Every city in Germany has its own football team
According to the Federal Statistical Office, 24 million residents of Germany are members of various sports clubs alone. As Deutsche Welle notes, among children aged 7-14, 80 percent of boys and 60 percent of girls participate in organized sports.
CHILDREN'S FOOTBALL
At this age, of course, we are talking about amateur sports. Every city in Germany, even a small one, has its own football team, for example, and in large cities there are several amateur clubs. German parents are happy to send their children there.
Membership in such a club for children and teenagers usually costs no more than 10 euros per month. Equipment is like for adults. The uniform is often paid for by a sponsor – some small or medium local entrepreneur, a regional branch of an insurance company or bank.
Parents have to buy cleats themselves. Well-known brands – Puma, Adidas, Nike – in small sizes cost about 15-25 euros. True, children wear them for at most one season, then outgrow them and need to buy new ones. But there are also advantages: on the internet you can buy good cleats that another child may have worn for only a dozen games for just 5 euros.
Almost all such amateur clubs, even in German villages, play on fields with artificial, less often natural, turf; there is no difference between children's and adult football teams in this regard.
Training sessions – 2-3 times a week, on weekends – children's league games. From time to time, many teams participate in tournaments that last a whole day. Then you have to pay for a common lunch. For such cases, there is usually a team fund into which parents contribute about 10 euros per month. By the way, coaches in children's clubs do not receive a salary for their work, only compensation for the cost of courses that entitle them to a higher coaching license.
EXPENSIVE FIGURE SKATING
But children's football is a relatively inexpensive activity. Hockey, alpine skiing, golf, and cycling cost parents significantly more. It is clear why: sports equipment and gear are much more expensive here.
German parents also have to pay more for figure skating lessons. In Germany, more than 18,000 people practice figure skating, 80 percent of them under 17. Not only skates and costumes are expensive. Training is expensive – in particular, because this amount includes the rental of an indoor rink.
In different regions of Germany, prices vary somewhat (they are lower in the east of the country), but the price range is roughly the same. For example, in the city of Aachen, figure skating lessons for beginners (once a week) cost 35-40 euros per month, and for advanced skaters – more than 50 euros per month (though with two sessions per week).
In Germany, figure skating is mainly practiced by girls. As is music. In general, almost half of all German children learn to play one instrument or another. Of course, only a few make it to the conservatory, but German parents, especially in large cities, consider it very important to give their children at least a basic musical education.
MUSIC FOR EVERYONE
There are more than a thousand music schools of various levels in Germany. Many are municipal, but there are also private ones. The internet portal Kostenkiste.de, which specializes in price statistics, calculated that a month of individual lessons (once a week for 45 minutes) at a music school costs, on average across the country, 83 euros. Frankly, not a cheap pleasure. But these figures, we repeat, are averages.
In reality, children's music lessons cost much less in the provinces than in large cities. In Hamburg, for example, you have to pay twice as much as, say, in the federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
In addition, prices also differ significantly depending on the instrument the child plays. Piano, violin, drum set are significantly more expensive than, for example, the recorder, which Germans love so much, or the guitar.
Music lessons not at a music school but with a private teacher, especially for beginners, are cheaper – usually 15-20 euros per hour. And if it concerns the youngest children and lessons (for example, on the recorder) take place in small groups, then generally 3-5 euros. During holidays or when a child is sick, there are no lessons – and, therefore, the private music teacher does not charge money.
To all this, it should be added that both music and football, and, for example, chess, can be practiced in Germany completely free of charge: many schools offer various clubs and electives. Teachers work with children there, receiving additional money for this, of course, but not from parents.