Extra curricular activities?

[jillian]

What do your kids do? Dd is getting ready to start piano lessons, and martial arts. We might sign her up for gymnastics after she's been in martial arts for a few months. Monday would have to be our EC day or dh would have to rush her around in the evenings another day during the week because my hours are variable and I know I work Tuesday and Wednesday evening.

[jillian]

And by gymnastics I mean recreational

[Jenny in Florida]

Currently, my son is focusing on dance. He takes tap, ballet (two classes) and a stretching and conditioning class every week. He's also on the tap competition team, which rehearses at least once a week. And he has recently started assisting with two tap classes for younger kids, being trained to teach eventually.

 

He sings with his choir for two hours on Mondays, plus an average of one additional Saturday morning each month. They perform or sing for a church service every month or two.

 

Other than that, it's all volunteer stuff. He's in his second year as a youth volunteer at the local science museum, a committment of five-ish hours per month. And he has a separate committment at the museum, volunteering twice a month in a special travelling exhibit that is there through April. He also assists with special events a few times during the year.

 

He's a member of a church youth group, which meets twice a month.

 

Over the summer, he's looking forward to volunteering again as a junior counselor for the day camps at a local theatre. He put in about 100 hours last summer and had a great time.

 

In years in which he's not as busy with dance, he likes doing youth and community theatre. And he did managed to fit in one show in the fall semester. But that will likely be it for this year, since the rehearsals conflict with the dance classes.

[ccolopy]

DS takes his extracurriculars pretty seriously. Right now he's playing travel basketball and indoor soccer, doing some baseball clinics and taking piano lessons. He starts soccer try-outs next week and will play through the spring. Baseball try-outs are a few weeks later. When the baseball seasons starts, he'll also be volunteering with the Challenger division as a buddy for a boy his age. DS is a kid who likes to keep busy and when he's not at one of his activities, he's practicing in the backyard or with friends.

 

DD is a little more relaxed. She's taking weekly ballet, piano and flute lessons and plays indoor soccer.

[VeteranMom]

All 3 take piano lessons. All 3, also, play competitive basketball.

[Samiam]

After years of signing up for everything under the sun, running every day, squeezing in schoolwork. 10 years into homeschooling and I've realized that schedule is just NOT enjoyable. Now we are very selective of what we sign up for.

 

DS6 and DS9 have a homeschool P.E. at the Y, once a week, for two hours.

 

They will do a sport each season, for example DS6 is now in a Upward (church) Basketball league. DS9 didn't want to play so none for him right now. Come spring, they will do either baseball or soccer. So that will be one night of practice each week, with games on Saturday a.m.

 

That's it for schedule, paid-for, must-be-there activities. That being said, we are in a very active group that is JUST for field trips. Members will schedule field trips and we usually have 3-4 field trips a month going various places. Another group that is just about fun and friendship often meets at parks, local hiking places, indoor jumping places, so meet with them once-twice a month.

 

So we are busy, but we are not over-scheduled, because all of the field trips/park days are pick-n-choose type situations. For example, I purposefully choose to NOT sign up for two field trips that were offered for this week, because for the two weeks prior, we've been out on field trips. This week I wanted to stay close to home and have a full week of school work.

 

Also, along with those things, my oldest son who attends public high school is on the football team, trying out for baseball team this week, and has a travel baseball team...so his schedule keeps us RUNNING like crazy in the sports season.

[shanvan]

Both are in a 4H dog club and have been for 5 years. Ds is president, so he does a lot of organizing, planning, and public speaking for the club. Dd is the club reporter, so she writes articles for the county newsletter 4-5 times a year. Both Dc show their dogs, both AKC and 4H. Ds focuses on agility, Dd on showmanship, though they both compete in all events. Both take piano lessons and ice skate (rink is 5 minutes form our house and we get a substantial discount). Dd is in a 4H sewing club too (meets 5 mins from our house too). Ds volunteers for a therapeutic riding program.

 

Dh takes them to some of their extracurriculars, so I am not always on the run. I do miss the younger years at times, when they were less serious about their pursuits. Ice skating is more a hobby. They are more serious about dogs and piano.

