Children are expensive. And as my children are getting older (7, 8, and 9) and they start doing extracurricular activities, it can get very expensive. But so far my wife and I have been able to keep the costs down – some of that is through diligence, some of it is because of the kindness of others.
For instance, when our girls were a little younger they had an interest in ballet. Well, ballet can cost $25 or more per week per child. With three girls that would be $300 a month, which is pretty serious money. However, my wife was reading our local free paper and saw an advertisement for a ballet school not far from us, and the name of the instructor rang a bell. She called up, and here it was a classmate from college. They reconnected, and out of kindness she let our girls come for free!
Last Fall one of our girls wanted to try horseback riding. My wife found someone willing to trade services – horseback riding for homeschool evaluations. So we swapped and everyone was happy.
Our oldest girl wanted to try soccer. We looked and looked. Everything was multiple practices, games on Sunday (occupational hazard – we cannot do anything on Sunday since I am a Pastor). Finally, we saw in our local free paper that there was going to be a noncompetitive soccer “league” for boys and girls that only met once a week on Saturdays for about nine weeks – and it was only $35!. We were thrilled, my daughter was thrilled.
Finally, our middle daughter wanted to try piano. Again, Piano can be expensive. So we asked around, and we continued to ask around, even asking friends of friends. We came across a lady who loves piano, who has been giving lessons for years, and she only charges $20 a month (yes that’s right – $20 a month!) for weekly lessons. This women loves piano and she wants others to learn to love the piano also and she doesn’t want cost to be a barrier. Our daughter had her first lesson last night and this lady was fantastic – definitely the right choice.
All of this to say that if you are willing to work hard, keep your eyes and ears open and really search, you can find activities for your children that do not cost an arm and a leg. And everyone will be the richer for it – your children for the experiences, and you in your pocketbook!
