We chose when she was little, but as soon as she could talk, she had input. (We didn't always listen, but there you go.)
Our rule is much like Dude and ColinsMum have alluded: you have to do it until the commitment is ended in some natural way.
She has done:
ballet
tumbling
tai chi
*walking*
dog agility
*dog obedience (regular and Rally-O)*
*dog freestyle*
Aikkido
golf (this one she may pick back up again)
tennis
tap
soccer (indoor league-- she eventually lost interest)
violin
pottery
*drawing*
watercolor
Lego robotics
Computer classes
*Piano*
*4-H dog*
*4-H pigeon*
*4-H rabbit*
archery
*skeet (shotgun)*
swimming (she finished lessons and would have joined a club team, but they basically told us to pound sand re: disability and got backing from the national legal team in so doing, so, uh, no)
*writer's group (moderated/led by a local YA author)*
*tabletop RPG*
chess
debate (tried this through the school, and sadly-- IT WAS SO LAME. She
loved it and tried to make it work, but it was just not the level she needed.
)
*4-H Communications (this would include posters/speeches)*
bicycling (she comes and goes with this-- has a GORGEOUS bike, but seldom rides, though truth be told, we DO live at the top of a pretty steep hill, so.)
gardening
*volunteer activities-- gardening, composting, outreach, working with children, literacy, food insecurity/food bank, etc.*
* current activity
She'd also like to pick up rifle target shooting this year, now that she's 14. She'd also like to try accordian/viola at some point. In college, she wants to get a chance to do some community theater. She thinks that she might still be young enough for the role of Louisa von Trapp in a local production this fall... but OMG, how busy is she
already?? Please understand, too, that most of this list is stuff that is
never going to look prestigious to anyone. It's just stuff that she does because it makes her happy, or can actually teach her some of the things that she desperately needs to learn (but will probably NOT learn in school).
For example: an animal simply doesn't understand the concept of "cramming" before competition.
Nor does piano work that way. You can't practice for four hours once a week, the morning before your lesson. LOL. DD has tried that, believe me.
