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Not long ago, a study group that I have been following for a long time released this year's summer vacation activities. As usual, it was the nature summer camp that I had been eyeing for two or three years. It mainly featured STEAM elements such as construction, and it was immersive and conducted all-English communication. It looked very good.

Previously, I had been waiting and watching because my daughter was not old enough. This time, my daughter finally met the requirements, so I signed up.

However, when I asked about the cost, it was nearly 8,000 yuan for 6 days and 5 nights, and it was still a local event, which was far more expensive than I expected. The activity that I had been so excited about suddenly lost its appeal.

After weighing the pros and cons, my determination to let my child attend was defeated by the high fees. In the end, I gave up the registration.

This incident is actually a microcosm of my recent education consumption. In the past, I would have paid without hesitation. But now this situation is rare.

To use a popular saying nowadays -The trend of consumption downgrade has finally hit the middle class who are over-eager to raise children.I am not immune either.

Consumption downgrade is coming.

Summer plans are changing

My baby’s husband and I both work in the system. Our income is neither high nor low, but at least it’s relatively stable.

In previous years, our investment in our daughter's education has always been the bulk of the family's annual expenses. Every year, we have to spend around 50,000 to 60,000 yuan on interest classes, books and teaching aids, study tours, various competitions, etc.

However, due to the impact of salary cuts in the past two years, my family's annual income has decreased. Although we don't have to live a tight life right away, the uncertainty and risks in the future still make me feel a great sense of crisis.

Under such shock and pressure, the family's consumption inevitably downgraded. Take this summer's education plan for example, it is different from the past.

The first change is that the urge to sign up for the class is gone.Instead, we should compare prices from different stores, think carefully, and pay more attention to cost-effectiveness and reliability.

For example, last summer, I arranged vocal, instrumental and ballet training for my daughter, as well as foreign language and thinking tutoring classes, so her daily schedule was packed. But this year, I have obviously become more relaxed. Except for one Guzheng class, I have either given up or switched to online classes for the rest.

Because I found that there are many free online resources that are very good, such asNational primary and secondary school smart education platform, Khan Academy Kids (Khan Academy for Kids)If you make full use of it, the effect will be no less than taking classes.

At present, my daughter studies the content of the new semester on the smart platform every day, which is very cost-effective.

At this stage, II care more about spending the least amount of money to achieve the maximum effect.After all, making money is not easy, so you should save as much as you can. Moreover, there are too many education and training institutions that have gone bankrupt and run away these days, which has prompted parents to become more rational and not to spend money blindly.

The second change was that I became keen on exploring various free or affordable parent-child practical activities.

There are actually many such activities, most of which are officially organized.

Take my city as an example. There is a special platform built by the Healthy Growth Guidance Center for Minors. It regularly releases various activities for primary and secondary school students across the city, including theme studies, career experience, science lectures, labor practice, etc. If you want to participate, you can just make an appointment.

Previously, I was so focused on those so-called "high-end" commercial activities that I ignored this platform for a while. It was not until last semester that my daughter accidentally participated in a museum volunteer theme practice and the experience was surprisingly good.

The half-day activity is free and includes visits and explanations, cultural relics learning, hands-on practice, volunteer services and other aspects. The children have fun and get exercise at the same time.

This summer, I signed up for several activities for my daughter, and she gave me great feedback. It felt like I had found a treasure. I suddenly realized that I was so careless in rushing to pay for expensive study tours.

The third change is that people are no longer obsessed with various commercial competitions.

My daughter is good at art, and summer vacation is always the peak season for such competitions. In the past, I was always very enthusiastic about it and would encourage my daughter to participate in the competitions when I saw them.

To be honest, the registration fees for many commercial competitions are not cheap. For example, an international art competition we participated in before, the registration fee for the preliminary round was 480 yuan, and to advance to the finals, we had to go to Europe to compete, and the air tickets, accommodation, and registration fees would cost another 10,000 yuan. If you participate in similar competitions four or five times a year, your wallet will definitely not be able to bear it.

Later I found out that my child’s school actually didn’t recognize the honors of this kind of commercial competition, so it didn’t play any role in the evaluation.I streamlined my daughter's competitions and began to focus more on competitions sponsored by the education department and recommended by the school.

Save where you can and spend where you can,

The wise choice of this generation of middle-class parents

In this way, in line with the general environment of consumption downgrade, I have saved a lot of money on my daughter's education. Looking at the parents around me, they are also using various methods to "reduce costs and increase efficiency" during the summer vacation.

1. Send the child back to his hometown

One of my colleagues sent his 7-year-old son back to his hometown during the summer vacation.Local prices are low, and it is cheaper to attend interest classes and training courses.

A colleague gave me a calculation:

At the same time, the child's grandmother was an English teacher before she retired and can provide direct tutoring. What's more, the child can also go to the morning market and the vegetable market with the elderly and experience the fireworks that are rarely seen in big cities.

But this colleague has a clear idea: when his son reaches senior grade, he will still have to spend his summer vacation in the city. After all, the educational resources here are definitely incomparable to those in his hometown.Children's higher-level needs still require local teachers.。

As for how to save money and raise the baby by then, my colleague said that they would take it one step at a time and they haven’t figured it out yet.

