How many days a week do you do outside activities?

[jnaj]

I am trying to plan out our schedule for this year, and I do think I overdid it this past year (our first year homeschooling, I didn't want the kids to miss out or anything ;) You know how it is!) I am trying to realistically figure out what scheduled things/classes/etc we should plan on doing outside the house every week, and still leave room for letting the kids just BE KIDS.

 

So far- my 6 year old daughter will be doing Occupational therapy 1x per week (morning). She loves sports of all sorts, and she is going to be doing 2x weekly Aerial classes(afternoon). She also wants to do an organized sport, but I am not sure about that. I think that would eat into our schedule and leave no time for park days and other things like that, so we might hold off until baseball season and let her do that since that seems to be her absolute favorite sport. There is an art class for homeschoolers that parents are allowed to do art in as well, so I think we will do that 1x per week before lunch also. I might be able to work that in as the same day we do OT, so we aren't leaving the house more than one morning/before lunch per week unless it's a field trip or something. 

 

My son will be going to a small private school, and he will do extra activities at school. After school he wants to do something, but not sure what yet. He likes the idea of sports, but isn't really into it. Trying to figure out something for him..I'd rather not have it be more than once or twice per week.

 

My youngest is only 2 1/2 (she will be 3 in September) so she probably won't have anything specifically scheduled at this time being so young. 

 

Last year my daughter went to a one day per week homeschool enrichment program, which was great and she took so many fun classes..but I'm not sure I want to do it again this year as it takes away time we need to do school and I feel rushed on the other days, especially since we do have to go to OT one morning a week also..I always go to the gym before everyone gets up in the morning for 1 1/2-2 hrs, so I like to be able to come home and just do school for a bit before we have anything else to do in the afternoon instead of rushing around to get out of the house, and trying to fit in schoolwork later in the day..

 

Sorry this post is so disorganized..it's all my random thoughts that I am trying to piece together so I can feel somewhat more organized this year. I would just love to know what others' schedules are like for outside of the home (planned) activities.

[Ellie]

I am trying to plan out our schedule for this year, and I do think I overdid it this past year (our first year homeschooling, I didn't want the kids to miss out or anything ;) You know how it is!) I am trying to realistically figure out what scheduled things/classes/etc we should plan on doing outside the house every week, and still leave room for letting the kids just BE KIDS.

 

So far- my 6 year old daughter will be doing Occupational therapy 1x per week (morning). She loves sports of all sorts, and she is going to be doing 2x weekly Aerial classes(afternoon). She also wants to do an organized sport, but I am not sure about that. I think that would eat into our schedule and leave no time for park days and other things like that, so we might hold off until baseball season and let her do that since that seems to be her absolute favorite sport. There is an art class for homeschoolers that parents are allowed to do art in as well, so I think we will do that 1x per week before lunch also. I might be able to work that in as the same day we do OT, so we aren't leaving the house more than one morning/before lunch per week unless it's a field trip or something. 

 

My son will be going to a small private school, and he will do extra activities at school. After school he wants to do something, but not sure what yet. He likes the idea of sports, but isn't really into it. Trying to figure out something for him..I'd rather not have it be more than once or twice per week.

 

My youngest is only 2 1/2 (she will be 3 in September) so she probably won't have anything specifically scheduled at this time being so young. 

 

Last year my daughter went to a one day per week homeschool enrichment program, which was great and she took so many fun classes..but I'm not sure I want to do it again this year as it takes away time we need to do school and I feel rushed on the other days, especially since we do have to go to OT one morning a week also..I always go to the gym before everyone gets up in the morning for 1 1/2-2 hrs, so I like to be able to come home and just do school for a bit before we have anything else to do in the afternoon instead of rushing around to get out of the house, and trying to fit in schoolwork later in the day..

 

Sorry this post is so disorganized..it's all my random thoughts that I am trying to piece together so I can feel somewhat more organized this year. I would just love to know what others' schedules are like for outside of the home (planned) activities.

 

During the day, with other people, none. No co-ops, no homeschool sports or dance or anything.

 

Late afternoon/early evening: on a regular basis, not counting church, one (dance). A couple of times we did soccer, which meant two afternoons a week for practice, plus games on Saturday, and that was only for a few months. We only did community-based sports or dance, which are generally scheduled for after-school hours.

