All of a sudden my kids want to try EVERYTHING. Karate, dance, sports…..the list just continues. At 4 and 2, these kids have a ton of interests and none of them include sitting on the couch watching TV or playing video games. They want to be doing things, go figure!
My dilemma, being the frugal chick that I am, was to find a way to introduce the kids to all of these new activities without spending a ton of money on yearly contracts that cost a fortune, have a “no refund” policy and will eventually cause the kids to hate the activities.
Why? Well, think of it this way “oh, you’re going, even if you hate it, since we already paid for it” and you can imagine how resentful the kids become hearing that every time class rolled around.
Beyond free bowling and free movies, I had to figure out how to incorporate these new “interests” into our budget. It didn’t take long to find the answer. A stroke of brilliance hit me one morning while I was flipping through all the programs our town offered over the summer. All of these classes are offered over the summer, for a discounted price and they don’t require a huge time commitment. It got me thinking “if the town offers some programs like this, perhaps local places that do dance, karate and other programs, might offer some summer programs as well”.She goes once a day, with just Fridays and Sundays off. She loves it and now we know, once the Summer is over, she can continue on with classes if she chooses to do so. They don’t charge a yearly contract, we go month to month AND through the year, the kids can attend UNLIMITED classes! At some point, my son will pick it up, he loves to learn from his sister at home. Just needs a bit more “focus” in class.
Finally, I found a tennis program through the town for my daughter. My son isn’t ready yet, but my daughter is up for the challenge. The town offered a huge discount for a two week program: 10 days, $35 for one hour lessons. She’s excited to learn the sport Mommy played for many years. The town program is run by a tennis pro at a fantastic LOCAL country club. And the price just fit our budget! If she likes it, she can do it again next year and we can always sign up for more than one session over the summer – they have three of them throughout the summer.
You did a great job of finding these less expensive programs. Remember, you don’t have to satisfy all of their wants. You can also suggest some of the free/low cost programs that could be used for conditioning.