How many activities and how old

[Anonymous]

My 8 year old has dance, a team sport, karate, and CCD. She also does various classes through aftercare every quarter, running, art, theater, etc. I’m not sure I count those as she would be in aftercare whether she took those classes or not.

My 4 year old doesn’t do any regular activities, just swim lessons in the summer. I plan to have him try soccer this fall and tball in the spring to see if he likes either one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many kid “extracurricular” activities does your kid do? Age? How much is too much? I’m talking soccer, t-ball, piano, gymnastics, cheer, swimming, karate, kumon, Sunday school, lego league, drama etc.

It feels like an arms race in our community to max out on extracurricular starting in (or before) preschool. On one hand I like the enrichment (and since it’s DCUM I’ll admit thinking about college very early) but how much is too much and how much is just right?

OP, what extracurriculars are your children doing that you think have any relationship to college?

[Anonymous]

7 yo has weekly soccer, tennis, musical instrument and a STEM extracurricular. he seems fine with that.

[Anonymous]

4- tumbling class, swim class
7- soccer on school team, gymnastics, swimming, piano
9 - church choir, parkour (while his sister is at gymnastics), violin, CCD, swimming, soccer
10- swimming, CCD, piano

It sounds like a lot, but they only swim for 45 minutes twice a week after dinner. Piano is 15 minutes a night plus a 30 minute lesson once a week. Church choir is probably the biggest commitment, but it’s social and DS loves it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, why can't people figure out it's different for every kid? Some kids have boundless energy and are extroverts and can go from 7am to 8pm without a problem, while other kids need to "recover" from school and only want one activity at once.

There's no set answer.

This. I once knew a dad who had his 3yo in three back to back Saturday activities--when I expressed my surprise, he said his kid pretty much has boundless energy, and so the activities were good outlets for him. Each kid is different.

+2

My 6-year-old K kid has no activities (oh, Girl Scouts twice a month), and I didn't really have any either... like almost none even in Jr. High and HS. But I could have benefited TREMENDOUSLY from more structured activities d/t my (then undiagnosed) ADHD. My kid, although a fellow extrovert, doesn't seem to be the same way at all.

[Anonymous]

OP - What works for your family schedule? The adults need rest, recovery time from the work week. Children's leisure activities are not as much of a priority. They should never be. Adults have responsibilities to keep the family afloat. That's pressure. If your family as a whole can manage, and would enjoy Junior playing T-ball, and the T-ball schedule/commitment is manageable - do it

Always prioritize the sanity of the family

[Anonymous]

One instrument and one sport

14 yrs old

Began this routine in 5th grade

[Anonymous]

Two one-hour sports classes per week for my six year old (like a tennis class, rec basketball)

avg 9 hours a week of ballet for my 11 year old daughter (this is her passion) plus a weekly in home instrument lesson

3 practices and a game per week for my 9 year old son, who is juggling two sports this season

[Anonymous]

Mine goes to full day preschool. At school she does ballet and spanish because it's offered there for an extra fee.

Outside of school, she does swim lessons. Hopefully she can stop that after this spring and in the fall we can start playing more fun outdoor sports.

She's 4.5, will start K in the fall.

[Anonymous]

Formal activities?

3yo - Nothing but preschool.

6yo - Gymnastics 1/week, Swimming 1/week, softball 2/week (1 prac, 1 game, but usually at least one rained out)

8yo - OT 1/week, basketball 1/week, swimming 1/week, baseball 2/week (as above)

We have a lot of grandparent help shuffling the kids around and they're not in daycare. We'd cut back otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Every structured activity/program my kids do out of the house:

4 year old: preschool (3k) 2 mornings per week, swimming lessons one evening per week
2 year old: toddler tumbling/gymnastics class 1 morning per week while 4 year old is at preschool
Both 2 year old and 4 year old together: moms club playgroup 1 morning per week

[Anonymous]

I think this also varies widely if parent(s) WAH/WOH/SAH. DH and I both WOH so we don't even pick our kids up until 5:30pm so there's no weeknight activities at all. We thought about t-ball that has 1 weeknight practice/week and decided against it this year.

Kids are 4 and 2.5YO and they do 1 activity a week. We've done gymnastics and we just finished up soccer that was also at a play place so they'd play soccer for an hour and then play in the bounce houses for another hour. Then basketball starts up in a few weeks. We also usually go to the pool as a family on Sundays so I guess that also counts as an activity?

[Anonymous]

6 year old DS has one seasonal sport, Cub Scouts about once a week, one after school enrichment, and swimming. He chooses the Cub Scout events he wants to do and chooses pretty much all of them. He doesn’t have to do after school enrichment but normally says yes.

[Anonymous]

7 year old- baseball (2x a week), piano (1x) week
4 year old- dance (1x a week), soccer (1x), 5 day morning preschool
2 year old- little gym (1x a week)

[Anonymous]

My 11 year old is in piano, soccer (3x per week) and swim team (2-3x per week).

This was the first time we have tried year round swim in addition to soccer. It was too much for him, he needs more down time with neighbor friends.

He loves his summer swim team, but we will drop swim next school year and focus on the other activity only.