Activities/Sports for your 4 year old

[theriviera]

I think I am a slacker mom, at least in my area. We just started at a new preschool and it seems like most of the kids are doing much more than my kids. A lot of them are doing AYSO, swim lessons, and dance/gymnastics. So far I have signed DD1 up for gymnastics. I'm really unsure about AYSO as she has never played soccer. I'm leaning toward an 8 week soccer class.

So, what do you have your 4 year old in?

[ahisma]

DS2 is newly 5. He's done ballet (all boys class), ice skating, swimming nature classes, music classes and some varied classes at the children's museum (art, cooking, etc.) He's doing rec league soccer this year. We've never done AYSO, I like that his neighborhood buddies are in the rec league. We probably do more than many people because we live in a small house and are in walking distance of many of his activities.

This year he's doing fall soccer, intermittent nature classes, year round ice skating and year round boys' ballet.

[JBaxter]

This fall he does preschool and we go to church on sundays. Thats it. In the spring we will do rec soccer. 4 IN MY OPINION is young to start to much.

[maestramommy]

DD3 is 4. Right now she's doing 5 mornings of preschool. Last year she did that, plus ballet and swim, and by year's end she was fed up, even though she really wanted to do them initially (she kept asking). So this fall we're just going to do the random MOMS club meetup if it fits into our schedule. Otherwise, nothing, just puttering around. DD3 is my active kid, so you'd think she'd be happy doing more activities. But she just doesn't like so much regimentation after a while. The 2.5 hours of school every day seems to be enough for her. I just need to come up with more things for her to do at home.

[carolinacool]

DS will be 4 in December. He starts soccer later this week at the Y, which is practice once a week and a game on Saturday through the end of October. He's in day care full time, and last week they brought in some traveling basketball program. He loved it, so we are signing him up for that - once a week for eight weeks during day care hours. The only other thing he's done was Soccer Tots last winter for six weeks, which was OK but not as soccer focused as we thought.

We might put him in swimming at the Y when soccer is over. We both work full time and DH now works evenings during the week, so that just leaves me to shuttle/stay at practices. I can't do that more than once a week now.

[IansMom]

DS is 4. He goes to preschool for three hours M-F. He takes a one hour tumbling & trampolining class once a week, and next week he starts swim class that meets twice/week. This past spring, he participated in a Minikickers soccer clinic run by Challenger Sports. He really enjoyed it, and I highly recommend them if they are in your area.

[123LuckyMom]

DS is in full time preschool. I'm also a slacker mom. I've had my hands full with DD, and she's starting all her activities this year (2 different play groups, 2 library story hours, and a music class).

If I had my act together, DS would be doing year round swim, gymnastics, and karate. DH was so excited about karate he pushed DS to go a week before all his friends started, and, related or not, DS refused ever to go again! I tried my best mommy manouevers, but it was a no go.

I am going to do my utmost to find a good gymnastics class, a swim class, and maybe skiing, but this is all assuming I get around to any of it!

[truly scrumptious]

Ds is nearly 5. He goes to a Montessori preschool program full time. This fall we have signed him up for weekend swim lessons (he did some over the summer and made great progress.) And we gave him the choice of one of the activities offered by his school (which worked with our schedule). He picked woodworking (over soccer, which he did last year, yoga, Zumba and gymnastics) *shrug* so that's what he's doing.

[ourbabygirl]

Nothing, as of now. :bag Since I'm a SAHM and we're paying for DD to be in preschool (3 days/ week) & DS to be in a little morning out program (2 days/week), I feel guilty spending more money on activities. In the past she's done swimming lessons once a week, but the new area we moved to doesn't really have any offerings for kids her age, not until they get into kindergarten. Unfortunately she's not interested in dance or gymnastics. Maybe we'll try karate, and start swimming back up in the spring or summer.

[stinkyfeet]

DS1 is 4. He is in preschool 5 days a week in the mornings. We used to enroll him in a gymnastics/tumbling class on Saturdays, but he got bored of it. We didn't bother enrolling him in any other activity because whenever we go to birthday parties that have instruction (sports-themed, karate,etc), he never pays attention and doesn't participate that much.

During the summer, I didn't even think to enroll him in camps. Since I currently SAH, we would often did a fun outing in the mornings at various playgrounds or the splash park and did some more academic activities in the afternoon.

We have him in speech therapy 2 times a week, and that is enough for both of us for the time being.

The head of our preschool said something like this: "We as parents instinctively want to give more to our kids than what we had growing up, so we sign them up for a bunch of activities. Kids nowadays have to compete for their parent's attention--from siblings, tv, phone, radio, work, hobbies, etc. She said that kids are exposed to music, art, different cultures, etc at school. She encouraged for us parents to just spend quality time with our kids because often test is what they want--I really took this to heart. I think my young kids will have better memories if mommy and daddy playfully kicking around a soccer ball with them than being enrolled in a 4 yo soccer class.

I guess I think that there is time to hone their talents with coaches and classes, at this young of an age, they would probably prefer mommy and daddy's attention.

[ilfaith]

My 4YO DS is playing soccer this fall and is also taking tennis lessons.

In addition, his preschool offers some afterschool enrichment classes, so he will have art, tumbling, and Spanish classes as part of an extended day three days a week.

[MSWR0319]

DS is almost 5. He goes to pre-K 5 days a week for 3.5 hrs. He also takes a tap class once a week, and is playing soccer with 2 practices and one game a week. He goes to Sunday school at least 2x a month. He's maxed out. That's about all he can handle.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I have a rule of 2 activities at a time but often just do one, especially in semester 1 of school. At 4yo, ds2 did just gymnastics and preschool 5 mornings/ week.

