what does your late elementary school/6th grader do after school?
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Anonymous
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DD plays travel soccer and an instrument. She always had this schedule from probably age 7 (rec and travel because she requested). She has 1 day during the week now that she has no activities and that's just fine by us. However, her friends don't do sports. When my kids aren't at activities during the week and even sitting home on weekends, all they do is watch TV/Youtube/be online. They do not go play outside mostly because the other kids are also at activities/online at home.
Just curious, if your kids don't do anything afterschool, how do they entertain themselves other than being online? Do they need a lot of time spent on homework? Just curious - I don't get the sense my kid is overscheduled because I feel that she wouldn't be better off just being online but just wondering if kids who don't do anything afterschool do something more than that? |
Anonymous
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Some parents who are quick to guilt people about over scheduling have their own stuff- they have their kids at aftercare until 6 pm for years or let their kids have unlimited access to YouTube or social media. So I don’t take their criticisms seriously and I don’t tell almost anyone my DD’s schedule or the time-consuming activities she does.
Anyway, my objectively busy kid seems to really enjoy her downtime up to a certain point. She does crafts, reads a ton, and draws. That’s what most of her friends who do a lot of activities do. In some ways I think it’s easier to fill time with fun activities vs. screens when you don’t have much free time because there’s anticipation and planning involved with how to spend that time. I think middle school is a different beast and keeping kids offline becomes way more important. |
Anonymous
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My son loves basketball. He plays in our driveway alone, with his brother or with friends. He also rides his bike to his friend’s house. He practices his instrument, cooks and makes huge messes in the kitchen. I make my kids do some chores. It usually takes them 10 min.
He still manages to be on some sort of screen for hours. He plays all sorts of games online with friends, fort nite, basketball Y2K 24? while talking to groups of friends on FaceTime. I would rather kids hang out in person than be on a screen so I host often. |
Anonymous
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My son builds models of houses and draws comic books. He also protests doing homework for about 30 minutes and then takes 10 minutes to actually do it.
Sometimes he will run around with neighborhood kids, but they are all busy a lot. |
Anonymous
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My 5th grader does the same, protests homework for 30 minutes and then finishes it in 15 minutes, ha!
She has 2 weeknights when she's not in activities, and that time is spent equally on homework and playing with neighborhood friends. During the school year, our weekday screen time is very rare. Perhaps on a night when all homework is done for the week and we have a little free time before bed, she'll watch a 30 minute show or CNN 10. We do movie night every Friday night and kids get quite a bit of screentime on Saturday and Sunday mornings though (so we can move a little slower in getting breakfast ready, etc.) |
Anonymous
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Ugh this question. You can't conceive of a way a child can fill their time that isn't 1) travel sports or 2) electronics. Really?
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Anonymous
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They come home around 1 hour after school closes because they are usually in some school club with their friends. They come home, give me their lunch box and papers to sign/read, wash up, change clothes, eat a hot snack. Sit down to do homework, pack their school bags for the next day and put it near the door.
Depending on the day they may have some tutor/coach come to our home to teach (2 days a week they have tutors and 1 day they have a group class for their team that I host). After that, they play outdoors if it is a nice day, shoot hoops, soccer or ride their bikes around the neighborhood. If it is winter, they go on the treadmill for 40 minutes. Bath, dinner at 7 pm. 2 hours of free time to watch documentaries, films, read, hang out with the family etc. Lights out at 9:00 pm. Laptop, phone are charged downstairs. Video games is only allowed on Saturday for 2 hours or when friends come over. My kids do not have smartphones yet. They play basketball, swim on the weekends. We are not very sports focussed family and sports is played for recreational purposes mainly. Attend parties, go for movies etc with friends. Unfortunately, my kids do not have time to do many chores because their day is pretty jam packed. I make their beds, do their laundry etc etc. |
Anonymous
| We're just plain lucky to live in a neighborhood of kids. Not terribly busy, who play out all the time, just like I did. |
Anonymous
That is wonderful! |
Anonymous
I know! I know it's few and far between, we're so thankful for this. |
Anonymous
That’s kind of weird |
Anonymous
| She might go ride her bike, or go to the nearby park and see who's around, or read, do crafting, design her own stationery, write stories, play with her little brother, bake, play piano, etc. |
Anonymous
#blessed |
Anonymous
+1 Also, why do you care how other people's kids spend their time? Is this such a burning question? |