Theater rehearsal, chorus, gymnastics, piano and squash. She also wants to take dance and have a play date every day but it’s already too busy.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t quite get why kids have to do so many activities. Most kids are not going to be professional soccer players, swimmers, gymnasts..etc our kids have a really long school day, shouldn’t they just get to come home and relax? Hang out with kids in the neighborhood and friends? Aren’t we just stressing ourselves out and our kids by signing them up for so many activities? I mean what’s the point? Or are we doing this for college applications? Our kids need unscheduled free time to decompress and be creative. Just my two cents..

None of what you’ve mentioned has anything to do with why our kid plays a sport, instrument, or does Scouts. There are lots of good qualities kids develop by playing a sport, or by learning a musical instrument, for example—teamwork, self-discipline, etc.

Piano lessons (1x/week), taekwando (1x/week), cub scouts (low key pack, 1x /month) , maybe soccer if he wants to

Anonymous wrote:I don’t quite get why kids have to do so many activities. Most kids are not going to be professional soccer players, swimmers, gymnasts..etc our kids have a really long school day, shouldn’t they just get to come home and relax? Hang out with kids in the neighborhood and friends? Aren’t we just stressing ourselves out and our kids by signing them up for so many activities? I mean what’s the point? Or are we doing this for college applications? Our kids need unscheduled free time to decompress and be creative. Just my two cents..

The only thing my child is required to do is swim lessons, that is a basic life skill. We ask him if he wants to do the after school activities and read them off. Most of the time he says yes and chooses one. Some sessions he does not. We ask him if he wants to play a sport and he says yes. We ask him if he wants to do Cub Scouts and he says yes.

He does say no, he only likes doing tennis when there is no baseball or basketball. He doesn’t have to do every Cub Scout activity but he asks to do most of them.

School requires sitting still and behaving for most of the day. He is a typical 7 year old with all the energy that comes with being 7. The activities allow him to burn off the energy and socialize with other kids.

He has 2-3 days free after school and most of the weekend.

His schedule is no different then mine was when I was his age. I liked being involved in different things. I still play tennis and softball. I love hiking and camping (some of which I did in Girl Scouts).

Each kid is different. I don’t judge parents who don’t enroll their kids in activities and I would ask that people respect the choices that we make.

In second grade, my kid did

Cub scouts -- 2 afterschool meetings, 1 evening Pack meeting, and maybe 1 weekend activity each month

One sport a season -- 1 practice on a week day afternoon, and 1 Saturday game a week

Cubs, and sport practice were at school, so on those days the person picking him up would stay on the playground for 1/2 an hour or so until the activity started. He also had a older sibling who did activities at school, and so there were some days when they stayed until the other kid's activity was done.

I don’t quite get why kids have to do so many activities. Most kids are not going to be professional soccer players, swimmers, gymnasts..etc our kids have a really long school day, shouldn’t they just get to come home and relax? Hang out with kids in the neighborhood and friends? Aren’t we just stressing ourselves out and our kids by signing them up for so many activities? I mean what’s the point? Or are we doing this for college applications? Our kids need unscheduled free time to decompress and be creative. Just my two cents..

flag football, swim mechanics one day a week, instrument lesson and practice.

Soccer 2x/wk
violin 1x/wk
girl scouts 2x/month

Anonymous wrote:I have a rising second grader as well. So far she doesn't do any activities, other than a weekly swim lesson this summer, because I can't get her to afterschool activities. How do you manage that? Are you able to find afterschool sitters?

We’ve been lucky that practices have been at 6 or 7 and I can pick her up at SACC and easily makes those. The 5:00 ones are really hard. My older child had that time a lot once. DD does soccer, basketball then soccer again in the spring. We will fill out the teammate request forms to hopefully be placed with a friend for carpooling. You can still do that in early elementary school for many rec team. She will likely also take a hip hop class if friends sign up and she wants to join them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a rising second grader as well. So far she doesn't do any activities, other than a weekly swim lesson this summer, because I can't get her to afterschool activities. How do you manage that? Are you able to find afterschool sitters?

We are lucky and have schedules that allow me to be home after school. I have some friends who have college kids who pick up their kids and take them to activities. It sounds like it is hit and miss on a given year because college students are college students and some are more responsible then others. I have heard people say check on Care.com for someone who is willing to watch your kids, like a half time Nanny. But that assumes you can afford hiring someone.

I will say that our ES has a variety of clubs that met after school that she might be interested in. Kids go from the classroom to the activity and then return to aftercare. DSs sports practices and Den meetings start around 5:30 or 6:30 so that might be workable. If you sign her up for something yo might be able to ask for her to be on a team that has practice after a specific time. I know some kids switch teams because of scheduling conflicts.

For us, a few activities are held in aftercare. For gymnastics 2x/week, a babysitter takes her one day, and I take her around 5pm on my telework day. Girl scouts is every other week and usually my husband can take her (and Girl scouts is a short walk from our house, so makes it easy).

Anonymous wrote:I have a rising second grader as well. So far she doesn't do any activities, other than a weekly swim lesson this summer, because I can't get her to afterschool activities. How do you manage that? Are you able to find afterschool sitters?

We are lucky and have schedules that allow me to be home after school. I have some friends who have college kids who pick up their kids and take them to activities. It sounds like it is hit and miss on a given year because college students are college students and some are more responsible then others. I have heard people say check on Care.com for someone who is willing to watch your kids, like a half time Nanny. But that assumes you can afford hiring someone.

I will say that our ES has a variety of clubs that met after school that she might be interested in. Kids go from the classroom to the activity and then return to aftercare. DSs sports practices and Den meetings start around 5:30 or 6:30 so that might be workable. If you sign her up for something yo might be able to ask for her to be on a team that has practice after a specific time. I know some kids switch teams because of scheduling conflicts.

I have a rising second grader as well. So far she doesn't do any activities, other than a weekly swim lesson this summer, because I can't get her to afterschool activities. How do you manage that? Are you able to find afterschool sitters?

12:30 PP here. Many times he chooses an after school activity, coding club, Minecraft moding, or Overtime Athletics. The club will meet one day a week.

DS has swimming once a week, baseball/basketball/tennis twice a week, and Cub Scouts. We tend to have a play date with neighbors on Fridays after school.

Soccer (Saturday mornings in the fall). Karate (one evening a week, all year round). Aftercare, 4 afternoons a week. Sunday school.