2. Find low-priced courses

I have another colleague who plans to enroll her child in a class to improve his English listening and speaking skills during the summer vacation. To this end, she carefully made a strategy and investigated many relevant institutions on the market.

After some comparison, she gave up the idea of ​​enrolling in an offline training class and instead bought a course package on Pinduoduo at a super low price - a one-on-one online foreign teacher class, which cost an average of more than ten yuan per class, each lasting half an hour.

In fact,Finding courses on Pinduoduo or Xianyu is becoming a new trend among parents.Putting aside the after-sales guarantee and teaching staff, the extremely low price itself is the biggest attraction.

3. Cut off activities that are not strictly necessary

A friend of mine who works as a middle manager in a bank decided to let his son give up cello and basketball this year. The child has been learning these two hobbies for a long time, and every year, training, exams and competitions cost a lot of money. But the child's performance is mediocre and his grades are not outstanding.

After realizing this, my friend finally chose to let go of his things.

This reminds me of the hot search some time ago - "Piano sales plummeted."On the surface, this is a reflection of middle-class parents downgrading their consumption and streamlining their spending.But if you think about it more deeply, this also shows that this generation of parents has become more realistic.People will no longer blindly follow the trend of non-essential activities that are not very useful for children to apply for prestigious schools or for academic advancement and evaluation.

4. Diversified study tour methods

My cousin is a senior executive of a foreign company, and my nephew is studying in an international school and is planning to study abroad in the future. In the past summer vacations, my nephew would go to Europe and the United States to study and participate in some summer camp activities, such as the summer school of Hotchikiss in the United States.

But this year, the high cost of studying abroad dissuaded my cousin's family from going. They changed their plans and chose Musk's online summer camp Synthesis for their nephew.

In fact, it is not just my cousin’s family. Many families have quietly changed their attitude towards study tours. Recently, a media report said, “This year’s study tour market is not as good as last year, especially because there are fewer high-end products, and the main products are mid- and low-end products.”

indeed,This generation of parents is much more rational than in the past. They will no longer spend a lot of money to pay for a cursory study program, but will pay more attention to the quality of the content, whether it is in-depth and hardcore.；People will no longer blindly advocate that the farther the destination is, the better, and that traveling to Europe and the United States is "high-end".

For example, this summer, more affordable places such as Japan and Southeast Asia have become the first choice for overseas parent-child travel.

Compared with customized group tours, more families choose to DIY their own travel strategies. Instead of checking into luxury star-rated hotels, it is also a good idea to search for cost-effective business chain hotels along the subway lines. Instead of hiring a car or taking a taxi to and from attractions, it is also convenient to choose to transfer to other transportation in the city. This way, although it will take more time, the key is to save money.

As a paragraph on the Internet summarizes: "Raising children in the era of consumption downgrade is based on one principle:Focus on effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, and try not to waste money on things you can do yourself.”

Have a good summer vacation,

It has absolutely nothing to do with money.

The summer vacation is about to be halfway through. After the consumption downgrade, my daughter seems to have not been affected by this long vacation, and she still lives a fulfilling life every day.

It is worth mentioning that I have also made a summer challenge list for my daughter. Under our guidance, she will complete the following things:

Such opportunities are generally provided by local communities or volunteer service platforms. The purpose is to allow children to participate in various public welfare practice activities such as helping the elderly, environmental protection, and anti-drug propaganda, and to establish a volunteer spirit of dedication and friendship from an early age.

All aspects of this travel plan, including destination selection, route determination, ticket purchase, security check, transfer, etc., need to be led by the child. Of course, the location is recommended to be in the city, and it is best to travel by subway.

Choose a few museums or science and technology museums to check in. You can write down what you gained from the visit or try to explain what you learned.

In my opinion, learning to communicate with people of different ages and experiences can not only help children improve their social skills, but also enrich their knowledge and is an excellent way to exercise their thinking and eloquence.

Therefore, I encouraged my daughter to try to interview an elder, listen to his past experiences, and learn from his valuable life experience. Of course, the whole process, from selecting the interviewee, clarifying the interview purpose, making an interview outline, to interviewing the person concerned, and forming an interview report, needs to be completed independently by the child.

Take your children into nature and discover fireflies that are rarely seen in cities. You can use resources such as Bilibili to teach your children relevant knowledge in advance:

Most of these activities are free or affordable, but I think they are very valuable. So far, my daughter has completed half of the tasks and gained a lot.

Once upon a time, children’s summer vacation was divided into different levels:

After experiencing and witnessing my own and other families’ “downgraded” summers, I realizedA truly good education does cost money, but that doesn’t matter that much.

In other words, whether consumption is downgraded or not, it can ultimately point children to a path of success. The real decisive factor is not money.

To a certain extent, the downgrade of middle-class consumption is actually an opportunity to return to basics, allowing parents to abandon blind comparisons and unnecessary anxiety, re-examine their original intentions of education, sort out their educational concepts, think about the true meaning of education, and start raising children with ease again.