 

They were also in the youth choir, but we are taking some time off currently b/c of the drive. They also took horseback riding lessons for many years. Finally they had to choose b/t horses or dogs. Dogs made more sense in our case, though Dd would still like to ride. Ds gets a chance to ride when he helps exercise the horses for the therapeutic program.

[SKL]

My kids need the exercise, so they are in 4, going on 5 Little Gym classes as well as swimming and piano lessons. On Saturdays they get instruction in Spanish and art from our ex-nanny (a Hispanic artist). Because they attend a Lutheran school and church, they also participate in the kiddy vocal and bell choirs, which perform in church services about 1-2x per month.

[ChristusG]

We do too many and will be paring down soon.

 

DD8 does American Heritage Girls, art, AWANA, and year around soccer (which is two practices and one game per week).

 

DD5 does American Heritage Girls, ballet, and AWANA.

 

Plus we have American Girl book club, which only meets once per month.

 

We have to leave the day midday on Tuesday for art and Wednesday for ballet. That really throws off our days because I feel like we are always planning around when we have to leave the house.

 

Then we are gone from the house Monday nights (American Heritage Girls), Wednesday nights (AWANA), Thursday and Friday nights (soccer practices), Saturday morning (soccer game), and Sunday morning (church).

 

With schooling two kids, having a toddler running around, and overseeing my nephew's schooling and activities, I'm just feeling worn out. I'm thinking of at least dropping art....possibly ballet. But I feel bad about dropping ballet because it's my 5 year old's one thing that she enjoys on her own (older DD has soccer, as they do AHG and AWANA together).

[whitestavern]

Currently my kids both do Tae Kwon Do and hockey, and attend CCD classes. DD takes piano and DS takes guitar. DS is also in boy scouts. Luckily, almost everything takes place during the day. We're pretty busy, but the instruments are non negotiable and the kids really like the TKD and hockey, so there's nothing we really want to cut. When hockey's over they'll be starting baseball/softball. We pretty much take summers off. We keep up with instruments, but take fewer classes.

[Hoot]

DS13 does Tang Soo Do Korean Martial Arts (he is a 2nd degree black belt), baseball, swimming (for fun, no team), and he's getting ready to start drums soon.

[jillian]

My dd is 5 so we are working on exposing her to differnt things. When she's older she'll probably do recreational shooting also. She too needs the exercise, keeps her limber and from getting stiff (JIA) and trying new things.

[Orthodox6]

DD (about to turn 14) takes violin lessons and ice skating lessons (both group and individual). The skating is a boon because I should be able to award P.E. credit in high school, considering the time spent on the ice. Music credit possible, too.

[MissKNG]

Big girl 6.5-

 

Now - 4-H, ice skating (with dh), flute

Summer - recreation and soccer

 

Small girl 4.5 will be old enough for soccer and recreation this summer. And once big girl learns to skate well enough, she will start skating.

[Tess in the Burbs]

Right now ds is doing Scouts and a sport. He's out of the house 2 nights a week and has weekend activities.

 

Dd is doing gymnastics team. She's gone 2 nights during the week and all day Sat. Meet weekends are even busier due to our commitments to work meets. And dh does the fundraising Bingo every 3 weeks.... She wants more but does not have time.

 

 

In the past we did Music lessons and Awana and sports.

 

Just don't take on too much. I like the idea of 2 things per kid but in dd's case the one is worth 5 activities, lol!

[PeacefulChaos]

Well, usually my 'rule' is one sport (or extracurricular) per kid per season (fall, summer, spring).

We didn't actually do anything in the fall. Money was tight, and I *thought* the local Y was going to start a homeschool PE class so I didn't scrounge the money together for sports - I just figured we'd do the PE class and that would be good.

The Y didn't come through, so we had a very laid back fall. I have to admit, I wasn't a fan. :)

 

For the spring, Link is going to play baseball (this will be our first foray into baseball - wish us luck! DH and I both kind of hate the sport :tongue_smilie: ), Astro is going to do soccer, and Pink has already started dance. Originally, we weren't going to sign her up for dance yet, and just planned on starting to take her horseback riding (she LOVES horses). But the studio offered a 10 week session and I thought it would be worth it to try it now, rather than commit to an entire year, to see if she likes it. She does. :)

Their summer activity is always swimming. Pink will start her first solo lessons this summer (assuming she doesn't freak out - which I don't think she will. But if she does happen to, we'll go back to parent/child.) We usually do two 3-wk sessions of swimming (lessons twice a week).

