Insane for the super young.

My kids are 6 and 4. Six year old is in an eight week basketball program on Wednesdays after school. We go to church as family on Sunday. That’s it.

We were doing swimming lessons in the fall, but the schedule didn’t work well for us for spring. We’ll start again this coming fall.

Look, you parents of 8+ year olds, I won’t presume to know what makes sense at those ages, but a kid who is seven and under should not be in that many structured activities PLUS a full day of school. Let your kid just play for god’s sake.

M: private swim lesson
T: dance (1.25 hours)
Sa: dance (3 hours)
Su: ice skating (winter), golf (summer), nothing in fall or spring

Age 7

My kids dislike aftercare so we do activities. Martial arts 2ce a week, 1ce a week music lesson for kid 1 and 1ce a week dance class for kid 2. But we don't do weekend activities besides scouts. My kids are ES and like to play and draw at home. Plus music practice takes time. I really enjoy weekday when no one has activities.

What time are all these kids going to bed? Mine has to be up at 6:40 for school.

Two casual after-school clubs each week
Two days of dance (ballet and jazz)
No weekend activities

DD8

It's a good balance for us. She explicitly asked to have one day a week with no activities at all, and she uses that time to play at home, go to the playground, read, etc. We do family activities on the weekend. She is a strong dancer and foresees doing that for years, but it's balanced by other things.

9 year old:
Monday- sport practice
Tuesday- sport practice
Wednesday- swim lessons
Thursday- piano
Friday- nothing
Saturday- sport game
Sunday- nothing

He wishes he had more...but we have been limiting. In winter, he had basketball on Sundays, which was great. He's my youngest, and his older siblings are similarly scheduled. Everyone has Friday off

If it works for your family and no one is stressed and kids seem happy and healthy then its ok OP.
If you or your spouse arent happy with the driving or resenting the lack of family time, or your kids are exhausted and complaining, then its not ok and something needs to change.

In K my kid was tired after a full day of school so did one activity during the week. She also needed to be in bed by 7/730 which limited activities as well.
Now she is older she does something 2-4 times a week depending on the season.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your poor children. My kid comes homes and plays. Then he does his homework and chores. He does one activity each week- rock climbing. I cannot imagine it is healthy to be on the go all of the time like that.

I have an only child. We have tried just coming home to play but nobody else is around, and building legos or playing outside on his own is fine. But he often has more fun and more social time if I put him in 2/week soccer or a team so he can be around friends.

Same with my only. On the days he is home he usually finds someone in the neighborhood but its not an every day thing. Having activity and built in social time is great. He doesn't want "down" time.

Anonymous wrote:I'm confused by some of these schedules. Don't activities like soccer and other sports have weekly practice or at this age twice weekly practice plus a game? In the sports we have looked at, all the games are on sat-sun and it's at least one game or meet per week for the whole season.

There are many options for sports. My son plays Sunday only flag football. They meet for 2 hours and have practice and game same day. He has also played on soccer teams wirh 3 practices and 2 games per week. He has also taken clinics or training in off season that are only 1x week. Like basketball practices in the summer that sre one hour in the evening.

For younger ages, leagues like i9 are 1x weekly.

11 y/o - swim m/w/f mornings before school
Lacrosse m/w
Scouts - t
Lacrosse game Saturdays, swim meets once a month
Scout campouts - 1 x a month

This is spring

Anonymous wrote:Your poor children. My kid comes homes and plays. Then he does his homework and chores. He does one activity each week- rock climbing. I cannot imagine it is healthy to be on the go all of the time like that.

I have an only child. We have tried just coming home to play but nobody else is around, and building legos or playing outside on his own is fine. But he often has more fun and more social time if I put him in 2/week soccer or a team so he can be around friends.

I'm confused by some of these schedules. Don't activities like soccer and other sports have weekly practice or at this age twice weekly practice plus a game? In the sports we have looked at, all the games are on sat-sun and it's at least one game or meet per week for the whole season.

8 y.o.
Tuesday: music
Saturday: swim and math
Sunday: figure skating

Plus an occasional ASEP class in whatever they want to try that quarter.

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that people think aftercare is less taxing than activities. Depending on the child’s profile it can be much worse

It's not an either/or. One is based on needing a safe place for your child to be when you're working, and one is based on the idea that the activities re adding value to your child's day. You can think that coming home and having choice would be ideal, and still choose aftercare. On the other hand, if your kid is doing after school activities, and you're driving them, then presumably they could spend that time at home for less money and the same impact on your work.

I'll also say that while some of whether aftercare works is your child's profile, some of it is also the aftercare. They vary hugely in quality.

Interesting that people think aftercare is less taxing than activities. Depending on the child’s profile it can be much worse