Kids Groups in the Eastern Suburbs

[B M]

Hi

My wife and I are relocating to Adelaide from the UK in November 2017. We will be living in Fullarton which is in the Eastern Suburbs. Due to the timing of our arrival, it is likely that our two boys (8 and 11 years) will be out of school for up to 10 weeks.

They will be desperate to make friends. Can anyone suggest any regular structured activities, like kids camps, or classes, over the Summer holidays. 

We have found a Coding Camp https://codeclubau.org/, but would be interested in other suggestions. My boys are up for anything, including indoor or outdoor activities.

Thanks

[snifter]

If you are arriving in November you could put the kids into school for a few weeks at the end of of the school year. They don’t break up till mid Dec (15th IIRC) and so your boys could have a month or more perhaps and time to make friends and sound out some summer holiday days with new school friends. I’d not leave them out of school if there are still a good few weeks left in the term. Make the most of the opportunities to make friends from the get go. Be pro active and try to set up a few days for them to catch up with other kids. Keep in mind though many Aus families will be away for a few weeks over the summer hols. 

If not, actually, either way, school started or not I’d look at local school OSHC programmes. They generally run for 4-5 of the weeks over the school hols (ours closes down Christmas week and into new year). I’d try to sign up to the one that is run at the school you intend them to go to so they can begin to make friends. Usually they have 2-3 days a week on trips out to various places and the rest of the days at the OSHC centre st the school. They tend to run from 7ish in the morning till 6pm or so but kids can get dropped off later and picked up earlier. Allow for day trips sometimes heading out by a set time though.

Our OSHC has trips to swimming pools, water parks, cinema, Bounce, Pumpt, adventure parks and so on. Days at school they organise something each day. A big favourite is the bouncy castle water slide and the bike and skateboard day. 

Also things like vac swim runs for a week. Or Little Nippers at the beach. Or sports run for a week, usually via a private school but open to all and sports clubs. 

And if you are able spend some time having some trips to explore as a family.

If I think of anything else I’ll let you know. 

[HelenS]

The local libraries run really great holiday activities which are ridiculously cheap (usually $5-$10 per session). Burnside Library has a great program - check their website later in the term, its not out yet. Some of their activities take place in Eastwood so would be close to you. 

Otherwise Come and Try http://www.comentry.com.au/ run loads of different sporting activities in various locations around the city during the holidays. My kids tried water polo during the October break.

If you are planning on swimming lessons for your kids, find out which pool is closest to their school and sign them up for lessons as soon as you arrive - you'll probably find loads of kids from the school will be having their lessons at the same time and your kids can start making friends.

As Snifter said - OSHC is a really good way to meet people if your kids aren't going to start school until January. We arrived in Adelaide just before the July holiday but signed the kids up to do 3 or 4 days at OSHC before they'd even started at the school so that they got to meet a few people and also had a chance to explore the school at bit before the start of term