 

We left the house every Wednesday to go to the library, and we left the house every Thursday for a field trip. There's a difference between doing something with just your family and doing something with a whole group. :-)

 

[JustEm]

We do kung fu 2 nights a week and acrobatics 1 night a week. Both activities are at the same place and are well after school hours. We also have one day a week where we go out during the day with friends. Anymore and I'd feel overwhelmed with too busy of a schedule. In the future music lessons will be added in to the schedule but I have some good in house options for that.

[Rebecca in KY]

I only have one child, so things are a bit different for us. We do a co-op on Thursdays from 9-2. I work on Tuesdays from 9-12. For us, that's enough daytime stuff. Any more than that and we'll feel rushed to get our schoolwork done. I prefer long blocks of time at home. This also leaves margin in our schedule so if something fun pops up, we can do it and not be those homeschoolers who are always so busy they can't ever do anything with others. :)

[73349]

I got a little dizzy just reading the question, LOL. I max out at around two scheduled things a week. Right now it's just a swimming lesson on Saturdays. In the fall I hope to have him do a homeschool PE class instead and perhaps add piano. (On our own, we do a weekly field trip and sometimes a park day or playdate, plus church. That's plenty.)

 

In your situation, I'd let DD pick one thing at a time (since she already has OT) and let DS sign up for something if it's only once a week and not too inconvenient.

[Ethel Mertz]

We try to keep outside commitments to a minimum. I only have one kid, so that makes a difference too.

 

Sundays and Mondays are his days off and he has jazz drumming lessons on Monday afternoons.

 

He usually has voice lessons Tuesday mid afternoon (his teacher has been battling breast cancer, so we had to take a break from that lesson during the late winter and spring).

 

First and third Thursdays, from around 10:30 to 1:00, we have a homeschool group activity at the library.

 

That's it for us.

[Alice]

I think the "right" amount of activities varies so much from family to family or even within a family it varies from kid to kid. And it changes with the stage of life of the kids. I have one son who loves to be busy. He's a shy introvert who I've come to realize needs the structure of activities in order to have the social interaction he does want with other kids. He's not going to just go hang out with a bunch of kids but he loves something like Scouts because it provides him a framework to hang out in. (Horrible grammar but you know what I mean.) I have another son who is all about free time. He's much more extroverted and loves having friends over but he has virtually zero interest in doing anything organized. For the first, it's not too much to do three activities on one day. For the other three activities in a week would be way over doing it. I've also found as my kids get older they want to do more stuff away from home. 

 

We do a lot of activities out of the house, most days we have something out of the house. We all do co-op one morning a week. Last year my oldest did Odyssey of the Mind which continued into that afternoon. Both boys take piano, my daughter will start in the fall. She does ballet once a week. My oldest does Scouts which is once a week and he swims, next year that will be three times a week. He has played other sports and how often those are depends on the sport. My middle son played basketball last year which is one night a week and one game on the weekend. He probably won't do anything else (he's the free time guy). Even with all the activities they seem to have plenty of time for Legos and art and free time in the backyard and just hanging out with friends. We do frequent field trips and park days and hikes and such. 

[ScoutTN]

Usually four days a week, one of which is church on Sundays.

I don't count library trips since it is only a mile from my house.

This is regular, routine things. I didn't add in spontaneous outings or field trips.

 

Variables which have made a difference for our family as we figure out, year by year and season by season, what works well for us have been: kids who need naps, drive time, what do other kids do while one is in an activity, how many of my kids participate, weather/ season, individual temperaments and interests, cost, time of day and route/ location.

 

ETA: The above is for the school year. Summer is 7 days a week and we love it! Swim team, playing with friends, church, VBS, day camp, picking blueberries, nature walks....

[jnaj]

Thanks for the responses. It's interesting to see others' takes on scheduled out of the house activities. I think the OT and Aerial is enough scheduled for my daughter. It will give us plenty of time to be able to go on afternoon park days or just do whatever we want when we finish school for the day. That is 3 days of commitments for her. My husband will be taking our son to school everyday, and I will be picking up, so any outside commitments besides OT will have to be after pickup time.

 

I just see some homeschool families that are always going and attending every.single.thing and I honestly wonder how they do it! How do they have time to do it all? Even for me to workout, I need to do it early before everyone is up or else I have to do it in the evening after a long day, and that is my only motivation to get up early in the morning to get it done ;)

[madteaparty]

Tennis, Lego league, piano. One field trip per month if that. But tennis is twice a week and should really be 3-4. I don't know what to do about that since we are rural and drive a ton.