In the fall, they get to pick a sport again.

 

Honestly, I only really count 'sporty' stuff as extracurriculars at our house. I don't count music lessons, though I guess they would fall into that category for some - both the kids have dabbled in piano (with me as their teacher, which is why it didn't last long) and I'm hoping to start Link on violin this fall. Astro wants to learn guitar, but I'm not planning on that quite yet for several reasons.

Oh, and they do Royal Rangers at church (basically like scouts, only through the church) every Wednesday night. I don't count that as an extracurricular either. :)

 

 

Oh, and as far as how often we're out - meh. We have church on Sunday mornings, musical practice on Sunday afternoons (during musical seasons - fall and winter/spring), DH volunteers at the rescue squad Tuesday nights, we have church Wednesday nights, I either have worship team practice or book club on Thursday nights (except for the rare 5th Thursday, like tonight, when I have neither :) ), and Pink has dance on Saturday mornings right now. Once baseball and soccer start we'll have practice once a week for each, baseball games on Saturday and soccer games on Sunday afternoon. So overall, not a whole lot.

Note: I'm a fast paced extrovert, so this sounds like a perfect life to me. :) lol

[Jenn121]

We are a busy bunch but reevaluate each year to make sure the schoolwork and family life are not neglected.

 

Monday- AHG (2x a month), Tues- Rollerskating and Chorus, Wed-Bell Choir and Awana, Thur- Piano and Chorus, Friday-Library and Park day, Sat & Sunday-various 4H projects (we keep this to a minimum though. Mostly just dogs)

 

My husband has a 2 hour commute and works swing shift (3-11) so I am on my own for making this work.

 

I know that this may look like a lot but it work for us. :)

[plansrme]

I am in awe of the variety of things some of your kids do.

 

My 15 yo freshman is a level 10 gymnast, so she practices 20 hours per week. She also teaches ballet to first graders for 1 hour per week. In the summer, she takes a one-week mission trip to help run a ballet camp for a small church in Canada. That's it.

 

My 12 yo swimmer swims 9 times a week, for 1.5 or 2 hours at a time. That is all.

 

My 9 yo plays baseball 2 days a week and does AWANAS one day a week. Hmmm, he looks like such a slacker compared to his sisters.

 

Terri

[tabrizia]

DS currently is doing nothing but Hebrew School on Sundays and OT on Mondays. I am going to sign him up for Baseball this spring though, I am also looking for a Karate studio for him. He'll probably start Gymnastics again next fall as well.

 

DD is currently doing Ballet once a week and Gymnastics once a week, she'll continue that next year. I am willing to sign her up for soccer, baseball or karate if she asks as well.

 

DS2 is currently doing Gymnastics once a week. Unless he wants to do dance after he turns 3, I likely won't sign him up for anything else till he turns 4.

[nono]

My kids are young. DD dances 2x/week and swims on the local swim team year round. In the summer she participates in the surfing club. DS dances 1x/week, does gymnastics 1x/week, swims on the swim team, and plays t-ball in the spring. He also wants to join the sailing club, which would be great, but he has to give up gymnastics first, and he can't do that until he's completed his commitment for the year.

 

My husband and I are fairly athletic, and we find our children want to be as well. I foresee for them the same problems I've had over my lifetime: there really isn't a sport I've met that I haven't liked. So, hard choices have to be made over the course of one's lifetime.

[Jennifer in MI]

I am in awe of the variety of things some of your kids do. My 15 yo freshman is a level 10 gymnast, so she practices 20 hours per week. She also teaches ballet to first graders for 1 hour per week. In the summer, she takes a one-week mission trip to help run a ballet camp for a small church in Canada. That's it. My 12 yo swimmer swims 9 times a week, for 1.5 or 2 hours at a time. That is all. My 9 yo plays baseball 2 days a week and does AWANAS one day a week. Hmmm, he looks like such a slacker compared to his sisters. Terri

 

WOW!!! Level 10? Amazing!

 

My dd (7):

Gymnastics team (level 4) - 3x/week, 4 hours each (she LOVES this and would do more if she could!)

