My youngest at 4 did dance, swim & gymnastics. It was kind of a lot but she only went to preschool part time & they were daytime / afternoon activities.

She’s 6 now and still doing all 3 fwiw. She’s on a preteam type thing for gymnastics now. Swimming I want her to do for safety / life skill reasons. Dance / gymnastics are / were her choices.

OP here. DD gets plenty of outdoor unstructured time. Evenings before/after dinner, many mornings before preschool, one hour at preschool, and a big chunk of weekends as we prioritize hiking and backyard play dates with family and friends.

After seeing the feedback I think we might skip dance class for now and stick to the three prior activities. Drive time is not a concern. I already mentioned that the activities are close, and her preschool is also a 3-5 min drive. So she’ll get a max of 20 min car time per day.

She is an only child right now but getting a sibling in Feb. Will cut down on activities then so she can bond with her sibling. I do plan to get a FT nanny as well, so if she does want to continue all of them, it won’t be a logistical issue.

Yes she still naps. I think it’s good for kids to nap as long as they can, so I’ll continue to encourage and facilitate it until she no longer wants to (or until K starts).

Thanks all!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would be way too much driving time for our family.

Two of these activities are walkable and the other two are a 3 min drive, so that’s not an issue.

See, that completely changes what I would say. I think it’s fine. I would have said it was too much if these were all 10-15 minutes away.

Anonymous wrote:If you ever find yourself asking the question, then the answer is yes.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would be way too much driving time for our family.

Two of these activities are walkable and the other two are a 3 min drive, so that’s not an issue.

When I was a SAHM I SO looked forward to activities for my only at the time. Gave us a schedule and something to do. You have downtime/family time on weekends. Sounds like you both would enjoy it.

My 4 yo does school 9-4 m-fri, swim lesson (30 min) tue thurs, gym class sat morn 45 min. Honestly I think he should do more as he’s hard to put to sleep at night, but I’m over the driving him around.

Absolutely, let her play like a 4 year old. Much too young to be burdened with all those activities

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perfectly fine. It’s less than an hour a day and she’s only in preschool in the mornings so one hour out of her afternoon for something she likes is great.

DCUM is so bizarre. Daycare from 8 to 6 is fantastic for young kids but a daily afternoon class less than a hour long in the afternoon is over-scheduling and horrible!!!

It’s not bizarre. You do understand that parents who send their kids to daycare 9-6 is because of work and they have no choice. Extra curricular activities in the afternoon is a choice. I just want to make that distinction. That being said, I think 3 activities would be my max. But that’s me. If OP has no other kids and can devote the time to her child’s activities, more power to her!

I have been a working mom who sent kids to daycare and now a SAHM of 3.

I don’t necessarily think a one hour activity per day in the afternoon is a lot, especially if there are no siblings or no neighborhood friends.

I like to leave free days and all the free days become full with outings, play dates or errands. I have 3 kids so we often have 2 things going on each afternoon but it rotates between the 3 kids. I try not to have all 3 kids have an activity in the same afternoon.

Anonymous wrote:Perfectly fine. It’s less than an hour a day and she’s only in preschool in the mornings so one hour out of her afternoon for something she likes is great.

DCUM is so bizarre. Daycare from 8 to 6 is fantastic for young kids but a daily afternoon class less than a hour long in the afternoon is over-scheduling and horrible!!!

It’s not bizarre. You do understand that parents who send their kids to daycare 9-6 is because of work and they have no choice. Extra curricular activities in the afternoon is a choice. I just want to make that distinction. That being said, I think 3 activities would be my max. But that’s me. If OP has no other kids and can devote the time to her child’s activities, more power to her!

Anonymous wrote:Perfectly fine. It’s less than an hour a day and she’s only in preschool in the mornings so one hour out of her afternoon for something she likes is great.

DCUM is so bizarre. Daycare from 8 to 6 is fantastic for young kids but a daily afternoon class less than a hour long in the afternoon is over-scheduling and horrible!!!

God bless the people who view DCUM posters as a monolith. They believe the “8 to 6 is fantastic” people are the same ones posting about afternoon classes being too much. Lol.

Anonymous wrote:Perfectly fine. It’s less than an hour a day and she’s only in preschool in the mornings so one hour out of her afternoon for something she likes is great.

DCUM is so bizarre. Daycare from 8 to 6 is fantastic for young kids but a daily afternoon class less than a hour long in the afternoon is over-scheduling and horrible!!!

+1

I do think people are mostly thinking about logistics and not whether this is really "too much" for a child this age. All of our activities are walkable from our home, and if we weren't walking to a class, we'd be walking to a playground or the library or something anyway. Logistically, there is almost no difference between walking to the park for an outdoor music class, and walking to the park to play, other than needing to get there at a specified time (which I actually find helpful with getting a child that age out the door).

If OP said "going to the playground three afternoons a week and the library twice a week -- too much?" people would laugh. This is basically no different than that, just a tiny bit more organized.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is more than my 4yo does but she goes to school 8am to 3pm. We do one 45 min dance class on Saturdays and a gymnastics class on Thursday afternoons. Starting in November she'll do swimming instead of gymnastics.

I think if we were mornings only for PK, we'd do more classes because she really responds well to the structure. It's not just that it's engaging while she is there, it's that it helps to structure our days and gives her week some shape. I have surprised myself -- I did not expect to be that into activities, especially this young. But when we decided not to do toddler soccer (she hated it and it's just running around at this age so not a big loss) I realized we needed something because she just needed more structure than spending all her afternoons and weekends at home or at the playground.

Yup, mine only goes to school 9-12 so it’s a lot less. I think a lot of people send their kids to daycare 8am-6pm every day so more activities on top of that sounds crazy.

Except a decent daycare will have the same amount of “school” as your 9-12 school and then lots of outdoor play, and indoor play, and meal times, and other things. Not hours in a car and lots of adult direction and 5 different indoor cohorts to get covid from.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would be way too much driving time for our family.

Two of these activities are walkable and the other two are a 3 min drive, so that’s not an issue.

With this additional info, and the fact that she’s still only doing half day preschool at 4yo, I think this is a great schedule. She’s got downtime with a nap at home in between, she’s already involved in 3 of the activities, I think it sounds like an enriching and well rounded week.

I'd schedule something (1 or 2 max) on the weekends and keep the afternoons (after preschool) open as much as possible.

Your 4 yr still naps consistently after a 9-12/1 preschhool?

Perfectly fine. It’s less than an hour a day and she’s only in preschool in the mornings so one hour out of her afternoon for something she likes is great.

DCUM is so bizarre. Daycare from 8 to 6 is fantastic for young kids but a daily afternoon class less than a hour long in the afternoon is over-scheduling and horrible!!!