What afterschool activities do your 7 to 1o yr old do?

[jess_g]

My son is 7. He does floor hockey once a week, legos as an after school class once a week, and a once a week lego class on the weekends. He also does OT once a week and goes to his brothers PT class once a week too (but just plays in the waiting room). It seams like a lot to me. I am just wondering what other kids do after school and how much is too much. My son loves all the activities that he does but I will not let him do any more activities than this unless one ends.

Jessica.

[Roni]

I'm probably the wrong one to ask, since we are way overscheduled. Year-round my dd's do dance (on different days), Girl Scouts every other week, synchronized swimmimg on the other week and also on Fridays. They are now doing a 5-week ski program. In the fall, dd1 also did First Lego League. (Believe it or not, we've cut back since last year. We cut out gymnastics & Spanish since having a new baby, and most activities are now in town--no more driving 1/2 an hour to the Y.) They enjoy all of their activities. Saturdays are usually a chill-out at home day.

Your son sounds like he enjoys what he's doing, & nothing seems high-stress. I would take your cues from him--if he's happy & you aren't stressed, you're probably okay.

[willow33]

DS1 is 7...turns 8 next month. He does Religious Ed one night a week, indoor soccer one night a week, math club after school 2x/month and cub scouts.

[KrisM]

DS will be 7 in a couple months and I don't expect things to change.

He does TaeKwonDo twice a week, violin twice a week and cub scouts 3 times a month. Violin is at school and I just pick him up at the end. The others are in the evenings. One day, violin and TKD are on the same night and it's busy getting to TKD, but we're home by 7, so it works. Once a month, we have a really bad Thursday - violin until 4:45, TKD 6:15-6:45 and cub scouts 7-8:30. But, it's just once a month, and we'll deal.

[hillview]

DS1 is 5.5 and does woodworking at school after class once a week
DS2 is 3 and does nothing but preschool 5 days a week

On occasion they will do swimming lessons.

They are in school 8-3 (DS1) and 8-1 (DS2) so I feel like they are pretty busy.
/hillary

[jenmcadams]

I'm another one who has a heavily scheduled kiddo (DD, age 8, 3rd grade):

Brownies - 2x per month
Piano (Private 30 min Lesson) - 1x per week
CO Children's Chorale (semi-pro children's ensemble) - 1x per week, more often near concerts; the commitment on this increases pretty drastically as she advances through the different levels...I think eventually it will be tough to do this along with sports, so she'll have to make some tough choices
Math Club - 1x per week (although we only do this when there are no sports going on)
Soccer (Fall, Spring) - Two 90 min practices per week, 1 game per week (our team chose to do only 1 session of Indoor this year (which is just 1 game, no practices) and we actually have 2 months off which has been awesome...we were playing too much and the girls were getting burned out)
Softball (Late Spring/Summer) - Two 2 hour practices per week, 1-2 games per week

She also wants to do Drama and an Art class, but we're tapped out as it is

[wendmatt]

DD is 8 and has girlscouts every other week and she starts piano classes this week. That's enough for us!

[g-mama]

My 7 and 10 year old sons both:

*take piano lessons once a week
*go to CCD one day a week
*have basketball practice one evening a week
*have a basketball game on Saturdays

In the fall and spring, they play soccer and the 7yo practices one night a week and the 10yo practices two nights a week.

[SnuggleBuggles]

We are way underscheduled this year...and I like it!!

He has Cub Scouts 2 times/ month with an occasional extra thing here and there. He has 1 afterschool club and just started taking swim lessons once/ week last month. It's good. Lots of down time. I decided not to try and get him to do activities just because I think he should (like soccer- we stuck with that 2 seasons too long!).

Beth

[egoldber]

Older DD is 9.

Monday - piano lesson (at her after care) @4:30, group therapy @6:30
Wednesday - currently swimming but switching to yoga in a week (at her after care)
Thursday - every other week is Girl Scouts
Friday - swim team (at her after care)

I am really liking this schedule this year. Our Monday evening is packed, but both things are very close to home and that is her light homework day.

Girl Scouts is only twice a month so feels doable.

The swim team would be an issue any other day but Friday, so it works out great for us!

ETA: She is also taking viola, but that is at school during the school day.

