When the school day gets longer (K) and extra-currics

[Anonymous]

DD starts K this fall, and her day will go from 9-12 to 8-3. Our policy on extra-curriculars has been to let her choose two, but I'm worried she'll be too tired by the end of the week to be having a positive experience in school. But the two she's chosen are regulars, and I also don't want to take her away from parts of her routine when she's already changing schools - seems like the other things should stay as consistent as possible. Frankly, I'd also like to put her in an additional program the school offers. How long did it take your child to acclimate? Any advice on changing activity levels? We just have a kid who wants to do everything, and I think that's great as long as it doesn't detract from school.

Tell me I'm overthinking this? Or not. DH doesn't even want to engage on the topic. TIA

[Anonymous]

I think you're overthinking this. If your child ends up cranky and tired, then cut back. Kindergarten is not that tough. The key is that the child needs to be in bed at 8:00 p.m. if the school day starts at 8:00 a.m. If she can accomplish that with her activities, then don't fix what ain't broken.

[Anonymous]

When we met the kindergarten teacher, she suggested no extracurricular activities for the fall because kids are very tired after their full day of school. Even if they had already been used to full day day care. The change can be exhausting in itself.

Having said that, you know your kid better than anyone. I was going to take our teacher's advice and not enroll my son in anything. But he's OBSESSED with swimming this summer and wants to continue. We're keeping weekend swim lessons and may add another day of it later on.

[Anonymous]

Can you do the extracurriculars on the weekends, and not during the week? My DD is 4.5 and only in JK bow (misses age cutoff so will be starting kindergarten in the Fall of '13), but she has been doing ballet (Saturdays) and swimming (Sundays) for a year now. She goes to daycare 9-6 Mondays through Fridays, which is why I did not schedule any extra-curriculars during the week b/c I had the same concerns as you: did not want to overschedule her. But she is perfectly capable of 45 mins of ballet on Sat. and then 45 mins of swimming on Sun., and as I mentioned, we have been doing this for a year now, since she was about 3.5. Could you set up yoru DD's extra-curriculars this way? (?)

[Anonymous]

Sorry (see 11:44 post above); My DD is in JK NOW. . .not JK BOW. SHEESH.

[Anonymous]

Ive been through K with three kids and honestly, You're over thinking it.

[Anonymous]

I had similar concerns and I do think they are warranted. My son tried after-school soccer in the fall in kindergarten and was honestly just exhausted. He did do one day of a school-based after-school activity, and seemed to keep up his energy okay, but he really wanted it to only be one day a week. If you find your kid is like this, you could try to keep the activities on weekends.

[Anonymous]

DD loved swim also. We are cutting back. Loves soccer so fall and spring soccer and maybe a few months of gymnastics in between. When summer comes again it will be at the pool I feel pretty certain. Hate to give up dance but just too much for all of us this year.

[Anonymous]

My DD is starting K and doing aftercare this year. Her day last year was just as long but pre-K is different than K. I know she will be exhausted. She is doing 1 class on the weekends and that's it for K. Honestly, I don't think I could get her to a class in the evenings even if she could do it.

[Anonymous]

We found our K DS was exhausted up until Thanksgiving. We did no activities during the week throughout the fall, only weekend activities. This worked out really well especially since they start giving homework in October which adds to your nightly schedule. We signed him up for afterschool clubs after Christmas of his Kindergarten year and that worked out fine. We also reduced his activities in First grade during the fall - one sport one night during the week. Depends on your child but ours needs downtime and plenty of rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We found our K DS was exhausted up until Thanksgiving. We did no activities during the week throughout the fall, only weekend activities. This worked out really well especially since they start giving homework in October which adds to your nightly schedule. We signed him up for afterschool clubs after Christmas of his Kindergarten year and that worked out fine. We also reduced his activities in First grade during the fall - one sport one night during the week. Depends on your child but ours needs downtime and plenty of rest.

This.

Our DS last year (in K) was pretty tired and didn't want to do anything after school until the spring, and even then he got a bit burnt out by the end of the school year as he had afterschool activities 2-3 times/week.

But you know your kid better than anyone...

[Anonymous]

Oh dear! I signed my kindergartener up for drama, soccer, chess and yoga! And also would like him to continue with violin, swimming and French, which he was already doing when we were living in Belgium last school,year.
Maybe I need to rethink

[Anonymous]

We rotated the activities. DD loves ballet, but we told DD that if she wanted to play soccer too, that she would have to take ballet in the winter so she could do soccer this fall.