Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Feeling guilty after reading PPs.

6 yo - swim once a week. That's it.

Don't feel guilty. At all. Many would say you're doing the right thing. I posted our list of several activities, and I question if it's too much all the time.

Definitely do not feel guilty. When I read these lists all I think is "Jack of all trades, master of none"

+1
Perfect quote of kid's today.

Anonymous wrote:Holee crap. Where is the unstructured time?!

There isn't. Have you seen your neighborhood? Where are the kids? Not playing, not biking, not running around in the woods, parks, getting dirty and creating new games. Learning how to navigate life, friendships, and more. You know, being kids!!! They are in academic classes, religious classes, language classes, travel sports at age 8. Swim lessons, piano lessons, private instrument lessons, private sports lessons etc.... Parents want to guide their kids like puppets into some bizarro perfect life they have in their mind. That leaves kids in organized activities or planned care for 10-12hrs a day? And they wonder why kids have ADHD, anxiety, depression, learning disabilities, and can't handle being on their own until they are 13+ years old. College suicides have quadrupled in the last 10 years. But they know a 2nd language, can follow a cult, and get straight A's so they will be just fine.

Anonymous wrote:Holee crap. Where is the unstructured time?!

My kids are in Loudoun county and school is out at 245. Not a single activity starts prior to 530, some at 630. Lots of doen5ime, even though my kids are running 2 sports each this season.

It really should depend on the child's personality/maturity level on how much activities he/she needs based on the parent's instinct especially at a younger age.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is sad how many people put languages, tutors, academic classes on here.

Why? Languages are extremely important for the developing brain, something schools in the US do not understand.
Plus there are many international families in this area, and unless they can pay for WIS or something, it's makes better financial sense to go to public school and teach the intricacies of their native language (grammar, history, literature) as a supplementary class.

Yep, and whereas my child goes to a Catholic school so she does not have the extracurricular religions classes, we then do have to supplement with the native language class, which the school does not offer. It's 6 in one hand, half dozen the other.

6yo, 1st grade,
Soccer
Swim lessons
Tae known do
Scouts

We both WOH full time. It is a lot. DS has HFA though, and doesn't doo all that well with unstructured play dates, so the activities are a good way for him to socialize. I feel like he is fitting in well at the activities, so it is worth it for me.

travel soccer - year round
travel basketball - winter
house basketball- winter
aau basketball - year round but primarily spring
flag football - fall
middle school soccer - fall
middle school basketball - winter
hs. soccer - spring
hs basketball - winter
hs field hockey - fall
rec basketball - summer


that is split up over three kids. some are in one per season, some are up to 3 per season.

6th grader - one sport (currently 4 nites/wk), 2 instruments (2 hrs of formal music instruction/week) it's all quite manageable. Seems like about the right amount. We can walk/bike to all lessons and sport practice.

I don't think it's about "how many", as about how many hours, and how those hours fit into the family routine.

In elementary, I'd let my kid pick 3 hour long classes during aftercare. Every 9 weeks they changed, so he'd do 9 weeks of yoga, kickball and chess, followed by 9 weeks of improv, cross country, and graffitti style art. He was in after care 15 - 18 hours a week, so even with 3 hours of activities and HW he had plenty of time to play. He also played a rec sport each season (one hour long practice, one hour long game, all walking distance from our house), and did a weekend ice skating class or swimming lesson. It didn't feel like a lot.

In middle school, same kid did 2 activities. He moved to travel soccer, with 2 hour practices that he had to be driven to and from, 3 days a week, and weekend games and tournaments that required hours of practice. He also joined the theater program at his middle school which required practices 5 days a week as shows came closer. It felt like a huge amount.

So he went from 16 activities during the course of the school year, to 2, while also going from a nice relaxed schedule to feeling very overscheduled.

Anonymous wrote:It is sad how many people put languages, tutors, academic classes on here.

Why is that sad?

I have a 6 year old and an 8 year old. Both do one hour of gymnastics once a week and two hours of a heritage language class on Saturday. The 8 year old also does CCD once a week for 1.25 hours, but that's ending this week.

Anonymous wrote:It is sad how many people put languages, tutors, academic classes on here.

Why? Languages are extremely important for the developing brain, something schools in the US do not understand.
Plus there are many international families in this area, and unless they can pay for WIS or something, it's makes better financial sense to go to public school and teach the intricacies of their native language (grammar, history, literature) as a supplementary class.

9 year old 3rd grader

Baseball in the spring (2 games and 1 practice each week)
Soccer in the fall (2 games or practices each week)
Chess (but is part of after school care)
Cub Scouts (but our den sucks, so we hardly ever meet)

My son probably has the least activities of any of his friends, but we're big campers and camp two weekends a month. We'd rather do that than spend time at other activities, particularly since DS isn't very athletic.

7 y/o and 10 y/o.
7 y/o only does one sport at a time. Right now, it's soccer. In the fall and winter, he plays hockey.

The 10 y/o does soccer in the spring and hockey in the fall/winter. He does chorus and chess club at school, both of which are once a week for an hour before class starts.

8 yr old.

Chess: 2x wk coaching, we usually go to tournaments 2-4x a month on the weekends

squash, swimming and piano lessons: 1x wk

religious instruction including language: 1x wk. Instruction and language meet on separate days.

DS loves his activities so this works well for us.

Anonymous wrote:Holee crap. Where is the unstructured time?!

I'm 8:16. I pick up DC at 3:30, so there's no aftercare to deal with. So from 3:30-7:30 when we start bedtime is our's every weekday. Out of those 20hrs, she has between 2-3hrs of structured activity each week. Weekends there is a 1hr soccer game and 30min swim lesson. otherwise, the weekends are free for whatever.