[momto2Cs]

Ds has fencing practices two evenings a week. Dd has derby practice two different evenings a week. We all go to the park with friends on Friday afternoons.

 

I have been working outside the home weekday mornings, so afternoons much of the week have been "off limits" for outside activities, so that we had time for lessons!

[Coco_Clark]

We get out a lot. 2 morning a week my oldest takes enrichment classes 9:30-12, we do the library one day while he's gone and the toddler science museum the other. Another morning a week we have a nature study/park group. Another morning I meet friends to play/knit. Basically we leave 4 out of days around 9:30 and come back for lunch.

 

We school in the afternoon for the most part while the littlest naps.

[rocassie]

I homeschool year round and Fridays are our free, catch up day, or Co-op classes depending on the season.  We are generally done with school by lunch (my oldest is 7) so all afternoon is "free."  

 

M-F I only try to have one afternoon that we are going out and doing something which may be a playdate, field trip, or other fun excursion.    The kids really enjoy having free play and since they are happy, I'm happy(and my house is cleaner:)  We also try to make it to the library once a week, but I will often go in the evening after DH is home too just depends on the weather and how urgently I need to go.

 

We keep our activity levels fairly low and generally something all the kids can do.  Everyone seems happy so it's working for now.  

[Veritaserum]

This coming year we will have Monday mornings at the local theater for art and musical theater.  On Tuesday mornings every other week, we will meet with our homeschool group to do history and science projects.  The rest of the time will be focused at home.

[texasmama]

We volunteer as a family (the three youngest kids and I) at the Humane Society one afternoon a week for three hours.  We attend a co op on Fridays for a couple of hours, where the kids take science, and I teach a lit analysis class.

 

During basketball season (October - the end of February), my dh coaches my two sons' middle school competitive homeschool basketball team.  This involves four afternoons a week about three 1/2  hours a day including drive time.  It is a significant commitment.

 

Last year, my younger dd took piano lessons.  We will not be continuing that this year.  She will do Upward basketball.  This is one practice a week and one game on Saturdays for about two months.

 

Our schedule is mostly manageable except for basketball season, which makes things less manageable. 

 

My unsolicited advice to those with younger kids is to keep activities and commitments limited and simple in the elementary stage because they get more complex on their own in the middle/high school stage.  During our first year homeschooling, we had no outside activities except for Upward basketball for my boys.  During our second year, we joined a co op and took only fun, non academic enrichment classes.  Our third year was the start of the academic classes at co op.

[deerforest]

In the fall:

 

Mondays: afternoon writing class, homeschool chorus, aerial dance

Wednesdays: afternoon civics and government classes

Thursdays: afternoon homeschool sewing group

Fridays: afternoon homeschool clay class, park

 

We also have private aerial and circus classes.

 

We only have 1 child who wants a lot of outside interaction and we both work full time. We do school in the mornings year-round.

[melmichigan]

We have one afternoon a week at the Y for their homeschool program.  We go to the library in the afternoons on a regular basis.  At times we have private swimming lessons, usually in the evening or on the weekend.  

[happypamama]

One, usually.  The three older kids all have a class one morning a week, and we make that our day out; we do library and errands on that day as well.  Sometimes we have co-op or park day or another activity on a different day, but most weeks, we are not out twice in a week.  We are often (or at least DH and some subset of children) out at least one day on the weekend.  I really try to avoid regular evening activities.

 

(I have several littles still, and we live 20 minutes from anything, and my DH works long hours; that adds up to a desire to keep outside activities limited during the week.)

[Desert Strawberry]

One. During the school year, we have one day a week set aside to go to the (small) city, do activities, run errands, visit the library, have brunch, appointments, field trips, etc. We are 30 miles away, so it's all day. 

During summer, we have sports in our small town. One sport at a time, as many kids as want to play. That comes out to 2-5 days per week. But that's less than 2 miles away, so not a big deal.

We are considering adding more sports throughout the year. I am thinking we need to stay local for this. Mine are still young, so options are limited. That will change as they get older. We will still keep it to one at a time. Possibly two so that everyone can get their own opportunity. I have more children than seasons.