[crl]

DS is 7. He goes to after care 3 days a week. He plays outside and does his homework there. On Tuesdays he goes to after school sports at his school, run by his PE teacher. When this session stops, I plan to put him back into swim lessons. On Fridays, we have a standing playdate at the Y pool during open swim. That's it right now.

I struggle a bit with wanting to give him chances to try out different things and not wanting to overload him with activities. I value free play time pretty highly. Also I have a 9 month old baby and running ds to activities isn't very convenient.

Catherine

[giavila]

My dd will be 7 in May.

Piano- 30 min 1x week
Swim- 1x week
Dance-1x week
Girls scouts- 2x month (this is at school so I just pick her up later those 2x a month).

(In the fall we drop swim to do Soccer)

[Tracey]

- piano once a week
- martial arts twice a week

I also sign her up for an after school activity through the school once a week. This changes by the school quarter. She usually picks an art class or a computer class.

[kozachka]

DS is 7 and is in 2nd grade. Dh travels a lot and I work OTH, hence we are limited to either activities at school that are right after classes or week-ends.

Monday - basketball (today was 1st class)
Tuesday - nothing
Wednesday - chess
Thursday - clay/sculpture (starts this week)
Friday - nothing
Saturday - 3 Taekwondo classes, including 1 weapons training training, 45 mins each
Sunday - 2 Taekwondo and 1 swim class

Wolf scouts - 2x per month. I am thinking of dropping this, since it's too late at night on week-days and I don't see the value.

School psycologist suggested that we enroll DS into team sports (he has issues fitting in with other boys at his new school) and principal said they'd help with drop-off logistics, so I will also try to sign DS up for soccer, and that's why we signed him up for basketball. Also, DS is getting bullied and isolated at his afterschool care, there are no boys his age and older boys have already formed a clique and don't accept him, so I signed him up for as many afterschool activities as possible (3) so that he spends less time there.

We'll drop swimming classes either once DS passes all levels or once he qualifies for the swim team at the local swim club (probably this August/September) or once he 'hits a wall' like he did last spring. Now that we've moved, TKD studio is too far for us to go on a week-day, so DS takes several classes in a row to make it worth the drive. He loves Taekwondo and swimming the most. I think he'd be also good at dance, but I really can't fit it in with my work and DH travel schedule at this point. DH promised to play tennis with DS when he is back in town, he'll pick him up earlier and take to courts for an hour.

[MelissaTC]

M is 8 and in third grade. His schedule is pretty simple right now. With his school load, this is about all he can handle.

Chess club- every other week until next month. Tournament is in beginning of March and will have some weekly meetings before then.

Piano- private lesson once a week

Not a fun activity but I count it as it is $$$ and takes up 2 hours a week- vision therapy. We need him to finish his course before we can really take on anything else.

Spring machine pitch baseball starting in April. He wants to also do martial arts of some sort but I am holding off on that as he would also like to learn the guitar.

[Asianmommy]

9 & 6 yo DD: Piano 1x/wk, Ballet 1x/wk, Chinese 1x/wk, skating 1x/wk.

[jamesmom]

7 year old DS has piano 1X/week, swimming 1X/week, OT 1X/week, basketball 2X/week and Chinese 1X/week. That's as much as he/we can handle :)

[bnme]

My 8yo right now has:
Basketball 1x per week and game on Saturday
Cub Scouts every other week plus 1 Friday per month
he had skating 1x per week but that is over and won't start again for awhile

but in spring our schedule is busier:
Soccer 1x per week plus game on Sunday
Baseball 1x per week plus games on Saturday and Monday
Cub Scouts every other week plus 1 Friday per month

I like him to participate in activities but sometimes it gets to be too much. Between him and his brother sometimes it means something almosy everyday.

[jren]

DD is 7. She takes gymnastics and is very involved in our local theater (weekly class plus plays, rehearsals, etc.). Since arts and PE are some of the things our schools have cut back on, I'm glad we can add these in after school.

[momof2girls]

DD#1 does dance, CCD, Brownies, soccer(in season), gymnastics. She is almost 8 yrs old.

[mom2binsd]

DD who is 7

Gymnastics 1 hr a week 5-6pm- Tuesday

Dance 1 hr a week 5-6pm- Wednesday


DS who is almost 4

Hockey Monday 5-6/Sat 11-12 (DD has to come and watch)

Dance Tues 10-11

Preschool Mon/Wed/Fri pm's