Get the Kids and Teens Out of The House!

This is a great idea. A variety of optional rabbit hole activities you can send your children or teen sims off to for 1-3 in game hours while you continue playing with the other members of the household, and have the children and teens come back with activity relevant moodlets and/or skill progress. They also need to have a study club where they can rabbit hole away to do their homework more efficiently.

Hey, I've been thinking of making a few lots. A rec/ community center for instance with a pool, basketball court, fitness center, art rooms and study areas. And a science/space center with all the cool science equipment like the rocket, microscope, telescope, e.t.c, microscope pictures, elemental displays, and for kids the kids chemistry station, space ship jungle gym, and a more. It would be a great place to put a lot of the cool collections and artifacts my sims get. So that could be two places your kid sims could gain skills while their parents do their thing. :)

If you're cool with mods, KwaiiStacie has an After School Activities mod that covers a lot of this.

Though right now, children learning adult skills seems to be broken - not with the mod, but in general - so I'm not sure how much it will help.

I know I want more official extra-curricular activities for both age groups.

I make school clubs after school for kids / teens by using the club feature in the Get Together and having community lots suited for the after school clubs.

- Library for history, geography, book or something of the sort club.
- Pool for swimming lessons.
- Parks or sometimes library for chess or board game club.
- Art / Music center for art or music class.
- Empty lot or park for soccer or basketball practice.

I'm sure I've done others but that is what I remember off the top of my head. I'd love it if they added after school activities but since they don't have them I just make them myself.

"vancanuckfan86;c-17549644" wrote:
I make school clubs after school for kids / teens by using the club feature in the Get Together and having community lots suited for the after school clubs.

- Library for history, geography, book or something of the sort club.
- Pool for swimming lessons.
- Parks or sometimes library for chess or board game club.
- Art / Music center for art or music class.
- Empty lot or park for soccer or basketball practice.

I'm sure I've done others but that is what I remember off the top of my head. I'd love it if they added after school activities but since they don't have them I just make them myself.

Yeah I do that too but I'm looking for a more hands off game play for them.

"Nekia33painter;c-17549599" wrote:

"SimAlexandria;c-17549596" wrote:
I'd love these as active things but rabbit holes second best haha!! Kids do gain skills from projects, just different ones, and kids that have good grades get better responsiblity and start high school with a higher grade too :)

As someone who loved playing with families sometimes the projects are so rare I forget they exist. I will say that sometimes I just want the kids and teens out of the house. I'd like to think they are making friends as they are learning skills.

The projects arrive every Monday, but you can buy them in build mode other days, mine do them 3 days a week on average haha! They have a big friends group, using the club system is great for that! They are in outdoor clubs, princess clubs, homework clubs, etc!

I would really like this. My kids have nothing to do most days after school, and I end up focusing on the parents. So the kids just end up being annoying. I'd love to send them somewhere just to get them out of the way. After school groups sound fun!

@Nekia33painter - completely agree - it would be nice to just be able to send them off and continue playing with the other members in the household. But I would want it both ways - I also enjoy going with them sometimes too.

"bixters;c-17549670" wrote:
I would really like this. My kids have nothing to do most days after school, and I end up focusing on the parents. So the kids just end up being annoying. I'd love to send them somewhere just to get them out of the way. After school groups sound fun!

For me it's the parents that get neglected haha! Once I have kids and tots in the house I play them full time and almost forget about the adults lol!

I think my child and teen Sims do fine with skills, especially teens. Parents or Caregivers mentor homework and help with school projects. They don't need to go to a rabbit hole event to learn skills. Loading screens don't bother me since they only take a few seconds.

I haven't used clubs very much because I thought they wasted a lot of time. However, I recently set up two fitness clubs - one for teens and another for young adults. I did this to force the game to populate my gyms with Sims other than the usual adult premades like the Landgraabs and Bjergsens that appear on every lot and at every event. It worked so I'm now looking at clubs for activities at other types of venues and community lots like karaoke bars, art centers, and parks.

Writing - All of my teens request a penpal as soon as they become a teen. I've had several teens do this autonomously. Requesting penpals and then postcards unlocks the Writing skill as does writing in their personal journal. Most of my teens are about level 4 or 5 writing by the time they become young adults.

Logic - Teens take an easel with them to a park that has a chess table. They can play chess and chat with someone while they play which builds both Logic and Charisma. If there's no one to chat with then they can use the chess table to become focused and then use their easel to paint mathematical diagrams which seems to build Logic faster than actually playing chess.

Fitness - None of my Sim families own a swimming pool so they had to go to a gym until I got Island Living. Now they spend Saturday or Sunday swimming around or snorkeling in Sulani. I also have a gym in Newcrest that has every type of fitness and wellness equipment. Kids can't use any of it though. I forgot if kids build fitness using horizontal climbing bars.

Painting - I have an Art Center and a Museum in Newcrest that I use when kids and teens are first learning how to paint or play musical instruments. That's where they learn how to play the piano too. Kids need a special kid's only violin.

Cooking - Teens make fruit and garden salads until their cooking skill is level 3. I had a brand new teen die in a kitchen fire that started while he was cooking a grilled cheese sandwich. Since then, I've never let another teen touch a stove until cooking is at least level 3.

Handiness - All of my parks have a pumpkin carving table and a woodworking table. Teens unlock the Handiness skill using the pumpkin carving table and then graduate to the woodworking table for different projects. Upgrading sturdy faucets comes next.

Parks have a community center that has bookcases and computers. There are also easels, water slides, basketball courts, and swing sets, The Oasis Springs park in the base game has a guitar so I added one to the other parks in my game. The park in Oasis Springs also has a swimming pool that Sims actually use. It also has a foosball table.

Children seem to talk non-stop so they build charisma pretty fast. I do wish they could do more though. They should definitely be able to help with a garden and make simple things like salads. On second thought, salads involve cutting produce so that might be considered too dangerous for children. Maybe they could make something like slime which kids have fun with. It's not really cooking but it would give them something to do. besides make messes everywhere.