How many activities?

[morgan]

I have a 5yo d. She's been in a Spanish immersion prek/k program part-time for the last two years and we would like to continue this at least a few days per week for k in the fall. However, she also takes Suzuki cello lessons/group classes and gymnastics. To make things more complicated we let her try ballet and swimming lessons over the summer and she LOVED those as well. And she's good at all of them...ugh.

 

She is working way above grade level, so I don't feel the need to spend hours a day doing traditional schooling at home. Maybe just doing outside activities would be more beneficial/enriching at this point?

 

I guess my dilemma is how many extracurricular activities seem reasonable at this age and how would you prioritize them? For example Spanish and Cello are more important to me (I think in the long run they will be the most beneficial, however, they are also the two most expensive activities). But these are not her two favorites, although she does enjoy them. I know there are no "right" answers, but thought maybe someone who has been down this path might have some words of wisdom :001_smile:

[KAR120C]

I have a 5yo d. She's been in a Spanish immersion prek/k program part-time for the last two years and we would like to continue this at least a few days per week for k in the fall. However, she also takes Suzuki cello lessons/group classes and gymnastics. To make things more complicated we let her try ballet and swimming lessons over the summer and she LOVED those as well. And she's good at all of them...ugh.

 

She is working way above grade level, so I don't feel the need to spend hours a day doing traditional schooling at home. Maybe just doing outside activities would be more beneficial/enriching at this point?

 

I guess my dilemma is how many extracurricular activities seem reasonable at this age and how would you prioritize them? For example Spanish and Cello are more important to me (I think in the long run they will be the most beneficial, however, they are also the two most expensive activities). But these are not her two favorites, although she does enjoy them. I know there are no "right" answers, but thought maybe someone who has been down this path might have some words of wisdom :001_smile:

At that age we did a lot, and enjoyed it... As long as she's happy and you're not feeling stressed by the time and/or expense, I don't think there's anything wrong with a busy schedule. I always liked to have a day or two (including weekend days) entirely at home without anything on the calendar just for lazing around or getting into random projects.

 

As DS got older we did more sit-down schoolwork and trimmed back the extracurriculars to just the things he was really devoted to. It's still busy, but it's a very focused kind of busy-ness.

[kokotg]

My oldest two are the sorts I have to bribe to try new things, so I was a little taken aback when my youngest hit 5 and wanted to do EVERYTHING. Our mysterious little extrovert. I do think it's different for homeschooled kids; if he were in school full time and THEN we spent our evenings running around to activities, I'd be more hesitant to let him try so many things. Last year he did tap dancing, drama classes, and a couple of plays that required rehearsals 2 or 3 times a week for much of the year. He also did swim lessons and homeschool soccer in the fall. He was fine. He never seemed burned out or at all hesitant to go to any of his scheduled classes/practices/rehearsals. So I think it depends on the kid. It would have been way too much for my older kids (who are just recently starting to appreciate and ask for outside of the house activities) at that age, but it seems fine--good, in fact--for my youngest.

 

There's also the issue of how much time YOU feel comfortable spending shuttling her to various activities.

[Crimson Wife]

I used to have a "one activity max per day" rule. Now that I've got multiple kids, I have tried to arrange their schedules so that I'm only going to one location per day. That means sometimes one child has to do a less-preferred activity because that's what works with our schedule.

 

We don't do any activity that requires multiple practices/rehearsals per week or frequent travel on the weekends. Most of those wouldn't be in our budget anyway.

[SKL]

My kids have always been involved in daily activities, but it's been easy for me because most of the coaches came to wherever the kids were (daycare/school or my home).

 

This fall we begin the true rigors of after-school activities.

 

I like the kids to do something physical and something artsy on most days. So our current plan is:

 

Little Gym Mondays (dance) and Thursdays (gymnastics, karate)

Piano lesson: TBA, with practices every day except Thurs & Fri

Swimming, Spanish, and art lessons on Saturday mornings; free swim on Tues or Weds evening

Park or other non-organized physical activity on evenings when they don't have Little Gym or swimming.