[My3girls]

Right now, just once a week for something fun.  During the fall and spring, we do 3 days a week cross-country/track practice/meet and 1 day a week something fun with homeschool group.  This coming school year I am hoping to get them into music co-op so that will add another day in the mix.  We, also, have Girls Scouts twice a month and 4-H once a month.  These are all late afternoon/early evening activies except for 4-H and Music co-op so they do not affect our school time.  I count 4-H and music co-op as school so it's scheduled in accordingly.

[abba12]

Right now? Very little!

 

We are looking to set up a homeschool co-op in our area which will be once a week, probably in the morning (10-1 maybe)

 

My Grandmother comes over once a week to help out, sometimes does some schoolwork, plays with the kids to give me a couple of hours off, etc, and then we spend the evening at her house with Grandad and have dinner

 

As soon as the kids are old enough we plan to send them to Girls Brigade, once a week in the evening

 

During summer we swim at least one afternoon a week, preferably 2 or more

 

And I aim to invite someone over for morning tea/lunch once every two weeks

 

This doesn't seem like too much to us, but I worry about taking on any more. We would like the kids to do a martial art class when they're a little bit older, maybe next year for my eldest, but that should really be done twice a week, which is a big commitment to us. Maybe we will do it in the winter when the pool is closed...

 

[MinivanMom]

Right now we have swimming 6 days a week, but we aren't doing anything else (not even homeschooling) so hanging out at our neighborhood pool doesn't feel like too much.

 

In the fall we will have activities 4 days per week (1 in scouts, 2 in ballet, 2 in soccer, 3 taking piano lessons, & 1 taking harp lessons). Once soccer and Nutcracker are over in the winter then we will only have activities 3 days per week. We like being busy and it's much easier to juggle everything now that the toddler is weaned. I keep all our activities in the late afternoon and evening to protect our homeschooling time, and I try to reserve 1 day for cleaning & laundry and at least 2 days for stay-at-home family time.

[SoCalLynn]

So far this summer, way too much.  I have one daughter at home, she's 14. Monday, art in the morning and Grace Girls (Christian Bible study and social group) in the afternoon; T/Th is fencing for 90 minutes each; Wed. is youth group at church. Also, she is dog sitting this week and babysitting on call. I have done nothing but drive her around for the last 2 weeks. I'd like to get some beach days in and some other fun activities, but we'll be going to Las Vegas over 4th of July weekend (a working weekend for my husband, he's a musician) and none of the regular activities are going away. I feel my relaxing summer just slipping awaaaayyyyy.

[ByGrace3]

We are out of the house 7 days/week. Mostly afternoons/evening though. Looking to the fall, once a month they will have outside classes on a Friday. That and one morning a week for ydd's gymnastics are the only things we do during the day. Older dd and ds have evening activities/sports as well as on Saturday, and church on Sunday and Wednesday. We do field trips with our homeschool group 2 Fridays a month, but it's usually in the afternoon.

[SevenDaisies]

This past year way too many - including multiple activities in a day. My oldest had skating 2 mornings and 2 early afternoons plus 3 afternoons of ballet. My son had a lunchtime baseball lesson and then 1 evening and Saturday game or practice. My youngest had gymnastics 1 afternoon per week. Needless to say, it was a rough year school-wise. Next year my oldest is dropping studio ballet for 1 Saturday morning ballet class at the rink and we plan to have all of her skating lessons earlier in the morning so we can start school by 10 and go until 4 or 4:30.

 

A lot of it depends when you are most productive. We get up early but somehow never get started until 10 anyway, so at least this way skating is out of the way. I am really looking forward to having so much time this year even though we have activities 6 days a week.

[Lizzie in Ma]

We don't do a lot, I hate over-scheduling for us.

During the school year we have one day of outside classes at a tutorial.

Music lessons are at out house once a week.  (cello)

I did promise youngest she could do a dance class for the coming school year.  She had been saying she wanted to go to ps but it turns out what she really wanted was activities.

[jnaj]

Yea, I have come to find out that if we have any morning activities (besides the gym for me) that we just don't get much (if any) school work done. It's probably my fault, but by the time we get home from any activities etc I am worn out from chasing the 2 year old around, etc. so I just let the kids do whatever they want at that point. They can literally entertain themselves for hours and are actually doing creative things, but I really know we have our best "homeschool days" when we are focused in the morning until about lunch time. After that we can do anything else and be fine. I kind of wish we could have morning activities, and come home and do schoolwork afterwards but that just doesn't seem to work for us. If my youngest would nap, then it might work better.

