Activities for your kids?

I am curious to know what types of extra activities your kids are involved in outside of school? One of my friends has her kids on a schedule of go, go, go and has an activity/ class almost every day after school that she rushes her kids too. This ranges from karate/ dance class to drawing class. I find it exhausting, but maybe I am not the norm??

So, what kinds of activities/sports/classes are your kids involved in?

Katelyn takes dance class year-round and participates in soccer in the fall. She also just joined Daisy girl scouts which meets every other week.

Blake plays baseball in the spring and we are signing him up for Karate in the new year.

 

Brooke and Morgan, who are 10, do gymnastics year around and soccer in fall and spring and basketball in winter. Peyton, who is 5, does dance and gymnastics year around. So basically, 2 extra's each.

 

Mine are in PreK and are doing 6 week long art class this winter and we start once a week gymnastics next month.

I try to keep it low key, they have time to PLAY at home and actually use their imaginations and toys. Plus, all that extra stuff is $ that we do not have, and time I do not want to spend on so many activities instead of as a family.

 

We do swim and gymnastics in the summer. I'm thinking about putting then in martial arts though

 

They are in swimming right now. Looking to switch to soccer/karate and or/dance in January. I cannot pull off doing any activities during the week.

 

They all do gymnastics year round. The three boys do 2 days a week about an hour each time. DD (on the competitive team) does it 3 days a week, right now 2 days are 2.25 hours and one is 3 hours. Starting either next week or next month (yeah, that's how much detail I get from these coaches), she will be doing 3 hours, 3 days a week. She also has a 30 minute piano lesson once a week. The twins' gymnastics coach has already told me to expect a letter from them to join the team in a couple of months, but I think they will have to wait one more year. DH has a hard enough time swallowing the bill for DD. I just can't wait for all 3 to do it. :escape:

 

Mine are only in pre-K (at daycare) and it's full-time (8:30 to 5:30), so they don't have time for THAT much. Still, they take swimming on Tuesday evenings and ballet & gymnastics (two different classes, sequentially) on Saturday mornings! Plus we take them skiing and are hoping to get them into lessons this year.

If it were up to me, they'd drop at least 1 of their 3 regular activities -- but DH is all in favor of it, and I have to admit the kids seem to love all the stuff they do. I think we'll just have to put a limit on it as they get older and each activity starts to demand more time. Right now, each thing is just one class (less than an hour) a week.

OTOH, for families with two WOHPs, an advantage of doing more activities is that it provides "coverage." If your kid is at soccer practice right after school, you don't need a babysitter for those two hours. So I'm sure there will be some of that for us, too.

 

I know someone like that. Her twins are in K and I think they have one day a week without any activities.

Meghan and Nolan take gymnastics 1 day a week for 1 hour. They just finished fall soccer and will play tee ball in the spring. Meghan also starts Daisy scouts tonight. We missed sign up for basketball, so I am thinking of signing them up for a rec dept program.

 

Swimming lessons on Tuesday night and gymastics and then cooking class on a saturday morning. All at the YMCA they love it. Will probably do the same in the new year too.

 

My girls have to many extras.
In the Fall they had soccer (which as of now they don't want to do again) which was on the weekend. They start Basketball on Saturday. They have gymnastic one afternoon, dance another and Hebrew school.
They are also going to do Daisy's as soon as the troop is started. They want to do little league in the spring.
They come home with new activities to sign up for from school like once a week. If DH sees the flier before I throw it out, he asked the girls if they want to do it. I

They only way that works is if the activities is at the school. My girls have gymnastics as soon as they get home from school, but they need to get there. Same thing with Hebrew school. Unless we carpool and I have the girls go to the persons house right from school, I still have to be here to get them off the bus and to the activity (or to wait for them to be picked up with the car pool)

 

Nothing. In the summer they did swimming lessons.

Marissa

 

Alyssa and Broyony do Brownies, ballet/dance class, piano and tennis lessons. All those are out of school activities. They are also involved in the school choir which I think sometimes has after school rehearsal (when they are getting ready for a performance).

