Number of extracurricular activities for ES kids

[Anonymous]

Our kids do four and five extracurriculars. We ARE letting "kids be kids" - kids should try everything that interests them IMO. Dh and I also work full time, and have a nanny. The nanny takes them to after-school activities.

Some kids can only handle doing one activity at a time. Some parents can only afford or handle having their kid do one. Different things work for different families - do what works for yours.

[Anonymous]

Mine did sports year around and math olympiad.

[Anonymous]

My kids (2nd and K) do 3 sports for a total of 5 days of activities per week (not after care)… I think it’s a lot

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids do 3-4 activities per week. We found that all of their friends were doing things. If we didn't sign up, there was no one to play with during down time. But it is a bit of a circle -- you do the activities to meet people, make friends and stay busy. But then you really have to keep doing them because all of your friends are at basketball or swimming or wherever.

I think this is something to consider. We have 2 kids who do 1-2 activities at any given time but we also have a ton of kids on our block who are always outside. So they have a ton of social interaction outside our door and they often complain about having to stop whatever they are doing outside to go to structured activities. Even in the summer, they always have neighbors to hang out with at the pool so they don't want to do swim team because it takes them away from their friends. If we didn't have other kids around all the time, I would think about signing them up for more.

[Anonymous]

DD6 does dance and soccer. Soccer is seasonal, fall and spring, one day a week (we do a program where practice and game are the same day). For dance, she does 4 classes - 2 each night 2x a week. I can't imagine doing anymore than what we do.

That being said, many girls her age spend a lot more time at dance. I know several that do 8+ hours a week of dance, which is too much in my mind, but to each their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids do 3-4 activities per week. We found that all of their friends were doing things. If we didn't sign up, there was no one to play with during down time. But it is a bit of a circle -- you do the activities to meet people, make friends and stay busy. But then you really have to keep doing them because all of your friends are at basketball or swimming or wherever.

I think this is something to consider. We have 2 kids who do 1-2 activities at any given time but we also have a ton of kids on our block who are always outside. So they have a ton of social interaction outside our door and they often complain about having to stop whatever they are doing outside to go to structured activities. Even in the summer, they always have neighbors to hang out with at the pool so they don't want to do swim team because it takes them away from their friends. If we didn't have other kids around all the time, I would think about signing them up for more.

We have not done any extra curriculars during the week (1 hour sports on the weekends) so far this year because we did a lot of playground time and outdoor play time but with it getting dark so early I’m putting both kids in something at least one afternoon a week for more activity during the week. I really wish they had more gym/recess time in MCPS!

[Anonymous]

My 3rd grader did 2 activities (3 days/week after school, no weekend games). It ended up only being about half the semester, so still plenty of down time. Next semester she's in two activities (just 2 days/week, still no weekends).

My pre-Ker does swim lessons and that's it.

[Anonymous]

Depends on the age and the kid.

In lower elementary, my kid would do an after school program at school and one sport per season. At some point, we added scouts.

My middle kid wanted to anything and everything starting at age 6. He did art club at school, asked to play piano, wanted to play baseball with our neighbor, join chess club, etc.

In upper elementary, my kids started doing an academic extracurricular- odyssey of the mind or science Olympiad.

While it may sound like a lot, one activity per day isn’t that much. We are a low screen family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on the age and the kid.

In lower elementary, my kid would do an after school program at school and one sport per season. At some point, we added scouts.

My middle kid wanted to anything and everything starting at age 6. He did art club at school, asked to play piano, wanted to play baseball with our neighbor, join chess club, etc.

In upper elementary, my kids started doing an academic extracurricular- odyssey of the mind or science Olympiad.

While it may sound like a lot, one activity per day isn’t that much. We are a low screen family.

When my kids are home, they are begging for screens. We have them in lots of fun activities to keep them in shape and learning fun skills.

[Anonymous]

I really wanted to only have my kids in one activity and let them play with neighbors the rest of the time. It turned out that all the neighbors had one activity after another every free second so there was never anyone to play with.

[Anonymous]

Kindergarten kids should not do a sport. Its not even a sport at that age. It is organized chaos. 5 year olds and 6 year olds should just play. Also ES kids should not be doing travel sports of any kind. Your group of kids are NOT so talented that you need to travel to find competition worthy of their skills.

[Anonymous]

We did soccer once a week and will do ice skating on weekends. Possibly start music lessons. K kid. Lots of okay and downtime and limited screens here. She plays with her toddler sister and legos etc when home.

[Anonymous]

Its not a competition. We never paid for academic enrichment but got workbooks and did it ourselves. We always did 2-4 activities, some a few days a week.

[Anonymous]

K kid has done one EC activity at a time (gymnastics, swimming, and will try b-ball in winter and soccer in spring). Most are Saturday mornings. Swimming was weekday afternoons, but we were at the pool every day anyway. I don’t have the money or time or desire to do more than that. There is music, dance, woodworking, gardening, cooking, and languages at (private) school. We go to museums and libraries and parks, on hikes and bike rides, on trips, etc.

[Anonymous]

We have our 8 yr old in a physical sport/activity every day after school. He has a lot of energy! He needs it.