 

I kind of feel like we have had too many scheduled things this past year and we have been able to enjoy the fun things, library, museums, hiking, etc. because we have been tied down. I forgot to add that my son has educational/language therapy weekly as well. 

[pehp]

TWO DAYS.  I am a total stickler for this.  I want to be home all day for three days of the week, so I only plan activities on 2 days. If it doesn't fit on those 2 days, I'm passing it up at this time of our lives.  During the 'school year' we attend a homeschool group (CC) on Thursdays.  On Tuesdays my son has an art class and then we do our farmers' marketing, grocery shopping and in-city errand-running.  Piano, which we will start this fall, will be scheduled for either Tues or Thurs afternoons as well.   I thought of signing up my daughter (she's 3) for gymnastics, but they don't have a class scheduled yet for Tues/ Thurs so that's out.  I will go to the library (it's 5 minutes away) on Wednesday afternoons sometimes!  I'm very careful with my trips to town or the city and always do my grocerying etc when piggybacked onto another errand or scheduled outing.  No running here and there.  That makes me crazy!!  But, everyone is different!

 

In the summer we are relaxed and different.  We're taking time off right now. Swim lessons Monday, Art/marketing Tuesday, library program on Wednesday.  Thurs and Fri are free for projects, going to the pool or lake, inviting friends over, etc.  I still don't run around much, and only have Tues in the city, but not doing lessons affords us some leisure!

 

 

[SilverMoon]

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Edited September 6, 2023 by SilverMoon

[Carrie12345]

I don't know for sure how this fall/winter will shake out, but right now it looks like an all day co-op once a week and more of a play group gathering once a week, plus a monthly environmental class.

 

In the spring, both my daughters play softball and ds is thinking about trying baseball.  That means most evenings with a few double bookings.  They also did Saturday classes through our community college.  Spring exhausts me.

[jnaj]

I recently found out that my son's school will be offering the extracurricular afternoon classes to homeschoolers (it's a small private school with homeschool options- really neat)- if there is anything that she wants to take outside of the aerial classes I think this might be our best option since we are going to be going there everyday for pickup anyways..we'll see. I forgot that in her one day enrichment program she was taking sign language, theater, etc. She LOVED those things..

[Runningmom80]

A lot. I often worry too much, but my kids don't want to quit anything! My 7yo does Suzuki bass, which is twice a week, soccer or swimming, (depending on the season) & drum lessons. He wants to do a theatre class as well. My twins are in preschool everyday, will start Suzuki in the fall, and also little gym and swimming. Oh and they want to do soccer like their brother.

 

That's too much for me, but like I said, I can't get them to quit anything.

[Wabi Sabi]

I have a different perspective on it than many homeschoolers. We do a lot of activities, more than many people advocate. However, having time to participate in their various classes and activities and explore interests is one of the main reasons we homeschool. 

For myself, I've found that it helps to cluster our activities together. I like to have 2-3 days/week when we're just home (it varies on a weekly basis since several of the kids' activities meet only once or twice a month.) It would drive me batty to have 45 minutes of piano on Monday, choir on Tuesday, dance on Wednesday, etc. I'd rather stay home all day Monday and Tuesday, then have several classes scheduled in a single afternoon on Wednesday. For example, here is our tentative schedule for the fall: 

Monday- home 

 

Tuesday- home

 

Wednesday- home until foreign language class for oldest at 3:15 and dance for youngest at 5:00. My youngest also has a nature class that meets only 6X/year during the day on Wednesday, but I just drop her off (it's less than 10 minutes from our house) and come back home to work with my oldest 1:1. 

 

Thursday is our busiest day of the week: 

10am- drop off youngest at enrichment class
10:30- oldest's piano lesson (1 hr) followed by lunch together
1:00- pick up youngest from enrichment class and head to the park that is just a few minutes away
1:00-3:00 - homeschool groups's weekly park day 
3:00-4:30 weekly library visit 
4:30- drop both kids off at choir together, dh picks them up on his way home from work

Friday: oldest has two different classes that meet on alternating weeks. Week 1's class is from 10-2, week 2's class is 10-1. Both classes are less than 10 minutes from home, so once he's dropped off I have that day to work 1:1 with my youngest. 

We rarely even leave the house from Monday morning until Wednesday afternoon, and rarely if ever sign up for anything that meets on a Saturday or Sunday, so really we're totally free from Saturday morning until late Wednesday afternoon. 

