The Best Classes You’re Not Taking by Melissa @PBinmyhair

The Best Classes You’re Not Taking by Melissa @PBinmyhair

Enrichment. Hobby. Extracurricular. Just for fun. Socialization (for mom or tot!)

Whatever your reasoning more and more parents are looking for classes and activities to sign their kids up for. There are so many options out there these days from private groups and clubs, to national chains, and private tutors. What too many parents are overlooking is that some of the best, and most affordable classes are right under their noses!

Your local Forest Preserve, Park District and Library.

All of these offer classes and activities for multiple age groups from mom and tot to grade school. They also tend to be more affordable than the private or national chains because you have already partially paid for them through your tax dollars. I truly don’t know why more parents don’t use them.

When I moved to Lake County 2 years ago this fall I was excited to finally have a local park district and to have such a great Forest Preserve District. I moved from an urban area that had a Great library program, but the parks and recreation were lacking. We eagerly signed up for programs every session since moving here. One class, or in some cases multiple classes, have either been very small or been cancelled; Every. Single. Season.

Now it could be luck and what we choose. For the most part we stay away from team sports, my kids lean towards the academic (science, cooking, nature). However we started with a soccer clinic this summer that we loved, and the fall version is threatened due to under enrollment.

What you may not know about Park District programs is that many have instructors that are professionals in their field, or our outsourced from national chains. Our soccer clinic for example is outsourced from a group that runs soccer clinics all over the region. All of the instructors play semi-professionally. I played soccer high school through college, I even taught clinics for toddlers through kindergarten. I could not have been more impressed with the coach we had for this program. Not only was he teaching actual skills (dribbling, stopping, kicking, etc). He made the skills easy to understand with games and characters they would know, he made it fun and non-competitive, and really connected with the kids. The fall program for residents is $60, and your child comes home with a soccer ball! The class is 7 weeks, that makes it less then $10 per class! Yet when I registered there were only 2 people registered, TWO! Currently we are at 5 and are waiting to see if they are going to cancel or combine the ages.

We frequently end up at the open gym ($3/child $5/family) with 6 or fewer families. While most of the pre-registered (age specific) library programs we have taken are full or close to full all the drop in storytimes we have done are sparse on attendance. Same for the Forest preserve, we have had some full classes but have had just as many cancelled for low attendance.

With a tight economy this is the perfect time to check out your local park district or library for programs. You can find your city and links to both the park district and the library at our City Info Page. Information on Forest Preserve classes can be found here.


Have you/Do you use your local park district/library for classes? What are some of your favorites?



* Disclosure, I am biased as I spent over 10 years directing and teaching programs in a park district and nature center. However even with out the teaching experience I would hands down always try my local park district and library for classes because I am always trying to save money. I was not compensated in anyway to promote the parks or forest preserve districts.

This blog was written by Melissa @PBinmyhair Here is a link to her blog page: http://www.littlelakecounty.com/

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