Overscheduling?

Mominator

How many activities will you allow DC to have going on simulataneously? I was reading a post on another board and the posters school aged child was involved in something academic, something musical and something athletic, basically M-Th nights were booked with activities. For me personally, that is just too much. I think that I'll probably only allow any one activity at a given time. Just wondering how others feel about this.

ali-1411

That's too much for me.  I'm not going to spend my afternoons shuttling my kids around and waiting for them to be done with whatever activity. 

DS isn't signed up for anything this year.  He's done sports - just one at a time - and it doesn't appear to be his thing.  School gives him enough adacemics, he'd revolt if I tried to sign him up for something afterschool!  And music lessons are out of our budget.  His activities include video games and running around the neighborhood with his friends.  Works for me.

katie277s

Right now, he is only in 1 activity at a time.  With school, daycare, working FT and 1 activity, its all I can do to keep up.  

nire99

I'm probably going to stick to the one activity at a time rule, although I did just sign DD up for Girl Scouts and she plays soccer. GS is right after school though, so I won't have to do as much driving.

I'm terrified for when DS gets older and starts activities. As a single mom, I just don't know how I'm going to be able to get them both where they need to be. Or how I'm going to be able to afford anything.

PinkPiano

My kids do a lot of activities but most of them are very close to home (like walking distance).  I hate being in the car a lot so we pick things that are close by so it doesn't eat up our entire evening.

Last night we just happened to have a crazy night because my dd had to get a PT eval., dh had a softball game and dd had cheer practice.  We literally had 5 min. to stop and get dinner (otherwise not eating until at least 8pm).  It was so miserable, I would never choose that schedule on a regular basis.  If we can't eat dinner at home, it's not happpening.

 

 

jlw2505

For now kids are in 2 things out side of full day preschool - they both take a 30 min swim lesson on Mondays and a 1 hour dance/gymnastics class on Wednesday nights.  With both classes, we are home by 6:30 at the latest.  My older DD has an Articulation Disorder which requires a ton of speech classes - 2 of which are done through the school during school hours so she just misses some of her regular class but I need to schedule the other two and those may end up falling after school which I hate to add in but my only other option is for over quiet time during the school day in the afternoons which I am trying to see if I can make work as I really, really don't want to add anything else after school.  We keep our weekends totally activity free for now although next year my older DD will start religious school on Sunday mornings but at that point, we will drop one of her other activities.

passar3588

I think I know the post that you are referring to and honestly, I thought it was ridiculous. I get that people want their children to learn a foreign language and instrument at a young age because those are things that seem to be harder to learn/master as a child gets older unless there really is some natural talent for it, but come on. Wasn't her kid only in first grade? I don't understand how a first grader can even maintain the energy for all of that. Can he really maintain the interest in all three things simultaneously? Regardless of how bright the kid is, I think it's way too much. I thought the whole post was kind of arrogant - total AW.

In first grade, I would think ideally one activity at a time, two at the most if one was a sport and the other an instrument or foreign language because I can see how choosing between two totally different things would be difficult. And I do think consistency is important when learning an instrument or language whereas certain sports have seasons.

PinkPiano

nire99:

I'm probably going to stick to the one activity at a time rule, although I did just sign DD up for Girl Scouts and she plays soccer. GS is right after school though, so I won't have to do as much driving.

I'm terrified for when DS gets older and starts activities. As a single mom, I just don't know how I'm going to be able to get them both where they need to be. Or how I'm going to be able to afford anything.

Our community sponsors several different sporting events and the coaching is all volunteer so very affordable.  We pay about $50-$80/for a season and that includes uniform needs.  Otherwise, there is no way we could do so many sports.  Also, a lot of parents have multiple kids in the same sport or their son does football and daughter does cheer so they pracitce and do games at the same time.  Hopefully your community offers something similar!

 

 

Jodi&Joe

I will allow them to do as many activites as they want - as long as it doesn't stress me and Joe (or them).

