how do you manage activities for your early elementary kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With rising K, during year she has six hours of language classes on weekends, two hours of swim lessons weekly, and she is in a religious afterschool program twice a week. In the summer, she does a pre-swim team. We take her to art and gymnastics parents night out occasionally, but nothing else. She wants to do dance, but there is no time/budget. We explain that she can swim at an advanced level for her age while her friends who dance don't swim and that if she wanted to dance she would need to stop swimming. I don't know how people fit everything in and have full-time jobs. We had an au pair when she was younger, so we could consider for the driving, but that seems excessive.

Why is your kid in six hours of language? You could cut down to four and have time for dance. Your daughter needs more activities than just swim and cultural classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son wants to do all the things (and would happily have a different activity every day of the week) but I want him to have plenty of downtime / free time. I'm trying to figure out how to balance those things as well as doing some things he loves year round (eg soccer) versus only one or two seasons so there's still time to try other activities, how to work in things I think he needs to do (swim lessons) or things other than sports to give variety (scouts / music)

Tell me about your approach to activities - in general how many things do they have a week (both different activities and sessions total), do you rotate by season, do you let your kid pick them all? Thanks!

Rising 3rd grader: swim 1x/week, piano 1x/week, math tutoring 1x/week, seasonal sport 1-2x/week. We tried everything that the kid asked for at least once: art, dance, chess, basketball, soccer, robotics, etc. Overtime our child dictated which activity he preferred to keep either in favor of another activity or for some more downtime.

[Anonymous]

2 ES aged kids. Right now, each kid will have one religious school class and 1 swim lesson a week. Older kid will probably not take swim lessons after this year. Older kid is also signed up for a fall sport with 1 practice and 1 game a week.

Kids may pick up another short term activity or two, but they will likely be after school at the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With rising K, during year she has six hours of language classes on weekends, two hours of swim lessons weekly, and she is in a religious afterschool program twice a week. In the summer, she does a pre-swim team. We take her to art and gymnastics parents night out occasionally, but nothing else. She wants to do dance, but there is no time/budget. We explain that she can swim at an advanced level for her age while her friends who dance don't swim and that if she wanted to dance she would need to stop swimming. I don't know how people fit everything in and have full-time jobs. We had an au pair when she was younger, so we could consider for the driving, but that seems excessive.

Why is your kid in six hours of language? You could cut down to four and have time for dance. Your daughter needs more activities than just swim and cultural classes.

NP. Some language schools, such as the Japanese language school, are the full day. You can't sign up for less than what they offer.
My child's language school is 2.5 hours but they also get a week's worth of homework which takes up a lot of time.
A lot of parents make the calculation that fluency in a second language is not worth the time. But for me it is a priority that they know my home country's language and so we make the sacrifice.

[Anonymous]

My rising 4th grade DD:

Ice skating - two weekday afternoons (one group lesson and one private) (school-year round)
Rec Soccer - one weekday afternoon practice and one Sunday game (fall and spring)
Theatre - one weekday evening rehearsal, with one or two additional weekend rehearsals closer to performances (school-year round, only play in winter and one in spring)
Piano - one weekday evening lesson (teach comes to our house) (year round including summer)

Her school ends at 3:15; sometimes I pick her up, but if she takes the bus it's only a 15 minute ride. Her lights out is at 9:00/9:15, and she has minimal homework (that continues in 4th grade at her school), so she has plenty of time to chill at home, play with her good friend next door, hang out with her little sister, and read. She loves to read, so is never bored. She usually does her piano practicing in the morning before school.

I WFH and have flexibility to drive her. We also carpool. Everything is also close by. Also helpful is the fact that my younger child is only 4, and during the week is at a fulltime preschool/daycare. In other words, I'm only dealing with weekday activities for one child. (My younger child does a 45 minute dance class Saturday morning and a 30 minute swim lesson Sunday morning.)

We're all happy; I'm not stressed. DD loves all the activities (well, maybe except piano, which she tolerates .) It works for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With rising K, during year she has six hours of language classes on weekends, two hours of swim lessons weekly, and she is in a religious afterschool program twice a week. In the summer, she does a pre-swim team. We take her to art and gymnastics parents night out occasionally, but nothing else. She wants to do dance, but there is no time/budget. We explain that she can swim at an advanced level for her age while her friends who dance don't swim and that if she wanted to dance she would need to stop swimming. I don't know how people fit everything in and have full-time jobs. We had an au pair when she was younger, so we could consider for the driving, but that seems excessive.

Why is your kid in six hours of language? You could cut down to four and have time for dance. Your daughter needs more activities than just swim and cultural classes.

Because we have made the calculation that supporting trilingualism is our core goal until adolescence (some of this six hours is a music class) for family reasons. We prioritize swimming because it is a group sport that encourages body positivity, and she is a talented swimmer for her age, so she likes to do it, sometimes she cries when she has to leave the pool.

I was in dance as a kid and there is a lot of focus on having the right body type which encourages eating disorders in girls. Kid has also been in a public immersion school since 3 (DC), so she has a very full life of activities, I feel like you have to pick what's important as a family. If it's eating together for dinner, that cuts down on your ability for events during the week, if it's language, those are usually weekend day programs. If it's religious observance, that can knock out one or more days of the weekend. For us, it's dinner together and an early bedtime on school nights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rising 2nd grader will do this fall: gymnastics, dance, ice skating, piano, singing
Rising K will do this fall: swim, dance, gymnastics, basketball

Even if they have a class from 4-5pm after school, then they still have tons of time before bed that's down time. But I don't really worry about that. I was a kid who was on the go all the time, and both thrived that way, and also felt like I had tons of time to draw and read and dance around the living room. Do whatever works for your family. I think it's great for kids to try everything that piques their interest when they're little.

How do you get them to the 4 pm activity? Our ES lets out at 3:50 and the bus doesn't come until 4:30 most days and both parents work n

DP. Our school gets out at 3:10pm, she's off the bus by 3:20pm, so 4pm is doable. We both work full time, but stagger schedules to make it work. Also lots of working at DD's activity for me.