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? |
Gymnastics and T-ball for DS age 4. Will be gymnastics and swim in the summer. So, 2. |
Oh- and not thinking at all about college! That’s weird! |
We did daycare from 6 months until K. My kid had pretty severe asthma triggered by both really hot and really cold air. So we took a class at Gymboree that we usually skipped so that we could do the free open gym on days when the playground wasn’t an option. We did that until he turned 2 and we moved and the new Gymboree didn’t have it. If it hadn’t been for daycare we wouldn’t have done it.
We then switched to a pool membership, indoor and outdoor, but didn’t do lessons. He picked up swimming pretty quickly without it. The year before K we added a soccer team (1 practice and game combined per week) in the fall and spring and a gymnastics class in the winter. |
6 per week 8 years old |
Five a week for a 2.5 yr old but she isn’t in preschool yet. |
Sorry, that should have said that if it hadn’t been for asthma we wouldn’t have done Gymboree. |
3 yewsr old dd. Preschool full time. Gymnastics 1 day a week. We will do pool in summer. I'm purposefully limiting activities since she has a full day already and needs to run around free play and we like to go explore nature etc on weekends. She'll probably do an art class starting late fall once day a week. |
7 first grade
0-1 We did an 8 week soccer skills class in the fall, now we're taking a break. He doesn't enjoy afterschool activities much. We will be at the pool most days this summer and will probably do pump it up type places 1-2 days per week plus the park. |
Kindergarten - just one (art on Saturday morning).
DS doesn't get home until 4:30 during the week and is just too tired to go back out for an activity/practice. He zones out and is pretty unwilling to cooperate. 3 year old - two activities/week, just to get us out of the house. |
9 yo: in the summer, swim team, which is practice 5x per week (plus meets) while it lasts. The rest of the year, he has an activity 2-3 days per week (swim, gymnastics, and something like chess club).
5 yo: attends preschool 3x per week and gymnastics once weekly. Will try summer swim team this year, too. My first child did no extracurricular while in preschool or K. |
6yo: basketball and skiing in winter, soccer and tennis in fall and spring. Swim in summer. One after-school enrichment class per semester -engineering/Tinkering class right now. Sports are on weekends. Lots of free time after school for free play is important to him/us.
4yo: in school 9-3. Ballet on a weekend morning. |
Age 4 - private swim lessons 1 evening a week, soccer with school friends 1 evening a week.
Age 2.5 - no organized classes for spring. May do private swim this summer. Just finished a Saturday am soccer class for 2-4yr olds he took with his brother. |
These are my kids and I am not thinking about college at all. Both kids are in daycare/preschool full time. My older child would love nothing more than to be 6 so he could be on a Lego robotics team. He would stay indoors building all day every day if we let him, so we gently encourage some outdoors physical activity that he enjoys. We also go to the pool after school weather and season permitting or do a family walk around the block after dinner. If you ask him if he wants to go to the park / playground / for a bike ride he will always say no, so we nudge him to move. Our younger one always wants to be outside and we will have him in a sport 1-2x a week starting in the fall for the opposite reason - to channel his energy. |
Pls tell me you’re joking... |