So, for me, I've found that it's not necessarily about how many activities or how many days outside of the house, but a matter of being able to schedule things in a way minimizes the number of trips outside of the house, just like other people swear by consolidating all of their weekly errands and grocery shopping into one trip. Doing it this way gives us long, uninterrupted blocks of time at home yet still let's the kids participate in meaningful activities, and saves on gas. Yes, we could cut back on the classes, music lessons, theatre groups, etc., but that defeats one of the main reasons why we homeschool in the first place. Different strokes, different folks and all that, but this is what works for us.

[ItoLina]

We are out A LOT. Actually it's 4 days a week right now, but it will be 5 when soccer games start back up again. Ds6 plays club soccer, so that's mostly where we are. But dd4 also does a once a week ballet class. We also do coop every other week and occasionally just go to a friends house for the day so the kids can play and the mommies can talk over coffee :-). It sounds like a lot, but honestly it doesn't really feel like too much for us. I think it just depends on you and your kids. Also, we live in a place where everything is really close to us, so we don't spend a lot of time driving to all of these things. That's is big I think. If I had to spend hours in the car everyday that would get old quick.

[vaquitita]

Last year it was 3 days and it was too much for me at this point, this year I'm planning 2 days. One afternoon is nature study. The oldest two take a sports class, switching to swim lessons in the spring. My oldest also took piano lessons last year. I'm planning to do sports and piano the same day this year. We are also switching from a 12:30 to a 2pm sports class. It was way too hard to get some school done, get dressed and eat lunch by noon. I'm actually going to drive further to do this (12:30 class is 5 minutes from my house, 2pm class is 15 minutes away).

 

I'm torn between wanting them to do certain things like music, art, etc and needing to spend time at home in order to get school done. And with a bunch of little kids, just getting out the door is hard. And the school age kids and the baby need opposite schedules! The kids need to be home in the morning for school, doing activities in the afternoon. OTOH the baby needs to be home in the afternoon to nap. Why did my fourth baby have to be the one who only naps good at home? He's happy with a 45 minute nap on the run, it's only me who is super tired by the time we get home and want him to be sleeping so I can be alone a bit and get stuff done. And of course if he only naps a little than he wants to be held all evening instead of being on the floor. Oh well, I'm sure this will change as he gets older. Heck, it might change between now and the new school year (6mo this now, 9 months then).

[Wabi Sabi]

We are out A LOT. Actually it's 4 days a week right now, but it will be 5 when soccer games start back up again. Ds6 plays club soccer, so that's mostly where we are. But dd4 also does a once a week ballet class. We also do coop every other week and occasionally just go to a friends house for the day so the kids can play and the mommies can talk over coffee :-). It sounds like a lot, but honestly it doesn't really feel like too much for us. I think it just depends on you and your kids. Also, we live in a place where everything is really close to us, so we don't spend a lot of time driving to all of these things. That's is big I think. If I had to spend hours in the car everyday that would get old quick.

Yes, absolutely! We are within 5-10 minutes of everything except for piano lessons, and that is "waaaayyy on the other side of town" which means it's a 15-20 minute drive. 

[jnaj]

I think part of my stress last year is that we lived so far from everything (by so far, I mean 20 minutes..)- where we live now, we are pretty much 5-10 minutes from everything EXCEPT when my son starts school. That will be a 20 minute drive, but I will only be doing that in the afternoons. 

[sdobis]

My son plays varsity football for our competitive homeschool team. During football season, he practices 5 days a week, but this is all in the evening. 

 

Other than that, we go to our homeschool skate every Thursday. We typically only school 4 days a week, but I'm going to try to fit in some school on Thursdays. We'll see how that goes.

[Tess in the Burbs]

Our schedule has varied over the years.  We would have a busy year and then take a light year.  Now my kids are more involved in their sports.  Last year dd was at gymnastics 4 days a week. Ds was swimming 3 days a week.  We couldn't do any other activity like church.  We did attend a homeschool park day weekly when the weather worked out.  It was a very full year.  

 

We do not do co-ops or classes during the day.  I prefer sport activities in the afternoon/evenings so we can get school done.  

 

You have to find what works for your family.  I know people who love co-ops.  I do not know how they get their school work done when at multiple co-ops but it's how they homeschool.  We do all our school at home, so we need our week days to be free.  I prefer Dr appts in the afternoons but will do some in the mornings if it's all we can get.  

