Summer Holiday Activity Clubs - no longer a thing?

Haggisman

Haggisman

Haggisman

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Joined
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Birmingham
I've just spent literally 2 hours trying to find some kind of activity club for my 13 year old to go to for a week to give him something to do other than sitting at home bored.

So far in the (relatively) local area I've managed to find a single mixed activity "adventure" club (he's not interested in football, which seems to be the only other option).

Everything else is either a single weekend day, aimed at much younger kids, or restricted to people claiming benefits.

I've been looking for some kind of watersports course, or crafting (e.g. woodwork/metalwork), or anything else a bit educational but also fun & active, more than happy to pay (as long as it doesn't break the bank), but either my Google-Fu is broken, or there's just nothing to cater for young teens. I could understand it if we lived in the middle of nowhere, but I was under the impression that Birmingham is a rather large city?

It's no wonder we're raising a generation of braindead morons who lack the drive or ability to do anything more than stare at a screen :( when I was his age I was doing windsurfing courses, going on hiking camps in the Lake District etc.

Anyone got any suggestions of where/what else to look for?
 
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Haggisman said:
I've just spent literally 2 hours trying to find some kind of activity club for my 13 year old to go to for a week to give him something to do other than sitting at home bored.

So far in the (relatively) local area I've managed to find a single mixed activity "adventure" club (he's not interested in football, which seems to be the only other option).

Everything else is either a single weekend day, aimed at much younger kids, or restricted to people claiming benefits.

I've been looking for some kind of watersports course, or crafting (e.g. woodwork/metalwork), or anything else a bit educational but also fun & active, more than happy to pay (as long as it doesn't break the bank), but either my Google-Fu is broken, or there's just nothing to cater for young teens. I could understand it if we lived in the middle of nowhere, but I was under the impression that Birmingham is a rather large city?

It's no wonder we're raising a generation of braindead morons who lack the drive or ability to do anything more than stare at a screen :( when I was his age I was doing windsurfing courses, going on hiking camps in the Lake District etc.

Anyone got any suggestions of where/what else to look for?
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I have 2, aged 8 & 6 and local provisions aren't nearly as good as they were a few years ago.

IIRC from what the Mrs said the one with the most covered days in our area was for just 3 days, Mon, Wed, Fri & it was basically sport (football) or drawing in terms of activity at a cost of £35 per kid for a 4hr slot.
 
Josh said:
Army cadets, 2 week camp during summer.
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Not sure the other half would approve of that one :p

throwaway4372 said:
Summer clubs were in the news the other day, so must exist:

www.bbc.co.uk

Summer holiday clubs now cost an average of £1,076 per child

Some areas have seen prices rise by as much as 13%, research by children's charity Corum finds.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk
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Pricing seems about accurate with the 2 options I've found, but lots of info in that article about HAF (basically only for kids eligible for free school meals), and not much for anyone else
 
They're still a thing. We booked my son into one a couple of days per week over the summer holidays.
 
Haggisman said:
Funny, and this has just popped up in my news feed:

news.sky.com

Two-hour screen time limit and curfews for children being considered by government

The technology secretary tells Sky News he will make announcement on "compulsive" screen time, as a survey shows teenagers are spending hours a day scrolling.
news.sky.com news.sky.com

Maybe instead of a blanket ban, Mr Kyle should consider why kids are spending so long on these apps... :rolleyes:
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Because they are highly addictive and the algorithms are literally designed to keep them glued to them as long as possible. I don't know how you fix it. I think its basically impossible at this point without mass regulation of the internet/social media which seems highly unlikely. Getting rid of the algorithms and going back to how things were 20 years ago where you basically saw the stuff your mates had posted up in the date it was posted up and if no one had posted anything then there was nothing left to view would be a start. Not much chance of that though.
 
Some of the more active churches might have summer activities, there are also various Christian summer camps where they go away for a week somewhere, if that's at all relevant to you.

+1 for joining cadets, get to do lots of interesting stuff and learn all sorts of skills. I was in the army cadet side of a combined cadet force when I was at school and would definitely recommend, but go for the air cadets if he can. Might have changed, but the unit I was in the air cadets got to fly gliders & planes AND do most of the stuff that the army cadets do.

Maybe check out local sports clubs that might have some summer activities planned?

I remember there used to be some academically focused summer residential schemes that some people went on, I never found out much about them though so no idea how they were organised. They're probably more common for GCSE or 6th form aged kids, but various organisations ran academic residential courses.

Also some universities have short summer residentials, some of them might be limited based on your demographics though.

Not sure what else tbh though. Imagine liability and safeguarding issues will have put an end to lots of the more informally organised activities from years ago.
 
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Haggisman said:
I said active, not sitting in a chair the whole time ;)
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Air Cadet camp saw me spend a whole week working in the armoury, servicing both small arms and aircraft weaponry. Another camp was doing ground defence training with the RAF Regiment, which included NBC training, some time on the CQB range, a few days doing some parachute training and a day playing with RAF Police dogs. Then there were all the other camping and outdoor activity things like windsurfing, raft building, hiking, navigation, rock climbing & abseiling, bushcraft, fieldcraft, etc etc... and if you had time, a flight or two in something or other. Chipmunks and vigilant gliders were at some stations, but active stations had fun things like a Chinook or a Hercules.
Subs cost 30p a week back then, but IIRC camps were completely free, with food and accommodation all provided. The only money involved was what you took up the NAAFI in the evening.
 
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