What does your kid do between coming back from school and going to bed?

[Anonymous]

Well, apart from snack, dinner, brushing teeth.
My kids (lower elementary) come home and waste time. I am not super ambitious but I want them to do at least 15 minutes of activity book exercise, practice music (they are taking a musical instrument lesson once a week) for at least 15 minutes, read a book for at least 15 minutes. Once they are done with snacks and some outdoor playing, there are 3 hours before going to bed and nothing productive happens in those 3 hours. We used to read a book before going to bed but that has stopped after starting school this year. They are overly stimulated for some reason. No ADHD etc.

[Anonymous]

Play with friends
Help cook dinner
Walk with the family/dog
Shoot hoops outside
Ride bikes
Play a card or board game

[Anonymous]

Snack, dinner, iPad & chill*, pjs, brush teeth, read 20 min.

*if no evening activity

[Anonymous]

Our kids have got either a sports, music, art, or other extracurricular after school most days. One also enjoys downtime at home so has a couple days off to just be home and chill (and will read, do homework, play with toys, practice an instrument, solve a rubik's cube or other puzzle, etc... in addition to some bonus screentime) while the other loves to have as many activities as possible. So we just adjust their extracurricular enrollments accordingly.

[Anonymous]

Curious why you stopped reading to them? We read to each of our kids through middle school. Nice to have the 15 min at the end of the eve with then.

[Anonymous]

Activities 2x a week for 45 minutes (but takes 1.5 hours including travel time and changing). Other than that, just free play, mostly outside if weather permits. Why overload them with more academics after a full school day?

[Anonymous]

DS is in 5th grade. He gets weekly homework and weekly chores. He does 15 min of homework a day, 20 min of reading, and 1-2 chores. So generally his days look like this

M- Come home at 330. 30 min electronics or whatever he wants. Then he has an "off day" and plays online with his friends from school (Roblox generally), does a board game with us, does a puzzle with me, shoots hoops or plays soccer with us or neighborhood kids, or just relaxes.

Tues/Thurs. After school he either goes to his friend's house or his friend comes here. They do a little homework and then hangout. Have a mini dinner/snack and then go to flag football practice from 5-7. Whichever house they weren't at does the pick up from practice. Come home, have a second mini dinner/snack depending on how hungry he is. Plays with dog and hangs out with us.

Wed/Fri - Comes home from school and has 30 min to do what he wants. Sometimes he ends up hanging out with neighborhood kids and then the rest of the night goes unscheduled as he will play with them til 5-530 and then he goes to a kids martial arts class from 545-630. Comes home and has dinner.

[Anonymous]

Classes and sports.

Then homework for those class.

[Anonymous]

Friends and sports.

[Anonymous]

Computer game, play outside, maybe a family game, read before bed… including bus ride, they were just gone for more than 8 hours… I am most concerned about keeping them healthy and well rested to make the most out of those school hours.

[Anonymous]

What do you mean by overstimulated? Are you sure they don’t need more activity? Sign them up for things.

Kid 1: low energy and spends a significant amount of time online and/or talking to friends. Sometimes there’s a season of rec sports or some bike rides

Kid 2: frequent practices, jogging, playing outside,some time online but is rarely tired despite what I see as excessive exercise.

[Anonymous]

After school activities, play dates.

[Anonymous]

We have activities almost every night. And school doesn't get out until til 415. So most nights are a mad rush to eat and get ready and get back out the door. On rare days with no activities my son plays outside or in his playroom, and we spend more time together cooking dinner. We don't allow any screens during the week.

[Anonymous]

My kid is home at 5 when there are no activities. She chills, plays with her sister. Dinner is at 6. We do 15 min of homework (2nd grade) after dinner. Dinner is long, 40 min or so and we talk a lot. Music practice some days but thats usually in the am, we play a board game or cards or a dance party. Sometimes we all clean up if the house is reqlly messy from toys everywhere. She reads to herself for 20 min once in PJs around 8 pm. Or i read to her and her sister together.