Today I randomly sat down and worked out what my daughter’s term actually costs. Every one of her classes came from her own curiosity, she’s the kind of kid who always wants to try the next thing. Term had just started and all the invoices landed at once.
Our Extracurricular Activities Cost This Term
Violin, $1,500. Chess, $350. Tutor, $700. Dance, $210. Drums, $450. Swimming, $260.
Taekwondo, no fee this term, she’s paused it for a bit. Tennis, also paused. Basketball, we didn’t even sign her up for this round. Golf, I couldn’t make the timeslot work, the only session going meant getting up early on a weekend, and I just wasn’t doing that to myself.
And that’s before exam entry fees, books, and all the little bits and pieces that are basically impossible to add up properly.
Keep in mind this is just Term 2. Nine weeks. Nine. Suddenly a $2,000 school term fee doesn’t sound so bad anymore.
When I showed her the total, her jaw actually dropped. She genuinely had no idea her own activities came anywhere near thousands of dollars. She’s in year three. Seeing her own name sitting next to a number with that many zeros was clearly a lot to take in for an eight-year-old.
And this isn’t even the intense version. We’re on the Gold Coast, education here doesn’t compare to a big city. I think about kids at private schools in Sydney or Melbourne and wonder if their families have a money printer running in the basement.
So when I start feeling poor, I look at this list again. We’re fine, actually.
A Friend’s Extracurricular Activities Cost for Two Kids
A friend of mine has two kids, an eight-year-old boy and a younger one. Her week looks nothing like mine.
Monday, both boys do basketball. Tuesday, older one does tennis plus basketball training. Wednesday, BJJ for the older one. Thursday, art plus Superspeak for the older one. Friday, both do BJJ. Saturday, older one has a basketball game plus BJJ plus Chinese, younger one does BJJ plus Chinese too. Sunday, both do swimming and soccer.
Community basketball for both, $13.50 x 2, $27. Basketball club training and games, $27. School holiday tennis, $19. BJJ with a family discount, $50. After-school art, $22. Superspeak, $28. Chinese for both, $25 x 2, $50. Swimming for both, $28 x 2, $56. Soccer for both, $35 x 2, $70.
Weekly total, $349. $222.50 for the eight-year-old, $126.50 for the younger one.
On top of that, Singapore Maths online, $22 x 4, $88 a month, currently paused. English writing tutoring for the older one still in the planning stage, expected around $60.
All up, roughly $500 a week. Most of it term based, four terms a year, about ten weeks each. Annually, close to $20,000.
None of it’s the expensive kind of class, she says. Just for fun. Point is picking up a few simple skills, running around, jumping around, burning off energy so they eat well and sleep well.
Her work’s a bit flexible. The driving around is still exhausting.
Next term, the older one moves toward more tutoring-focused stuff. Younger one slowly adds more on.
Two Very Different Numbers, Same Reasoning
Neither of us is doing anything extravagant. No elite coaching, no academies. Just kids trying things because they’re curious or need to burn off energy. Still lands somewhere between two and twenty thousand a year depending on how many kids and how many activities.
If you’re working out your own numbers, our school holidays and term dates for 2026 page has the term structure so you know how many weeks of fees you’re actually looking at.