I don’t think I mentioned this before, but Jake quit karate a few months ago. It was time to move up to the next class and he just wasn’t interested. It seemed like a waste of time and money to force him to continue.
While I’m not one to push extracurricular activities, I do think it is important for him to be involved in something. If only so he gets to interact with other kids on a regular basis. Being an only child, things can get pretty boring around here for him at times. This issue has been mitigated somewhat this summer because a new family moved into the neighborhood and they have three kids around Jake’s age, so he’s been playing with them a lot. But, still, I think it’s good to have a more structured activity to go to.
Continuing our “character-building” theme for activities, we thought cub scouts would be a good thing for Jake to try next. Brian was involved in boy scouts and really enjoyed it, so he’s looking forward to some of the activities as well. Sign up was this past week, so Jake’s ready to go just as soon as we buy his handbook and uniform. He wasn’t all that interested in joining, but he had a great time at the sign up meeting because a bunch of his friends from school were there. I think this should work out pretty well for him.