This is one of my pet peeves with some parents.  IMO, a child would MUCH rather have non-stressed parents (within reason) than have 3 activities going on at the same time.  Of course, I do firmly believe extra curriculars are important - so I will definitely encourage at least one per season (for example).  Like Joey and Cam are doing soccer in the fall.  Add in religious instruction for Joey and I think we will likely be tapped out with just those two.  Once soccer is done, they can pick something else (or continue with spring soccer if they so choose).  But I have NO desire/intent on going for here to there and back again every night for extra curriculars.  We have a limited window of time at night, as is. 

I have one friend that has something every single night of the week - and sometimes there is an overlap on certain nights.  Granted she has 3 children that are all involved with extra-curriculars. She thrives on it - so it works for them (makes her feel like super mom!)!!  But I would go INSANE with that schedule.  My kids think I yell now?  HA!  I would be even more of a screaming lunatic if I had to drop one at dance, one at basketball, go back to dance to get one, go back to basketball to get the other, make dinner in between, feed the dog, clean up the dishes.  Um, no thank you -- I know my limits! 

camrude

DD is signed up for dance right now - which runs for 9 months.

We will have both kids in swimming from late fall - spring.

DD has a list a mile long of things she wants to be in, but two is my limit. It just gets to be too much running around.

tammy79

We will do one or 2 activity on Saturdays and that's it, probably swimming in the morning, and something else mid morning,And DD will be doing dance/Gymastic classes after school, but they do it at her school, the Dance teacher, and pick them up, and help them change into their dance uniform.  I do not plan on doing anything during the weekdays at all, I'm this will change when they get older, but as of now that it. 

DandelionMom

I'd like to limit it to 1 activity at a time plus girlscouts; with 3 kids, it feels like we're always on the go.  DD1's school offers fun classes every day after school and she participates in 3 of those a week (and it is going to get worse with band and science olympiad). 

august06mom

DS is doing karate, which is 2 nights a week. He wanted to do soccer also, but I want him to wait and see how 5 days full-day kindergarten go first. I may let him add it in the spring if things are going well and he still wants to.

ridesbuttons

I read that post too. 

We do 1 planned activity per season.  So summer: soccer, winter: skating/hockey, between seasons: swimming.

Learning to skate and swim for me is a non-negotiable.  You gotta do.

Each 'season' right now lasts about 12 weeks and is an hour of activity (plus travel time each way).

So with 2 kids I would say that we have scheduled activities of 2 hours per week total, including travel time.

I admit I would like to get my 2.5 year old into a music program, but it is a 'explore music' program, not a single instrument lesson type thing.  I have a gut feeling he would love it.

I am a big, big proponant of free play.  Kids have evolved to need it in order to grow and thrive.  It is not wasted time, it is essential time.

CleoKitty

Ds has something almost every single day, but that is one of the reasons we decided to homeschool this year. If he was in school all day he wouldn't be able to do so many activities (in fact, we've always had a limit of no more than one activity outside of school at a time) but now he's doing so much more and I'm counting it as a part of his schooling.

He's signed up for children's choir, Japanese, a math class (4 hours/week), a nature class and soccer. I'm also having him volunteer at the food bank with me once a week. There's an art class (pottery) that he'd like to take but that's going to have to wait until another time, I'm afraid of overextending ourselves. Luckily, several of the classes and activities he's signed up for are during the daytime when kids would normally be in school. Only soccer and choir are in the evenings during the week.

lilpiglet

I think it's going to depend on what it is and how demanding it is on my child and myself.  I would say I probably wouldn't allow more then 2 things at once

peekaboo716

The problem is that my DS wants to do everything. He loves all sports. He's done soccer, t-ball, skating, hockey, swimming, karate, and wants them to go on all year round. Not happening.

He will be in two things besides school this fall (soccer and swimming). Soccer is only 9 weeks, and swimming is only 30 min/week.

amiamish

I think I'm only going to allow 1 at a time... we'll see how that goes and go from there.