y/o DS plays one sport he loves part of the year, but isn’t much interested in doing other sports the rest of the year. He’s in soccer this spring, mainly by force, and he likes it well enough but I know we won’t be able to “make” him do sports as he gets older. However, I want him to develop a variety of interests and to be physically active in some way as he gets older. Anytime I ask him what he might like to do, he shrugs and says “I dunno” or “nothing”. If left to his own devices, he’d spend his time playing video games and watching YouTube. What do your non-sport loving tweens and teens do outside school and screens? |
Anonymous
| Sounds like my 12 yr old son. He plays 1-2 sports per year but wouldn't do anything except video games if I let him. He needs exercise and socialization (in person, not online) so I make him do one sport. He chose the other one and voluntarily goes to it but it's only a total of 4 months out of the year. That's why I make him do the other one. Does his school have any after school clubs that aren't sports? Robotics, music, art? |
Anonymous
| I'm outside of the DC area now, but my son is in a improv comedy league at Comedy Sportz. |
Anonymous
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My 12 year old has motor and coordination issues and we decided some years ago not to torture him with sports. He hates all of them, and likes nothing better than to walk with us, read and play video games. He really needs downtime in order to function well at school, where he is a straight A student. He enjoyed chess club as well as some robotics and programming classes, but we haven't been able to sign him up for those this year. He has been singing with the Strathmore Children's Choir for many years and also studies his native language, Latin and ancient Greek on weekends. |
Anonymous
| hiking, biking, hoops in the driveway, reading, keeping up with various sports scores, playing board games with siblings, throwing balls to the dog, helping cook dinner, fiddling around with robotics sets |
Anonymous
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What about STEM clubs? Robotics? Chess? Fencing? Photography? Open gym?
My DS really liked open gym where my DD did gymnastics. I think it was something like $10 for 2 hours where they could flip, jump, and dive into the foam pit as much as they wanted as well as use some of the other apparatuses. |
Anonymous
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Theater/drama club
Arts--music, painting, drawing, photography, etc. Chess Yoga Language clubs STEM clubs, like robotics, coding, etc. Cooking classes (and cooking meals) Service organizations (scouts, church groups, etc.) |
Anonymous
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Does he like the trampoline places? Some of them have memberships/open gyms. Maybe you could do something like that at least once a week. Are you in a walkable area? I would give my tween "errands" to run a few times a week. Things like taking a book I finished over to one of those Little Free Library boxes. It gave him some responsibility plus got him out walking/riding his bike. What sport does he like? A few of our other kids would run track in their off season because it helped with the sport they did love. When it was framed as training for: LAX, Softball etc they were willing to do it.
My very non sporty son (10) enjoyed tennis but not competing. He liked going to the court and hitting balls. That is something he and I can do together. No keeping score, no competition just a little bit of exercise when it is nice outside. He also like martial arts. |
Anonymous
PP, where can you study Latin and ancient Greek on weekends? |
Anonymous
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Stage crew!
Nice kids, low pressure. |
Anonymous
| My similar DS takes guitar lessons and plays on his own, has enjoyed stage crew and will do that again, and will soon be playing golf as a partner in Special Olympics so it gives him both something active+community service. |
Anonymous
Is this a part of a drama curriculum? My DS is taking dramatics elective next year and we hope he will get exposed to this stuff. |
Anonymous
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OP, many great ideas above. I notice you mentioned "any time I ask him what he'd like to do...." Instead, help him do some research. Asking a kid "what do you want" can often result in "I dunno" because they (a) just have no idea what is actually out there that could interest them if they tried it and (b) they have zero idea how to start looking, and it's too overwhelming to just say, "Well, go find a class or club yourself."
So don't choose FOR him but do talk to him about what he likes. Does he like building stuff online like Minecraft? Maybe look for Lego robotics clubs (at school and outside school-they exist). Is he fairly outgoing? Drama classes and groups are all over the place at local theaters and there are tons of kids' and teens' drama classes (not just one-time plays, ongoing classes, improv, etc.) all over the DMV if you look. Is he not that outgoing? Like someone else posted, theater tech/crew can be a lot of fun. Or look at sports that are NOT team sports which dominate around here. Think archery and fencing as two especially cool and very fun sports, and they can be as competitive (or not competitive) as he wants them to be; he can commit to competition or just take lessons, maybe with a friend, and have fun. Look at your local city or county recreation department and/or community centers for classes and one-time events. Libraries host book clubs and "maker fairs" and Lego and card game events for tweens--check not just your local library but the events in all the area libraries. Through school there may be other extracurriculars that could interest him if he's got some academic interests--Science Olympiad team, Math Counts team (or other science or math events), robotics club, chess club, some schools even have bridge clubs!, Scholastic or PTA Reflections writing/visual art/filmmaking contests through school, maybe there is a school TV "station" where he could get involved (they do morning news broadcasts to the school).... Do this alongside him and say that you're going to support anything he wants to try. Let him percolate some ideas. Do not say, "This is to get you up and out the door" or he'll get turned off and be resistant. Some parents require a kid to have at least one extracurricular (sometimes just a sport, but I'm NOT a fan of not insisting on a sport if a kid is not into sports). I don't require it but might, if my kid had nothing going on but homework and hanging out, I think. |
Anonymous
| Music and Tae Kwon Do. Just about anyone can do these. |
Anonymous
| Scouts |