Kids' Activities

massdreams · May 2014

DS1 is going into kindergarten next year. He's playing tball this spring, and did karate during the year once per week. He really enjoys both activities. Our rule is one activity at a time (so we stopped karate when tball began) and right now, nothing in the summer. However, part of my brain is succumbing to the craziness of American family lives and the way of thinking for our kids, and I'm wondering should I have him do soccer in the fall too, swim lessons maybe, other activities.... to give him a chance to try things out? Or should we just stick with a couple of things we know he likes and not worry about exposing him to every option? He's also really into art and the outdoors, so of course, my brain is thinking there could be cub scouts and art lessons down the road too. How many activities do your kids do? How do you balance giving your kids exposure to things and having them involved in some organized activities, while maintaining your own sanity? I know some parents who are happy doing at least one activity a day, and can go, go, go, but that is not us. Once a week, twice max is what we can handle!

jf198400 · May 2014

I'm worried about this too since dd is turning 4. This year we did ballet/tap one night a week and both kids had swim lessons Saturday mornings in the winter. I think swim lessons are very important so I wouldn't skip that. We want to try soccer and gymnastics too. And DS isn't in any activities yet (he's 2) aside from swim class. I don't know how we'll balance it later on. I definitely want them to have the opportunity to try things and see what they like. I think we might try to limit to 1-2 activities per season.

PSU_Texan · May 2014

My 6 yo DD who just finished Kindergarten has been in dance 1/week since she was 3. The dance season is fall through spring, with summers off. We've done swim lessons in the spring/summer most years. This last year was the first chance at playing on a school sports team. So we did soccer in fall, and basketball in winter. We decided to pass on softball in spring since we started up swimming again. I felt like dance one afternoon/week and sports which were Saturday games and sunday practices was enough. My mom always had a rule of no more than 2 week nights spent in activities. Also, I like to have more flexibility in the summer.

WBMom · May 2014

We are on the 1-2 things at a time guideline per child. I am not sure how that will work when all 3 eventually do something though. DD1 ice skates and does girl scouts (swim lessons were part of her afterschool program) - she does not want to do anything this summer and I am ok with that. DD1 tried tennis last summer through the park and rec. DD2 has done swim and gymnastics but luckily for us those were during her day at daycare - she does soccer one night a week. DS is too young so he just comes along for the ride. We just evaluate it and see. DD2 has tried tball before and did not like it - we go with a lot of the park and rec programs or Y because the time commitment is not huge and they can try a variety of things for low cost.

emberlee3 · May 2014

DS will go to kindergarten in August. He did fall and spring soccer, and he will take swimming lessons this summer. I think he will want to play fall soccer again. I will probably let him choose which spring activity he wants. Swimming lessons are not optional. Everyone should learn to swim.

groovygrl · June 2014

I take advantage of a number of activities they offer at school so that they can still experience those and get more physical activity at school and it helps w/ not having to run around a million places to try out different activities like soccer/karate/dance. I also consider swim lessons a life skill and not on the same level with optional things like tball, soccer, etc. We never do more than 2 activities outside of school- swim lessons and sometimes something else, but not always. Right now we are also doing gymnastics b/c they both really expressed an interest. but we haven't done a 2nd activity since as fall.
I can't imagine having to rush to more than one weeknight activities at this age plus one weekend activity, my commute is an hour each way so until there is an activity they are really really interested and engaged in, I don't want to spend all our time running around to 'try things out'.

*sparky* · June 2014

DS had a hard time with starting full-day K so we actually cut back on activities at that time. He was just exhausted for the first couple months that year.

Generally he has done one or two activities at a time, sometimes three if there is some overlap between when one begins and the next ends. Now that he plays at a travel/club level, he is limited to one sport per season plus cub scouts. But honestly cub scouts has really been suffering lately as sports usually wins out over scouts when there is a conflict. So we may drop that after this year.

I would definitely keep up the swim lessons. If you can swing soccer too at this age, and your LO wants to try it out, it should be only once or twice a week for the younger age groups. I don't think I would do any more than that though.

cecilyandgautam · June 2014

I know you said there are no summer activities for the moment, but is your kid in any kind of summer camp? They usually do a sampling of activities in the summer - swimming, fine arts, performing arts, some outdoor sports. If your kid comes out of camp with a favorite activity, maybe prioritize from there? The summer & spring break camps, plus aftercare programming seems to offer a lot of mixed exposure, at least in my area.

We're just now getting to the point where our kid is old enough to be in the normal on-site aftercare at preschool (where we can opt into extras, like karate) or the arts-based program at the performing arts center and I've been thinking about this too.

junebugrbig · June 2014

DS will be 6 in July. Our rule has been one activity at a time. Since both DH and I work. family time and down time are just as important as physical activity and sports. We try to balance and get him a little of everything. Most of his sports have been on practice during the week and one game on the weekend. It is tough enough working around that and trying to fit in everything else we need to do. Once DD gets old enough for sports or whatever activities she wants to do, it will just get more challenging.

As far as what activities, we offer options and let him choose. I will never force him to do anything...he has to want to be there. We also think swimming lessons are important and are sending him to a two week swim camp over the summer.

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