Author of this article: Tang Yahua, editor: Liming, head picture from: Vision China
Nowadays, “chicken baby”, like “in scroll”, has become a hot word on the Internet. How many parents devote all their energy is because they believe in one truth: rather than paving the way for their children, it is better to let their children learn how to take a good path. It is this belief that makes a variety of education and training a sweet pastry.
Midweek sports classes and weekend art classes, every parent is a master at coordinating time and schedule. Whether it’s to go to a prestigious school in China or to “climb the vine”, The parents have to make a choice if the child is still in kindergarten.
In the “chicken baby” circle, there are actually three or six or nine classes. The subjects that focus on subjects such as mathematics and English are called “Munji”. Various Olympiads and English competitions are the best choices for testing the results of “Munji”. As opposed to “Munji”, it emphasizes quality education and training. “Vegetarian Chicken”.
What many people don’t know is that behind the seemingly Buddhist “Veggie Chicken”, there are actually parents’ ingenuity. In the eyes of “Vegetable” parents, piano, calligraphy, painting, and taekwondo are too rampant, and niche events are the first choice. They seem to be physical exercises, and some of them are actually helpful for entering school and studying abroad.
For example, skating reaching a certain level can be specially recruited to certain schools, national second-level athletes can get points in the college entrance examination, and ice hockey, fencing, and golf are extremely important items for foreign universities.
These niche projects in “Chicken Circle” tend to cost more and burn more money. The annual investment of hundreds of thousands is just the beginning. Some parents even go to the screening courses themselves and train themselves as half experts. Today we will take a look at what does the niche “million chicken baby ring” look like? How crazy can parents be for their children?
1. It costs millions to let children learn ice hockey, and it costs 20,000 to 30,000 to participate in a game
Jiangyang | Tongzhou District, Beijing, the annual household income is 500,000 yuan, and the annual education expenditure is 300,000 yuan
Our child is 11 years old this year. He has been learning ice hockey since he was 4 and a half years old. At that time, he thought that boys should be in good health and participate in a team sport.
At first, he learned two or three times a week and often wrestled. Later, he became a little interested himself. He joined the club at the age of six and learned a little more professionally.
He joined the Beijing team last year. There are 30 players, selected from more than 200 children. Over the years, the child has won many awards. The best result was when he participated in the national elementary and middle school competition at the age of 8. Their team won the third place.
In terms of cost, ice hockey courses are generally 300 yuan to 400 yuan/half an hour, each time for more than one hour. He spent about 100,000 a year when he was 4 to 6 years old, and about 170,000 a year after he was 6 years old. Because after joining the club, there are more competitions, and every time you go out, you have to pay for the coach’s expenses. In addition, there are travel expenses and accommodation. It will cost thousands of dollars at a time in China. If you go abroad for competitions, there will usually be training camps, two or three at a time. Million. Moreover, when I grow up, I have higher requirements for coaches. We hired foreign coaches. It costs 700 yuan for half an hour.
The equipment for playing ice hockey is also very expensive. A set of worth tens of thousands of dollars, a helmet of 1,500 yuan, a chest protector and elbow pads cost two to three thousand, ice skates for several thousand yuan, a pair of ice hockey for a year, and hundreds of sweatshirts. , There must be at least two sets. He has to change his club twice a year because he grows up with different strength and height. The club is about 1,000 yuan, and the ice skates basically have to be sharpened once or twice a week for 70 to 80 yuan.
Now that the child is in the upper grades, there are more and more conflicts between playing and learning. However, children who engage in sports are more able to endure hardship. Learning ice hockey is a good test for children’s willpower. Sometimes he has to get up at four or five in the morning to participate in the game, and at night, he will go home after training. If you order too much, you have to finish your homework. Although sometimes he feels tired, but once there is a good game, he is very proud. After each game, he has to sum up with the coach or dad to see where the performance is good and where is still lacking, and then to improve.
I think that children who play well will not have bad grades, because children who perform well on the court will apply similar principles to their studies. He is currently studying well and ranks among the top 5 in the class.
We will not consider taking the professional ice hockey route for the time being, because it is very difficult to take the professional route, and the chance of success is very small. I think hockey is regarded as a lifelong hobby, which is helpful to his character and physique. This is the biggest gain Up.
