One activity, three budgets

I’ve decided to start a budget makeover series for childrens’ activities. Whatever do you mean, I hear you ask?

Well, it’s where I will tackle one popular childrens’ activity at a time, and help us all to work it into our budgets. I don’t know about you, but over the years, I have drooled over all these cool extracurricular things that kids can do, yet if I did them all, it’d shred my budget to tatters. There’s got to be a way to give your kids the childhood you want them to have, more importantly, that they want to have, so I’m going to offer one activity within three price ranges.

If you can afford the dearer option, by all means, go for it! But just know that there are options in life. On this installment I’m featuring kindy gym classes.

What are they? Kindy gyms are known in Australia under different names, such as Jumping Jacks, Gymbaroo, and many others. Nine years ago when my daughter was little, I looked into these types of classes, and they were around ten dollars per session. And we were expected to pay for a full term upfront. Further to that, if we didn’t go to  a session due to illness or some other reason, you still had to pay! At the time, it was not in my budget, and I was a little despondent.

Over time, I found several options that were cheaper, but just as much fun for my daughter. Plus, she still got to enjoy the socialisation, develop her gross motor skills and have something to look forward to.

Indoor soft play centres

Not only are these cheaper, but so much more fun! We had three good  ones to choose from in our area. They cost around the same amount as the baby gym type classes, but they weren’t a class! I found I could take her in at a time that suited us, rather than according to a class schedule.  If my child was sick, or didn’t go, I didn’t pay! Plus, the one we frequented most often had a stamper card, so after ten visits we would get a free visit. I also found that my daughter was happy to go fortnightly, even monthly, if we couldn’t make it every week. She still was challenging her body strenuously, but the biggest plus was that we weren’t stuck in a 40-minute class having fun then having to leave. Heck, we could stay the entire day if we wanted to! We usually would spend a whole morning or a whole afternoon there. Much better value for money.

Physical culture

Yes, it’s daggy, but my daughter just loved an excuse to don a leotard and strut around as if she had a pole up her bum. Her teacher did try to get me to push her into competitions when I didn’t feel she was ready for something like that, which was annoying, but I simply exercised my Mama Bear muscle and said no. The good thing was, at such a young age (she was two by now) she wasn’t pressured to achieve much in class.  I think they just wanted to give each girl a trophy, so I suppose I can’t knock that. The yearly fee was quite cheap (twenty? Thirty dollars? I can’t remember, but it was around that ballpark) then the weekly lessons were something like $2-$4? If I remember correctly, they were quite long lessons too, which was fantastic.

The free stuff

What happens though, if you are so broke that you can’t even afford the cheaper options? What if your living expenses prohibit you, or you are saving for a house, a car, or a holiday? Not a problem: go to the park! The most obvious advantage of course, is that it’s free, but I love that you can take your kids there anytime excluding wet weather and you don’t have to travel far unless you want to.

These photos were taken at the park across the road when we lived in Sydney.

Best of all, at the park, children can learn not only gross motor skills, they can learn a lot about nature at the same time.

Other free activities for exercise can be to go for a walk with your children, or to play in the good old backyard.

I think my favorite thing about the cheaper/free activities is that they are less rushed, which is really what our kids need more and more of. More time to do this cool stuff. Much better than a quick, scheduled visit, I think!