Naomi and Luke do French club and Dance club, which are both extra-curricular activities but held at their school at the end of the school day (so they go straight from their classrooms to the club). Then Luke goes to Beavers and Naomi goes to Drama as out of school activities.

 

Horseback Riding year around for 1 1/2 hours on Saturday mornings. We tried to do activities after school, but it was just too stressful for all of us to do attend the activity, do homework, cook a healthy dinner and go to bed on time (8 p.m.). My girls love just playing with their friends outside.

 

My girls usually play soccer in the spring which is one practice during the week and games on Saturday, which we aren't sure if they are going to do it this fall or not yet but we think we are going to sign my son up for it this year. The girls also joined the swim team this year which is over the summer and that is practice everyday m-f either morning or night you have a choice and then there is meets 2-3 times a week at night (weekends are free). We do that for about 2 months it's tiring but they did enjoy it and I am hoping they do it again this summer. Other than that they haven't signed up for anything else, they sometimes would like to do something but they really like coming home from school and playing and doing what they want after homework. They don't like having to rush after school to do homework and then either eat or rush to practice and then eat but thankfully it's only once a week for soccer. I would love to put both girls in gymnastics and think they would both really enjoy it but because of cost that won't happen we do the school or town sports which are cheaper. Oh and Katrina right now is doing the acting club which is right after school on Mondays and they should be having their performance in a two or three weeks (they have only been doing it for about a month right now).

 

My three girls take dance. Caitlyn had it two nights a week and Brianne and Hayley have it one night. For the past few years, they had all been playing soccer in the fall and spring. That was practice 2 - 3 nights a week and games on Sat. I am glad they didn't do that this year. I am hoping to get them in swimming soon. We try to limit to 2 activiies at a time.

 

True -- my BIL (who coaches my nieces' elementary school soccer team) said a lot of parents said they could only do it if practices were at the school. But there is a lot of carpooling and ride-sharing. It's a lot of work to coordinate, but it still helps.

 

I like them to pick one physical activity. My girls are in a baton/pom pon class, but they may change to a dance class next month. My son is in martial arts. Each class meets once a week. My older daughter will probably start up with her art classes again next month as well. I do not like to be on the go every night. I find that our evenings are our family time and if you fill them all with activities, it's hard. It's also hard to get homework, dinner and baths in with all kinds activities.

 

Ours do only one sport per season. But honestly Jacob would thrive on having an activity everyday. I've written here before about how he not only likes, but needs interaction with others. It exhausts us and his brother. We don't sign him up for something everyday because 1) if the cost and 2) it would require DH to drag his brother to every activity also.

 

My 6 year old did Fall Baseball and after school basketball once a week for a hour after school.
The twins did Fall Baseball

6 year old is now playing Winter Basketball (which he LOVES and I love because they have a practice and game back to back so no rushing after school to get homework done before practice).

In Spring they all will be in Baseball

Summer swimming

Next Fall my 6 year old wants to do Lacrosse and the twins want to do soccer.

Trust me I am not looking forward to 2 different sports with 3 kids.

 

I feel like mine are in too much but in reality they aren't in a lot compared to others I don't think!

Josie (10) does 18 hours/week of gymnastics (M,T,W,Th & Sat) and sometimes a meet on the weekend as well. That is year round but the hours increase in the summer and there are no meets in the summer. She used to do an after school foreign language but gave that up. She does take swimming lessons in the summer

Jack (7) did lacrosse in the fall, now basketball and will do baseball in the spring and swims in the summer. He also does cub scouts.

Mitchell (5) does the same thing as Jack but without cub scouts. And those activities are only 1 hour/week and then games.

McKenna (5) just joined the gymnastics team so she is doing 5 hours week of gymnastics (year round).

Mine is probably simpler than a lot of people because most of it is at the same place, not 5 different activities and trying to run around at once.

 

I like them to have at least one activity at a time, but I would never over-schedule like that. It is too exhausting.

We just finished soccer and will do softball and baseball in the spring. Ben is signing up to play Friday Night Lights football in February/March, and we are talking about doing Jui-Jitsu with Hannah.

Ben is also involed in Adventure Guides through the YMCA with his dad which isn't a huge commitment.