Bounce! dedicates time to homeschoolers
The financial strain for homeschooling parents makes it difficult to find fun activities for their children. The additional costs of supplies, textbooks and music lessons can be a burden, especially with one fewer paycheck than conventional, dual-income families.
To combat this, Bounce! Trampoline Sports in Poughkeepsie is offering specific jump times designed for homeschooled students and parents.
Due to the atypical routine for homeschoolers, it is not always easy to find affordable activities during the day. Catering to these schedules outside of normal business hours has attracted the attention of many parents. However, managing partner Bruce Katz pointed out that Bounce! cannot take credit for the idea.
“Somebody came to us and said, ‘I can’t come during your regular hours and there is a lot of other parents that are homeschooling. It would be a nice break-up activity during the day.’ We didn’t think of it on our own. It’s always nice when that happens and it works,” he recalled.
After deciding to do a trial run once per month, about 40 kids showed up to jump. Realizing that not all parents can bring their children at a certain time and day, it was expanded to a Monday and Friday in the middle of each month. Now in its third month, Bounce! sees a steady turnout, anywhere between 15 and 50 homeschooled kids on a given afternoon.
Katz notices that many children play together at the trampoline center and most likely meet for other activities outside of Bounce! “I can tell by the reaction and interaction between the kids that a lot of them know each other,” he said.
Emily DiPalma is a frequent visitor to Bounce! because of the discounts offered during the homeschool time slots. Watching over four children of her own and two others as they jumped into a giant foam pit, DiPalma recognized the opportunity for her kids to let off steam, especially during the winter months. “They feel like they are unsupervised, but they really are, and they get a lot of their energy out,” she said.
Because of the educational costs for homeschool parents, she looks for cheaper options in the area that her kids can do for recreation. “The budget for a homeschool family is not great. You are already working on one less income … the more places we can go to that are homeschool-friendly, the better,” DiPalma added.
Now open for four years, Bounce! also offers dedicated times for toddlers, special needs kids and college students. Each event is discounted, and parents can jump for free with their children. “If we can help these kids out and do a little extra business at the same time,” Katz said, “it’s good for everybody.”