 

Don't worry about everyone else's schedule.  Your kids may change interests over the years.  Heck, my ds who really got into swimming last year is telling me today he wants to play soccer.  Not the rec soccer, but a more intense team.  Registration for everything is due next week!  You have to roll with their interests and know ahead of time what you are willing to put into it.  Letting dd do gymnastics has been a stretch on my ideal plan for my kid....and I see her waning at times.  I expect her to get out this year or stay forever lol.  

 

Figure out what it takes to get school done and then pick your activities.  

[msrift]

I have four kids involved in quite a few activities so we have things almost every day of the week. I leave mornings open for lessons, but then M/W we have a PE class right after lunch. After that we return home and do project work. T/Th kids have art and drama classes (youngers one day, olders the other - whoever isn't in class is working with me in lobby, we're off exploring local museums, or both). Friday mornings we are starting our 'competition' co-op (working on FLL, DI, etc). Friday afternoons are left open for hiking if the weather is good, museums or field trips if not. Evenings and weekends are pretty much filled with various sports and music lessons.

I'm sure our schedule would drive most people batty. We've had years with fewer commitments, but we've found that this works for us. On days when we are home all day, we turn into lazy critters who take forever to get anything done. Our afternoons activities give us a deadline for completing assignments. Plus, the kids and I enjoy getting out and about. And all of these activities are usually only 15 minutes away so it's manageable. Even then, I usually use our driving time to pop in a documentary. One more thing to factor in is that we tend to school year round (or at least a greatly extended schedule) so we can spread out lessons out a little bit.

[AimeeM]

*sob*

 

I think that every day, or almost every day, this upcoming fall we will have an outside of the house gig to attend.

 

If DD does dance, that's two or three days a week. If she does soccer instead, that's definitely 3 days a week (2 practice; 1 games).

 

DS5 will have dance once a week (and of course it's a different day than DD would be be, lol).

 

Piano lessons on Thursday (or whatever day we do not have dance/soccer - piano teacher is flexible).

 

Not outside of the house, but every friday we will have a group of tweens/teens over for science games/projects. Every other Saturday labs. Autumn is super excited about this :)

 

I believe that our new parish does CCD on Sundays, so on Sundays we'll have Mass and CCD.

[kolamum]

2.

 

They have swim one day & then a home ed meet up another day.

 

Swim is something we do regardless, all though I keep studies lighter that day so we can be done before arriving. This permits extra practice & just plain fun afterwards. There are some friends who were having lessons at the same time so afterwards they all liked to practice together & then play.

 

The Home Ed Meet-up Day is not something I'm prompt about always going to IF enough work hasn't been finished prior in the week. Our group doesn't meet on a Friday afternoon {frustrating to be honest}, so we won't often show up until 1 or thereafter if we have work to be done to not have to play major catch-up the final day of the week. The only time this differs is when we have a special thing happening & it's not just a play in the park.

 

I tend to guard our time closely because I know too much time out takes away from studies. At the same time things done in the afternoon shouldn't effect it if you're up & at them at a good time, kwim? 

[hollyhock]

Zero. We swim at home, do piano lessons at home and do church at home. When we go out, it's for family activities or visiting, but no outside weekly commitments. 

[Momling]

Generally just ballet for one kid and tennis for the other, but those days have increased as they've gotten better and older and are now each 5-6 days of lessons and rehearsals / tournaments.

[Meriwether]

I'm not sure what our schedule will look like next fall. Odds are that we'll have something every day of the week. Often to multiple activities. TKD is the biggest culprit claiming 4 days.

[FriedClams]

My kids are middle school aged...

 

Before 1:30, no outside activities at all. On Wednesday 1:30-3, piano lessons.

 

Now, my kids are older so night/afternoon is a free for all!

 

Sunday - pm - AWANA for YEARS, and now likely a worldview class twice a month

 

Monday - scouts (and something fun for dd - in July we're taking a Wilton cake class)

 

Tuesday - TKD

 

Wednesday - piano, bible study then nothing after 5:30

 

Thursday - TKD

 

Friday - open until basketball...

 

Saturday - usually something scout related or basketball

 

BUT - my kids are older. We didn't do anything but AWANA for years and years. In 3rd grade my son started scouts but we all participated, and then started TKD in 4th grade (DD is a grade ahead). I do not regret for a *second* starting much later with activities than most families. I honestly wouldn't do anything not church related before third grade.