The investment for so many years has added up to millions, but now children are learning a lot of skills, some people may have to invest so much money to learn five a year, we only learn one and learn very well, in fact, the investment is almost the same. He plays ball by himself and communicates with children at home and abroad. I think his vision and knowledge will also increase a lot. This thing may not be available for money.
Second, in order to help children select courses, I first learned more than a dozen projects by myself
Kirin | 36 years old, Haidian District, Beijing, the annual family income is 1 million, and the annual education expenditure is 300,000.
My strategy for cultivating children is, I want him to learn the project, I will learn it by myself first. Because of DNA, I feel that if something is not suitable for me, it is highly likely that it is not suitable for him. After I have studied, I will arrange for him to start learning at a specific time.
I started planning before the child was born. He is 4 years old now. I have learned skating, swimming, diving, horseback riding, and fencing.
The item I excluded was karting, because it was too expensive. Equestrianism is also a very expensive sport. I will go to Inner Mongolia to ride horses from time to time. When I am in Beijing, I will use highly trained horses. Even the friendly price is 1,000 yuan for 40 minutes. The great thing about these horses is that they don’t need to take the reins to tell them to turn left or right. I just need to see with my eyes, and the horses will turn directly to the corresponding direction. They are very spiritual and agile.
A set of fencing equipment costs about 20,000 yuan. It requires a strong focus. I spend about 100,000 yuan a year on these items.
My plan for my children is to start skating at about 4 years old, fencing must be after 5 years old, and art must wait for elementary school. He is currently taking a skating class, with a lesson costing more than 300 yuan, half an hour a day, and then it will be extended to one hour a day. Many elementary schools have special recruits for skating. If you reach professional level 6, you can recruit some better elementary schools. When you reach professional level 8, you can apply for national second-level athletes, and you can get extra points in the college entrance examination. He has learned level 2 now, and I think he can reach the corresponding level in the future.
There are more girls skating, and boys even have lost gears, so boys will have a high probability of passing the exam. Learning to skate is something I let him continue to do. After spring, summer, autumn and winter, wind and rain, his character and patience will be better cultivated.
When he was 5 years old, I wouldLet him start learning fencing, which is very good for a person’s concentration improvement. Fencing and golf are more recognized by foreign universities, and these two projects require relatively large financial resources, so in fact foreign universities also value the family background of students. However, there are not many golf tournaments in China. Fencing is more cost-effective and more practical. After I have experienced it, fencing is more helpful to me. He argued with me when he was adolescent or rebellious, and my solution was simple, that is, we would fight. In addition, I will leave some projects to work with him in the future, such as rock climbing.
For art projects, I have excluded pianos, zithers, and violins, which are more widely recognized by the public. I am currently studying Honghu. There are few people taking the road, and the success rate is slightly higher. Huanghou is very small, and there are few people who can learn it, but I think everything should be persisted and repeated. After consulting with professionals, I plan to let children start learning after elementary school, because too early exposure will affect children’s exploration of beauty, and it will become a mechanized thing. The advice of professionals is to listen and watch more now. I will take my children to the exhibition whenever I have a chance.
I saw a data that 56% of adolescent children have great opinions on their parents. This data is very chilling, so I will not interfere with the children’s learning. These things should be done by the coach. The most important thing for me is to maintain a good father-son relationship and transfer the hostile relationship to him and the coach as much as possible.
In addition, he started to take full-care early education classes at the age of two. The tuition fee is 90,000 yuan a year. There are courses in creative thinking, drama, English, mathematics, and sports. Because in my family, my grandmother takes care of the children, the information input by the children is too single , I also found an undergraduate liberal arts student and a science graduate student to come home to interact with him every week, because their thinking concepts are different, and I hope that different people will communicate with the children.
I will teach him “Li Weng Duiyun”, which contains Yidong, Erdong, Sanjiang, Sizhi, and Wuwei. We have learned four of them, and we have learned a lot of thousand-character essays.
One day he will definitely fight against me or something, but at that time I should be particularly calm, because my contribution to him has reached the upper limit. And he is already good enough to face the world, and I won’t interfere with his life too much because of worry.
I have no educational anxiety. Based on our current training for him, the subject problem should not be big, and some sports bonus points have been prepared in advance. In the future, I will spend some energy in the stage of making up classes to test a similar university. It should be no problem. If you go abroad to study for postgraduates, projects like fencing are also a bonus.