Karate - 2x/week, 1 hour each

 

Ds (12):

Karate - 3x/week, 2 hours each

Boy Scouts - 1x/week, various activities on the weekend

Violin - 2x/week - 1 hour each

Little League starts soon!!!

 

Ds (15):

Rowing - 6x/week, two times a day, 2 -3 hours each time

volunteers at the karate studio 1x/week or whenever he can fit it in!

 

Ds (16):

Rowing - 6x/week, two times a day, 2 - 3 hours each time

Karate - 1x/week volunteering

 

Spring is our busiest time with baseball games, rowing regattas, and gymnastics meets. But, really those only happen at the same time for about two months. And, ds 12 will reduce his karate time in order to accommodate his baseball schedule.

 

Busy? Heck yea! We love it!

[BrookValley.]

My kiddo takes ice skating lessons. He also piddles around with the horses a bit (I'm a long time hunter/jumper rider), and has just recently expressed an interest in actually taking lessons, which I will probably outsource to a local farm that has more suitable ponies for him than we currently have at our farm. I don't want to do any more than that! First of all, kiddo is only 5; second of all, I would burn out doing a zillion activities. The ice rink is 45 minutes away and that was a bit of a stretch, but he really wanted to do it and has been very serious about it (about as serious as a five-year old can be....lol), so I don't mind so much.

[Pamela H in Texas]

CrossFit, Gymnastics, Swimming. We'll add music when the kids are a little older.

[Dmmetler]

My DD seems to do best with a lot of activities at a fairly low-key level, and with physical activity distributed throughout the week-she's better off with something daily than a lot on one day and nothing another day. So right now she has tumbling 2x/week, dance 2x/week, cheer team 1x/week, plus piano. Having said that, I count tumbling and cheer as PE and Dance and piano as fine arts, so they're not really "Extracurricular" for her ;).

[Dmmetler]

My DD seems to do best with a lot of activities at a fairly low-key level, and with physical activity distributed throughout the week-she's better off with something daily than a lot on one day and nothing another day. So right now she has tumbling 2x/week, dance 2x/week, cheer team 1x/week, plus piano. Having said that, I count tumbling and cheer as PE and Dance and piano as fine arts, so they're not really "Extracurricular" for her ;).

[Dmmetler]

My DD seems to do best with a lot of activities at a fairly low-key level, and with physical activity distributed throughout the week-she's better off with something daily than a lot on one day and nothing another day. So right now she has tumbling 2x/week, dance 2x/week, cheer team 1x/week, plus piano. Having said that, I count tumbling and cheer as PE and Dance and piano as fine arts, so they're not really "Extracurricular" for her ;).

[PeacefulChaos]

Those of you who have gymnastics nearby - I SO WISH we did! Sigh...

cue the music for my 'woe is me, I live in a small town' overture. Sigh...

[Stayseeliz]

DS11 takes piano and is getting ready to start back with guitar lessons. He is on swim team and when that ends in three weeks he will play spring football.

 

DD8 takes piano and clogging. She is on swim team as well.

 

DD5 takes a combo dance class.

 

DD22 months drives me crazy and runs around like a lunatic during everyone's activities. :)

 

I love when more than one kid can do an activity. Both my oldest two have swim team at the same time and my middle DDs have dance at the same time.

[4kidlets4me]

Right now my kids are doing swimming and the younger two do a homeschool sports class and that's it. We live in a small town and don't have a lot of options and I don't really want to be running them around all the time anyway.

[dirty ethel rackham]

My boys over the years have tried many things ... art classes, Cub/Boy Scouts, baseball, soccer. Their big activity was Karate. They are both black belts. My oldest did boy scouts, art classes, piano and karate. My middle kid did piano (now guitar), 4H, and karate. Dd is the one who wants the world. She did Girl Scouts, then joined 4h when her troop disbanded. She tried soccer for several years. She took piano, but now only sings in a choir (until I can find another piano teacher that works into our schedule. She is a competitive rock climber and she volunteers at the local humane society. She is a busy girl:)

 

For all of my kids, we have also done some clubs with other homeschool families such as science club, book club, history club, etc.