 

My biggest concern right now is that I don't know how much stamina my kids will have after school. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

[boscopup]

I prefer to limit my kids' activities, since as a society, people tend to get bored if they aren't doing something, and I'd like to teach my kids how to deal with being bored... You know, like pick up a book and read, or clean the house, etc. :) Sometimes it's good to slow down and enjoy life.

 

My oldest does hockey. My middle one was doing hockey, but he decided he didn't want to do it anymore. I would like to get him into an activity again, but I'm not sure what yet. I'd LOVE to get him horseback riding, since that would probably be really good for him on several levels, but he's currently afraid to even get on the small pony in our own backyard. :tongue_smilie: We'll see. Youngest wants to play hockey, and I think he'll enjoy it. He starts skate lessons soon.

 

We plan to add piano lessons, once we get a piano (that got put off, since our garage caught fire and DH's office had to temporarily move inside... right where the piano is slated to go :tongue_smilie:).

 

Oldest does Cub Scouts, but that's only a once a month deal.

 

If I had a child wanting to do 10 different activities, I'd just have to make them choose which one is most important to them. My friend did this with her DDs when they were very active in dance but wanted to start horseback riding. My friend couldn't afford both (since both are kind of pricey), so they had to choose. They chose horseback riding and have been very happy, even though both kids LOVED dance and were quite good at it.

 

Anyway, I'd rather sit down and spend some time with my family, rather than being on the go all the time, going this way and that for some activity to please a child's whims. I think it's good for kids to be bored sometimes. :)

[YourFidgetyFriend]

My daughter is 6 and I think this age group is a good time to try a few different things. At some point, they are going to choose a couple of activities that are most important to them. Even if she does not choose, the activities will force her to choose at some point. For example, it's pretty much impossible to be both a serious ballet dancer and a serious gymnast at 13yo when both would require multiple evenings per week.

 

I don't know how many children you have, but I have only one so that makes it easier. We have a ton of extra time around here lol. If you have more than 1 or 2, it would probably start to get stressful if they all end up wanting a similarly busy schedule.

[Donna]

My dd did a lot of activities at that age. Everything from Suzuki violin with group class to Irish fiddling, gymnastics, dance, taekwondo, soccer, etc... I thought it was important to allow her to try a number of different activities to figure out which she like best. We cut down, well actually, just put more of our time into a few activities as she got older and had decided what she liked most.

 

I think how much you do depends on the child. Some kids thrive on lots of outside activities while others might be stressed by too much.

[thegirlwhopaintedtrees]

If I only had one child, I would definitely not try to limit, especially if that child were ahead academically. That said, I have two and when DS was younger he was carted to DD's activities and I had to entertain him while she was at lessons. It got tiring for the two of us (DD was having fun at lessons) so this year we can only do an activity if both can participate at the same time. Gymnastics allows us this - there's a 3 and 5 year old class at the same time on the floor. Swimming is back to back lessons, but only 30 minutes long, and during piano, I would have to entertain him, but I'll be at the piano teacher's house and she has a playroom. Consequently, we haven't made up our mind about the last two activities. Gymnastics only might have to suffice. I agree with boscopup that kids need down time at home to be "bored" and to just be. There's a great line in Pollyanna, in fact, in which, after her aunt lists all the activities she will have in a day, Pollyanna retorts something about when will she have time to breathe or just be, or something like that.

[Mélie]

If she's enjoying the activities and you don't think she'll get tired of them, that sounds like a good plan to me.

 

I've realized recently that spending all day at home just doesn't work for my boys. We'll be registering for fall activities over the next few weeks, and I'm leaning toward signing them up for an art class, gymnastics, swimming lessons, soccer and T-ball. We'll still be doing a "full load" of schoolwork at home, because the activities we've picked aren't particularly academic. :)

[2smartones]

You wouldn't need to spend hours a day schooling at age 5, anyway. One hour would be plenty, so doing a different activity each day shouldn't be a stretch at all. If you feel your schedule or your wallet being pushed to the limit, you'll need to scale back, but trying everything at a young age is a great learning experience. By 8-9 years old, you should have a much better idea which activities are the true favorites for everyone involved, and you can scale back to put more focus on academics.