I know that my child’s future will not follow the path I envisioned, but I will constantly adjust according to the situation, and my upper and lower limits are quite wide, even if I take him to do He is not interested in all of the things, and it’s not bad to become a hobby of him.
Three, my son is too energetic, so he actively asked to enroll in 9 interest classes
Xinxin | Chaoyang District, Beijing, the annual household income is 1.5 million, and the annual education expenditure is 200,000.
Our child is 6 years old and has enrolled in 9 interest classes, including fencing, magic, piano, art, roller skating, taekwondo, swimming, Lego, and English for academic subjects. He now learns one of the courses after kindergarten every day, a little more on weekends.
My child is too energetic, and he likes more courses. I actually don’t want to report to him because he feels too tired, but he insists on learning. Only fencing is because his father wanted to learn when he was young. He thinks his son should also like it. After experiencing it, the child really likes it, and he basically chose the rest.
Originally, I didn’t want to report magic to him. He himself saw a big screen playing magic in the mall where he was in class, and there were children performing pigeon magic. He always stood there watching, and the teacher over there invited him to experience it. , And then he insisted on learning. He is more active in magic classes than any hobby class. The class at 6 pm on weekends will be over after lunch. After a few classes, he will perform on stage. The teacher also encourages him. His interest It’s thicker.
He has clear and stronger preferences, and we have guided him to make other attempts. He himself firmly did not pay the bill. In the end, we still let him. In addition to these, he wants to report horsemanship, hockey, ice hockey and so on, but I really feel that the energy is not enough. On the contrary, I let him learn piano and violin, and he is reluctant to go.
Children’s kindergarten tuition is more than 80,000 yuan a year, magic is more than 10,000 yuan a year, fencing equipment is nearly 4,000 yuan, the course is about 20,000 yuan a year, and the average of other interest classes is more than 10,000 a year. The annual education investment is about 200,000 yuan.
I think that before elementary school, he is the master of his own comprehensive quality development and interest habits. After that, I hope he will stick to at least one of his favorites. We have no specialDon’t have high requirements, just a medium level, but he must be confident, sunny, and healthy.
The child is going to elementary school soon. I plan to communicate with him, filter the lessons he is learning, and leave one or two that he particularly likes, and slowly develop into his long-term interests and specialties. It is estimated that he will stick to magic in the future And fencing.
I occasionally have educational anxiety, especially when I watched “Little Will” some time ago, because we belong to the category of “Nanli”. This is a theater effect, and other people’s children are on it. Training class, and our children have never learned addition and subtraction. I also started to make up lessons for him, but after making up for a period of time, I found that the child’s mood was also affected. I was also very uncomfortable, and then let it go.
Four, let children enjoy the moment, I will be a “Moonlight Clan”
Ye Zi | Chaoyang District, Beijing, personal annual income of 1 million yuan, annual education expenditure of 600,000 yuan
Our family has two daughters, 8 and 10 years old. Because I can’t pick them up, they have the same extracurricular activities. They are all equestrian, skating, and swimming, of which equestrianism is the main event.
My sister started learning horsemanship at the age of 5 and a half. On the one hand, I chose this because I wanted to exercise. On the other hand, I planned to send them to an international school at the time. When they were enrolled in horsemanship, it was a bonus for their specialty.
When choosing the project, we opened an education complex in front of our house. A child paid 19,800 yuan. In it, he can learn various projects, such as language, musical instruments, martial arts, etc. The child has learned ukulele and piano before. , Ballet, taekwondo, etc., and finally equestrian, skating and swimming are left.
I am a buddhist school. I think whether the child is smart or not learning this material has already been decided when she is born. Our child has passed the third-to-last exam in the class. He came back and said to me: “Mom, can you say me?” I said, “Mom can’t say you”. She took 99 in English, 67 in Chinese, and 70 in math.
I speak English pretty well, I just don’t understand mathematics, so I can’t help it. When my mother was in the fourth grade, English mathematics was also very low.
I went to school in Melbourne before, and when I took public transportation, I found that those people seemed very happy. Whether young or old, they are very prosperous every day, but they return to the country.Inside, it seems that everyone is in a state of disgrace.