[Elinor Everywhere]

My kids are 15, and over the the last 12 years they've done:

gymnastics (when they were 4)

drama

swim team

diving

art class

brownies

horseback riding

rugby

lacrosse

fishing

sailing

tennis

archery

cotillion

navy league

violin/flute lessons

piano lessons

speech & debate

model legislature

honor society

youth group

 

Now, it looks like this:

dd:

marching/concert band/choir at local ps (these are both for-credit classes, but they seem extra-curricular to me because there is so much time invested outside of class)

national homeschool honor society

speech & debate

church choir

youth group

volunteers at an animal shelter

sailing (summer)

violin/flute/tuba

 

ds:

ROTC at ps (again, a credit class but it spills over into rocket club, model club, etc)

Key Club at ps

volunteers at an animal shelter

 

My son is not a "do-er", so I have to cajole him into joining things, except ROTC, which he loves. My dd loves doing everything. :tongue_smilie:

[MrsJewelsRae]

We try to limit outside activities, I'm more of a homebody but I try for the kids' sake. We have homeschool skating on Wednesdays, piano on Thursday. We're thinking of adding karate for ds this year or next. We do daily swimming lessons for most of the summer and I take them to the beach once a week in the summer. We very busy with our church, which is the majority of of our outings. Sunday school on sunday and Awana on Monday nights. We're hoping our church will begin a sports type of event every other week, the kids (boys especially) really thrive on it.

[Mommy22alyns]

Right now, the girls do choir and AHG. Sylvia does dance once a week and Rebecca has gymnastics 4 times a week. That's about as much as we can handle.

 

In the past, they've also done soccer, co-op, and Sylvia just recently quit gymnastics. AHG is an all-homeschooled troop, so that's nice for the girls.

[Guest]

Both kids have a half hour piano lesson and go to Awana. We are part of a church homeschool group that periodically meets for a co-op or park day.

 

Next year, I plan to add Classical Conversations (yay!) Neither of the kids have shown an interest in sports, and I can't say that I'm bummed about that. I think it would be cool to someday add shooting and/or Tae Kwon Do.

[StephanieZ]

When my kids were younger and schooling was less time consuming, we did man varied activities. Now I try to keep things limited.

 

Dd16 -

 

- a volunteer group with two meetings (2-3 hrs each) monthly, plus 5-10 days a year of overnight or full day activities.

- harp study including weekly lessons, two week summer camp, four to five monthly paying gigs (1-2 hrs each), one to two monthly orchestra gigs and/or performances (3-5 hrs each)

- fiddle study with weekly lessons, about once a month contests of gigs (2-6 hrs each)

- new paying job, 4 hrs week, on her own schedule

- weekly all day ski club for about six weeks in the winter

- art class for a few months in the spring, hr weekly

 

Ds13-

 

- same volunteer group as dd16

- guitar study, with weekly lessons, about 2 weeks per year of overnight contests/ workshops/ etc, and one (occasisonally more) paying gig per month of about one hour each gig

- Boy Scouts, weekly meetings, 10-15 overnights per year, etc

- just in the spring, pop shop music group for 12 weeks, hour weekly, plus one or two performances, spring only

- same ski club as above, winter only

- same art class as above, spring only

 

Dd10

 

- fiddle lessons and contests, similar to dd16

- piano study with weekly lessons, monthly composition lessons, occasional contests, etc.

- ski club in winter, as above

- art class in spring, as above

- pop shop in spring, as above

 

We also do some other extra curriculars that I keep very low key with no commitments. There is a nice ice skating day, but we only go a few times per year. Various kids have signed up for various seasons of things, but we do it one thing at a time, depending on how it fits. We used to do soccer every season, but it just got to be too much a few years ago. We did book clubs, art days, and various other things, but I have tried to stream line things and choose activities that fit together so multiple kids can participate at the same time, saving lots of hassles and driving. That makes a world of difference to us. Most years, there are one or two additional several day to full week musical things, like a full week festival or something, that one or more of the kids will do. I love it when I can find something they can all do! So much more convenient, but obviously not always feasible.

 

 

 

[Stacia]

Dd: Irish dance (includes class 1x week, competitions about 2x a year, some fun stuff like parades, dances at senior centers/elementary schools, etc...)

 

Ds: Tennis

 

Once in awhile, either or both kids may do a short course (4-6 weeks) like an art camp, one-day (2-4 hours) museum/art activity, etc....