[Black-eyed Suzan]

I love this board! :) I was just thinking about this today and came to see if others had any advice - thanks for reading my mind! :lol:

[Greenmama2]

My six year old is homeschooled so we don't have that aspect but she does:-

*45 minute ballet class

*30 minute ballet class (different school)

*Suzuki violin 30 minute private lesson plus occasional group class

*1 hour choir rehearsal

*1 hour drama class

*45 minute swimming lesson

In around 6 weeks she will add weekly rehearsals for a local theatre production.

Those are just the regularly scheduled weekly things, NOT the one-off but frequent homeschool workshops (science demonstrations, art workshops, hs-excursions) that we attend.

ITA with WendyK - it's harder on the parents. Especially now my 3 year old is wanting to do some of those things off his own bat :001_huh: He is used to being dragged around to her activities and we now have swimming, ballet and violin for him too. Thankfully they are all either concurrent or immediately before/after.

I would absolutely prioritise some of them if you feel the need to. My DD would actually like to do a lot more (gymnastics and Indian and/or Irish dancing in particular) but there is a limit to what we are physically able to do. So far finances haven't been a problem but now that DS is joining in the issue will start to arise for us. Good to keep in mind if you have other younger dc who may want to follow suit ;)

Edited August 6, 2012 by Greenmama2

[Runningmom80]

I think its fine. My ds will be 6 in November, he does drum lessons, Suzuki bass with both private lessons and group class, and fall soccer. When soccer is over I will sign him up for karate. That's a lot for us, but I have 2 year old twins who exhaust me on a daily basis. :)

[LMD]

gee, my kids are deprived!

 

They do violin lessons (suzuki, private & group) and junior youth group. That's it. But we're homebodies! Oh, and homeschool group fortnightly. I was thinking of adding lego club, maybe, but I'm not sure...

[Uff Da!]

nm

[gracyomalley]

I think at 5 its a balance, and different from kid to kid. All of mine tried a bunch of things then - art classes, dance, soccer, gym, swimming, violin, baseball, Spanish, to name a few. As the third came around the driving became a limiting factor, and there have been more limits on choices (and frankly, the olders became more involved in a few things, and those things became more expensive....)

 

We "require" music and a physical activity/sport for each kid. At this point (8,10,12) if they want more than that they have to show that they can do well in academics and the 1st 2 before adding number three (I mean their personal "well", not necessarily win prizes, etc...just work hard and progress at their own pace). All 3 have learned to swim, all three do some art here and there. Foreign language and science lab classes at the local university are included in academics. All are required to be involved at Church. We have a small farm, so all three are gardening, raising livestock and doing plenty of extracurricular mucking out goat pens!

 

For us, one of the big joys in homeschooling is each kid finding their "passion" as DD puts it... as in "mom I'm ready to go to gym - don't make me late for my passion" but as in life, you can't do EVERYTHING, or at least not well! However, I wll say that there are times of "burn out" when all they want to do is follow their passions to play legos/build forts/draw ponies....and its important to make sure they have some time for that too! For DS #3 these play times are much more important to him than the other things - but for the other 2 they are clearly "rest" times.

 

Also, if I could do anything differently, I would be more careful budgetting for the future of these activities...as in its reasonable to do gym one hour a week, most people can afford that. But when its 25 hours a week with all the extras...it can be quite a pinch, as can the tux, full size NOT student grade violin, accompanist fees, etc that come with music later on....Each family will need to make their own choices about this stuff - but I can tell you its pretty hard to look them in the eye and say you can no longer afford their "passion"!! (I'm just going to sell one of them!)

 

Good luck and have fun trying stuff out!

Erin