How much would you pay to skip around New York City? How about to play with play dough, finger paint, have nap time and play pretend for three hours a week for a month?

No, I’m not talking about activities for 5 year olds. These are real, adult programs (a skipping club and adult preschool, to be exact) costing anywhere from $20-$1,500 in Brooklyn, N.Y. Mind you, skipping around on your own is completely free, as is napping, and finger paint and play dough probably only cost about $5 each.

But Michelle Joni has somehow managed to turn this (and more) into a business. On her website, Joni says that she has “nearly half a degree in early childhood education” and wanted to be a preschool teacher until she was “told that (her) butt can’t show … at all.”

So thank goodness she now has the liberty to show her butt in adult preschool.

Joni pretty much seems like a modern-day hippie — who found a way to make a whole lot of money from her hippie-ness.

I just want to know where these 20- and 30-somethings are getting money to spend on skipping and preschool. And why in the world are people willing to spend money on adult preschool in the first place?

In a video about the program on www.Time.com, one of the students enrolled in the class is an author and mom and shares about her experience. The author says that she has two kids, ages 4 and 7, and that doing adult preschool “reminds (her) of what it must be like to be a child” and helps her be a better parent.

What I can’t seem to wrap my mind around in her statement is that playing with other adults reminds her what it is like to be a child more than playing with her own kids does. What better way is there to be a better parent than to devote those three evening hours a week to time with her kids?

Maybe if I was rich and living in NYC and bored with my job and life, I’d have a different opinion about Joni’s programs. But I can think of so many things I would rather spend money on than skipping around New York and having juvenile story time with other adults.

I also think it’s just sad that people have to pay to schedule time to enjoy themselves into their days. I imagine the kind of people who enroll in Joni’s programs are either workaholics who need a forced brain break or hippies like herself.

Now, if skipping is your ideal workout and play dough is your favorite form of entertainment, then maybe you should check these recreational activities out. But I hope you have some money to spare.

And who knows — if I don’t have a job within the next couple of months, maybe I’ll just become a professional skipper. Or play dough sculptor. The options are endless.