I don’t want my child to be the teacher’s pawn. For example, how high the pass rate is in the class, and the teacher has various bonuses. If the exam fails, the child will be scolded in the class. The teacher also told me that my child did not do well in the exam. I said that our family has a little money and a little ability. I don’t intend to let the child suffer your grievances. The teacher said that you are in the Department of True Buddhism. Later, the teacher visited our house and didn’t say anything.
I will be a strong backing for my children. Once there is something bad at school that goes against our ideals, I will definitely be the first to oppose it.
We are two girls in my family. I think their grades are good. They have to learn more in other areas, so that they can chat with anyone. If a child has very good academic performance but cannot communicate, then I will not be satisfied.
I’m from Beijing, annual income is about 1 million yuan, most of which is spent on children’s education. I am basically a moonlight clan, and I may keep up to 100,000 yuan in my hand.
I’m an Aries and I really don’t have any idea about money. Basically, the money I earn is spent, enough to repay the mortgage, enough to travel, and enough for us to eat, drink and play.
Fifth, instead of leaving the money to the children in the future, it is better to invest in education now
Yuan Wen | Chaoyang District, Beijing, the annual household income is 2 million yuan, the annual education expenditure is 800,000 yuan
The child is 16 years old this year. When he was in the fourth grade of elementary school, the school wanted to form an ice hockey team. He was selected from some children with good physical fitness and love to play sports.
At that time, he had school organization training, and we would also hire coaches to train twice a week. Later he joined the club with a membership fee of more than 10,000 for a year. He participates in two games every year, one is the Intercollegiate Cup and the other is the club’s league.
The ice hockey playground can exercise children’s teamwork and stress resistance. When they first started the game, they were often beaten to a dozen to zero by other teams, which was a big challenge to children’s ability to bear. By the sixth grade, they won the third place in the intercollegiate league. The growth of the child is very fast in a few years.
When I arrived in junior high school, my studies were tense. Many children stopped playing. Their head teacher also said that the pressure will be great in the future, so I suggest you consider giving up ice hockey. We are also considering it, but after weighing it, we insisted on letting the children continue to fight, and we insisted on it once a week when we were busiest.
If he goes to high school in China, he may not be able to play later. Beijing has very few schools with ice hockey teams, and there are even fewer games to play. When the child was in the second grade, he decided to go abroad to school. In fact, there is a lot of pressure to study at home and abroad, but the source of pressure is different. I don’t want him to spend all his pressure on mechanical and repetitive learning. I hope that more time and energy will be in the sun, physical and mental health, and learning will be more efficient.
After the second grade, he prepared for the TOEFL test, went to school in the United States, and joined the best ice hockey team in New England. Of course, his current level cannot be compared with the local kids, but he still hopes that he can play ice hockey. Persevere as a hobby.
He has been drumming from elementary school to the present. Once a week, he now forms a band in school, arranges music, and records shows himself.
I haven’t paid close attention to my child’s study for a long time. His grades are still good, and we also hope that he can develop in an all-round way. Later, he went out to study because of the high proportion of domestic requirements for subjects and too much energy. It may be more suitable for him to be able to develop comprehensively abroad.
Our investment in children is considered large. The club training fee is relatively expensive. Four times a week, one-to-one is 500 yuan per lesson, and one-to-three is 380 yuan. When the child grows up , The equipment needs to be changed almost once a year, and a suit of armor, skates, hats, and leggings cost about 15,000. The drum set is about three to four hundred yuan a time, and he spent about 100,000 yuan a year before going abroad.
Currently, the annual tuition fee is 70-80,000 US dollars, plus living expenses, round-trip travel expenses, etc., it is equivalent to 700,000-800,000 RMB in a year. Compared with his classmates abroad, he is almost at the same level. His place of study is in Boston, and the tuition and consumption levels in the eastern United States are slightly higher.
I feel that within our abilities, we are willing to do what we can do based on the children’s interests and wishes. My child’s father and I have also communicated, whether we will leave the money to him in the future or invest in him now, it is nothing more than the difference between investing in the present or in the future, and finally decided to invest in the present.
If you consider the production ratio, sending him abroad must be at a loss in the short term, because the investment is relatively large. After he returns to China, his first income may not be higher than others.Second, the child may also have a psychological gap. So we can’t do the analysis of the production ratio. It is nothing more than to give him more experience, to understand more of the world, and to broaden his horizons.
At the request of the interviewee, Jiangyang, Qilin, Xinxin, Ye Zi, and Yuanwen in the text are pseudonyms