How many extracurricular activities do your DC participate in?

[TwoBees]

And how old are your dc? DD1 (newly 5) previously did gymnastics and swimming. We stopped both when DD2 was born (too crazy!) and while we moved. It's been almost a year since she last participated in an extracurricular activity and both she and I want to get started again. The problem is, she wants to do everything! She has asked to do soccer, ballet, karate, gymnastics, and swimming. I'm trying to encourage her to pick one, but I feel so guilty. She is very excited and energetic and needs to move, but I cannot figure out how to fit everything in. She is at prek from 8:30 am to 5 or 5:30 pm 5 days/week and we often don't get home until 6. Basically our only time we have for any of these activities is the weekend. Doing two activities in one day or one each day is exhausting for me, but I'm willing to try. Any advice or suggestions?

[khalloc]

I would definitely choose one activity if she is in school 8-5:30 and you arent getting home until 6.

My DS is 6 and he does baseball in the spring, soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter. He also does Cub Scouts, but that is just 2-3 times a month. The sport activities so far have just been about 2 hours total a week. He has an hour of practice on a weeknight, and then generally an hour game on the weekends.

My DD is 9 and she is doing basketball in the winter (just started) and soccer in the fall. I'd like her to join some sport in the spring too.

I think 1 extra curricular at a time is enough. I work too and I dont want to come home from work and have to run kids around every night of the week.

[georgiegirl]

Dd (8) just does swim team right now, but that is 3-4 days a week depending in if there's a meet.

DS (5) does swim and tae kwon do. He's doing tae kwon do because it's at the exact same time and place (ymca) as swim team and his swim lessons are right before swim practice, so there's no extra driving involved.

Generally I try to stick to one activity a season. One of the kids on DDs swim team does gymnastics twice a week and dance once a week...poor girl has activities every night...and she's only 6.

[WatchingThemGrow]

We do too many, probably, but I let each kid pick one. The 5 year old does choir, plus gymnastics because his sibling were doing it and he's just be sitting there watching. He wants to join them in swimming, so we do little groups of lessons here/there. He does a bible study group because I wanted to do the women's one, and kids can go too.

The caveat is that I SAH and he's out of school at 2:30, so we have 5 hours a night to get stuff done. We are busy for one hour at 4:30 every day, either 4-5 or 4:30-5:30 and everything is within 5-12 minutes of home.


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[kdeunc]

My kids are older but in our house we do scouts plus one sport. I will admit that I am different from a lot of parents in my area but DH and I are not willing to spend every evening and all weekend running kids to activities (3 kids adds up! ). I have friends that have multiple children in activities every evening, some nights multiple activities per child! We think it is more important for us to have time as a family. Now that my oldest is in middle school he is participating in some after-school clubs but they do not require the same time commitment.

[wellyes]

In kindy we did a lot- it was useful, really. She did gymnastics, swim, karate, dance, Scouts, skating, skiing, soccer at various point of the year. Now in first grade I can talk to my daughter about priorities. Now she's picked a few she loves. And doesn't regret it that- for example- her friends stayed on the soccer team and she didn't, because she knows she didn't enjoy it that much.

On the other hand, if it doesn't work for you, don't feel guilty. She's 5. You don't have to do anything. It's not like, if she isn't dancing by 5, she'll not be able to start later!! Even competitive sports, you can skip this whole year and the only thing you'll be missing is the fun of it (and the stress, logistical hassles, expense....)

For flexiblity, I think karate wins. A lot of karate studios (at least around here) have one monthly fee, but practices 4-5 times a week, and you can go to as many or as few of those practices as you'd like. So you might have Mondays be your regular day, but if she (or you!!) need that day off from extracurriculurs, you could go to the Wednesday or Thursday practice instead. And if she LOVES it, you could do multiple days.

[mom2binsd]

DS is now 8, but since about age 3 he's played hockey and taken dance...in the summer he also swims 5x a week.

DD is 11, she swims 3x week and dance 1x, in the summer swims 5xweek. When she was younger it was dance classes 2 x week.

[Momit]

We do quite a few. DS is currently doing hockey (league with 2 practices and 1 game each week) and park district indoor soccer (1 game per week). He just finished outdoor soccer and flag football, we will probably add in swimming lessons over the winter. He has also asked to add a music class. He was also doing TKD but we stopped because he just hated it. Come spring, we will do outdoor soccer, then swim team, tennis lessons and baseball in early summer.

Since he's our only, the logistics are much easier to coordinate. Even with all of this, he still has lots of time to play and hang out with kids in the neighborhood.

And I also agree with PP - if you don't want to do a ton, don't. Our neighbor boy is the same age and he does swimming lessons and that's it.

[cckwmh]

We had to cut back this year due to schedules. I hate that kids have to"specialize" at such a young age. DD is 8, is on swim teams and swims at least 4 days a week (more on swim meet weekends). She dances one day a week (last year she danced 3 days). She also does girls scouts twice a month on Sunday evenings. She had to give up most of her dancing, basketball, and softball when she made the swim team. It was her choice, but she misses dance.

[ahisma]

Too many.

Year-round: violin, swimming, ballet, plus scouts for DDS1
Seasonal: Soccer (spring and fall), Odyssey of the Mind

They have something after school 4 days/week. It's a lot, but they do stay caught up with homework and have a good hour+ of free play time a day. What really gets lost is playdates. That said, they have classmates in all but 2 of the activities. As soon as they can swim well enough, we'll drop swim.