Reply to Good ages to spend money on enrichment classes

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[quote=Anonymous]There are two factors to consider about activities - physical readiness and brain development. Age 3-5 is one of the biggest brain development phases for children. Any type of multi-modal experiences (art, dance, music, puzzles, etc.) are great for exploration of interests and expanding general experiences. I think that physical and mental readiness for different activities can be thought of in ~2 yr chunks. 3-4 year olds, 5-6 year olds, and 7-8 year olds are just ready for different things at different times. If you start an activity too soon, they make not really be able to do it physically, which can lead to frustration and disinterest.

Here's a few things we experience with activities on your list:
My 3 kids were all in Montessori pre-school, and all were early readers (by age 4), built strong math foundations with the bead-chain work, and had really good fine motor skills from the various activities.

My middle kid started piano at 4 at Montessori, and at 5 we switched to group lessons. 7-yr old was interested and started then too, but only did a couple years. Middle kid stuck with it until ~11 or 12, when other activities were more interesting. Youngest started around 4, but that was too young, because their hands were just not quite big enough and wouldn't produce the music they wanted. Youngest also stuck with it until about ~11 or 12. All three can read music well, all three played recorder well and did other instruments in elementary and middle school. Instruments were stopped by high school because of other interests. In the long run, I'm very satisfied because they all have a solid foundation that they can go back to if they ever want. I'm also convinced that early learning to read music and count rhythms helped with their extensive mathematical strengths.

Everyone started swimming around 4 to 4 1/2 years old with the summer swim team on the pre-team. That's where they learned to swim and that's where they transitioned to neighborhood summer fun. Some kids need to wait until 5 or 6 to start to learn both for mental and physical readiness . Younger than 4, they aren't actually swimming - they can't actually propel themselves with their little feet and arms. At best they are learning water readiness and safety. Around 7 or 8, my kids all switched to swimming year round with different club teams. They were all at different levels of competitiveness, but really the point was having a year round activity for fitness. One chose to swim for the high school team, the other two did not. Middle kid turned that swim background into lifeguarding (another very popular summer job with our neighborhood kids) and has raked in $5k for two summers. Youngest will lifeguard also.

Everyone played soccer. When we started kids were 9, 7, and 3. 7 year olds are ready for actual soccer - they get the general rules and are ready to learn foot skills, ball handling, and rough positions. 3 year olds are not ready for soccer, but they are pretty cute to watch run around on a field with no idea of what is happening.  :lol: One kid was good enough for a travel soccer team. After one season of that we said forget it. Didn't want the entire family's life to be run by tournaments all over the place all the time. We would rather have a balance of activities. Everyone played recreational soccer through high school.

Everyone played basketball for a couple of winters around ages 8-10. It was a good winter activity at our community recreation center. No one was super excited to continue, so we stopped. My middle and youngest did cross-country in middle school and high school (for a couple years). In the 5-8 age range we also tried a variety of classes/camps with all three, including Karate, dance, gymnastics, tennis, and some academic enrichment classes. In middle school, my two older kids did some acting classes and acting camps for a couple of years. Very good foundation for both for speaking and improv skills. Oldest did musicals in middle and high school. Middle does a lot of debate and other speaking clubs. All the activities were interesting, none so interesting that they wanted to continue for a long time. We did not try any sports that included a large investment in equipment.

So, my kids have good fitness through high school with some activities they can easily keep up as adults (swimming, soccer, running, basketball, tennis). They could return to music if they wanted (oldest at college is dabbling with playing guitar right now). They have a broad exposure to a variety of activities, arts, and crafts which allows them to bring skills into different tasks at school, at play, and eventually at work. Everyone is well-rounded, no one is a superstar, and it's all been a low key journey.

tl;dr
start piano around 5, rent the musical instrument in 4th grade
start swim at 5, soccer/dance/karate 7-8
do a variety of classes from 4-8 for exposure/fun[/quote]

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