[AK_Mom4]

My homeschooler is 11 and does instrument lessons twice a week (sax and piano), skiing 3 days a week outside and gym workouts 1-2 days a week. Once skiing finishes, softball will start. We just finished with our Battle of the Books team, so that is one less thing for a bit.

[Ailey]

Those are some interesting combinations!

 

All three are in swimming lessons (1x/week) and gymnastics (3x/week for Ds8, 1x/week for the littles). Ds8 also plays baseball and takes piano and cello lessons, while Dd takes two dance classes and plays soccer.

[mytwomonkeys]

both take karate, play the recorder, and are involved in church. my son takes drum lessons with my husband & my daughter takes guitar with him.

[twoxcell]

Right now my oldest ds is doing swim team and the girls do swim lessons. In the past ds has done soccer, basketball, and flag football. My oldest dd will probably do soccer this spring. She has played for a couple of seasons.

[SFM]

DS8- Piano (Wednesdays), Cub Scouts (Mondays), Book Club (2x/mo.) He also goes swimming but that's on our own un-scheduled time.

DD4- Ballet (Wednesdays) and Storytime (Tuesdays)

DD3- Along for the ride with us all :)

 

We also participate in church activities.

[lulubelle]

ds10 - American Kempo karate, recreational gymnastics, and piano

ds8 - same karate, piano, recreational gymnastics, and piano - baseball

dd6 - same karate, gymnastics, piano - plus, ballet and skating

 

We just stopped swim lessons for the school year and will resume them in the summer

[Lizzie in Ma]

We have always kept these things to a minimum.

Running around like mad to get to one thing or the other isn't our style and disrupts the school day for us.

Never mind that finances have never allowed us to be able to participate in very many things at all.

The last two years we have a 2 hour Shakespeare class once a week they both attend and I co-teach that we love.

Tuesday nights are worship team practice and we have a group Chem lab on Monday afternoons.

Oldest is also a junior intern at Old Sturbridge Village, it's her third year there and she goes for a long weekend or a week depending on her health once a month and stays with her grandparents.

There is a new homeschool bowling league that just started that looks fun and isn't too expensive so we shall see.

[Luckymama]

Dd (7th grade) started ballet when she was five with one 30 minute creative movement class per week. She's now at 8 hr of instruction per week plus rehearsals.

 

She started Girl Scouts in kindergarten and is still with the same troop (meetings twice a month or so).

 

She just finished her second year (runs from late August to late January) on a Lego League team.

[Lisbeth]

Archery, basketball, AHG, tennis,piano, violin, art class, Boy Scouts, and Church activities. That's right now. Over the years, we've done a crazy variety.

[jennynd]

DD is doing piano/violin, Gymnastic and Ski for now. When ski is done for the season (it is a 7 weeks lesson), we will switch from ski to skate

DS is doing violin, soccer travel team, ski. When ski is done, he will switch back to tennis

[Donna]

DS17 year round wrestling, drums

DS15 football, wrestling, guitar

DD10 violin, Irish fiddle, orchestra

 

Over the years they have done martial arts (boys and I have black belts), soccer, church youth group, and dance (dd). They all know how to swim and do often in the summer.

[Library Momma]

DD10 -Does Spring and Fall Travel soccer (3-4x a week), WInter indoor soccer (1x a week), Basketball, Girl Scouts, Dance, knitting class, flute lessons, and is currently in a play.

 

DS8-Does Taekwondo (1-3 days a week), Flag Football in the fall and recorder.

 

My daughter is definitely more of a joiner. My DS likes his free time and would really just rather be fishing.

[KRG]

4H twice a week, Astronomy club once a month, volunteers at the library once a week and homeschool group activities usually twice a month.

[CyndiLJ]

We learned the hard way early on that we didn't want our family life rotating between activities, so after two years of nutty schedules we limited it, much to our kids' relief. They all do TaeKwonDo twice a week in the evenings, and once a week in the mornings we volunteer for 4 hours at our local food bank. One son is in Civil Air Patrol one evening a week. They all do volleyball during the fall. That's it, with a few church activities mixed in for good measure. We are open to a couple of other things for the kids not in Civil AirPatrol, and have done short term things like cake decorating or track, but that is it. One son is interested in shooting club, but we really don't need more nights away from home, and they are very glad we don't.