[94bruin]

DD2 does 2 full days of preschool and 3 1/2 days (to coordinate with my work schedule). Both are Chinese preschools. The only other activity is swimming. She really just needs to time to play now as I see that DD1 has little time for play now as a 3rd grader...

[o_mom]

I don't think that there is anything wrong with activities at that age (assuming you don't overschedule and it is noncompetative), but I don't think it is needed. Most of the stuff I did at that age with my oldest was for *me* to get out and keep him entertained for an hour. Around age 5 they were able to get more out of it and really learn more than what they got out of going to the playground.

DS1 and DS2 would do a session of soccer or swim at a time ( and 3 half days of preschool). DS3 didn't do much beyond Preschoo and swim lessonsl at that age because I didn't need him to.

[schrocat]

My 4 year old takes swim lessons year round at 2 different places. He swims once a week a his main swim school and has swim lessons 3-4 times a week at the Y. I'm moving that down to just twice a week for the next couple of months and then dropping lessons at the Y altogether now that he's reached a certain level in competence. He will be going to Chinese immersion montessori 3 full days a week this fall, a Kindergarten chinese class on Saturdays and art class at chinese school once a week. He will also be starting private Suzuki piano lessons, gymnastics, soccer lessons and Kumon in the next academic year.

[Kindra178]

Swim, TKD and gymnastics. As a mom, I love each one for different reasons. Gymnastics and swim build muscle and confidence. Gymnastics is great exercise, especially midwinter in Chicago. TKD teaches hard work, discipline, strength, etc. I wish I got my oldest in it.

[twowhat?]

DDs are nearly 5. We did ISR lessons, though to me that wasn't really an "extracurricular"...it was a required skill.

I feel the same way - it seems like everyone is taking gymnastics or ballet or music or something like that. We only recently signed our kids up for soccer because it was taught AT their daycare in the afternoons, when there isn't any real academics going on
(they are in FT daycare). And we just got a flyer for keyboard or guitar lessons, also taught AT the school in the afternoons a couple times a month, so no picking up and driving around and no weekend scrambling. The girls say they are interested in keyboard so we'll sign them up for that too.

But outside of these special programs that they offer AT the daycare? No. I just don't feel like I have the energy yet.

[ahisma]

I think it's nice to remember that what works for one family and one child may not work well for another. I'm wishing that I hadn't come back to read this thread because I'm now feeling like a horrible parent for having my DS in so many activities.

Maybe I should have explained that he needs to practice the class structure, that he needs more gross motor activity than our 5+ miles of daily walking / biking / scootering can provide, maybe I should have explained that a good half of his activities are parent/child, maybe I should have explained that I WAH and do work while watching non parent involvement classes.

The thing is, I shouldn't have to explain any of that. We should just be able to share without worrying about being judged. That would be nice.

[carolinacool]

I think it's nice to remember that what works for one family and one child may not work well for another. I'm wishing that I hadn't come back to read this thread because I'm now feeling like a horrible parent for having my DS in so many activities.

I agree. As I said, we both work full time and are now on opposite shifts. DS is an only child and we live in a neighborhood, which actually has lots of kids, but none near us that he can run outside and play with. And with his behavior the past few months, I think he needs something that will help him with listening and his focus. So this isn't really about me needing to get out (I work eight hours a day in an office. I really don't want to be on a soccer field. LOL), but we just feel this is the right time to do at least one activity. Now, we are limited by both time and money as to the number of things we can do, but if your kid is super excited about everything, then no worries. :) I agree it's individual to the family on whether they make sense or not.

[mikala]

I agree that it totally varies by child and family and even the same child can have different interests and drive over time. Ds1 is really social by nature and I'm a sahm so he does two mornings of preschool and then one or two other activities that interest him. He's done music, nature class, swimming, yoga, ice skating, art class, soccer, but obviously not all at the same time. I anticipate this may change as ds2 grows and they are both interested in different things.

I agree with a pp that kids can learn just as much and make amazing memories just playing catch, cooking with mom and dad or any other activity.

[crl]

Dd is three and a half. She just started five day a week, mornings only preschool. I'm not signing her up for anything else right now. Mostly because I think that's enough for her and a little bit because we are already busy at least three days a week with her brother's baseball, and I don't want any more commitments. When her big brother is done with travel baseball in November, I plan to enroll them both in swim. I am hoping I can find some combination of class and private that lets me have both of them in the water at the same time. We prioritize swim for safety reasons so she won't get a choice on swim.

Catherine

[YouAreTheFocus]

My ds will turn 4 next month. He's in preschool full time since we both work. We started him in gymnastics when he was 2.5, that's once a week on Saturday mornings. This week he's starting a music class, that's once a week on Thursdays after school (545-630). Hopefully that time works ok for us! We also want to get him in swim lessons, but we haven't been able to figure that out yet. For some reason he's dead set against soccer.

[elektra]

My 4yo DS in doing AYSO soccer and piano lessons. He will also be in preschool plus daycare 5 days a week. I would love to get him into TKD too but I am not sure we will be able to swing it until maybe Winter, after soccer is over.
There are just not enough hours in the week for me, when also trying to balance DD's dance and swimming. And also working full time. I am hoping there will be things at his new aftercare that he can try out.

[essnce629]

My 4 yo DS is in private swim lessons twice a week year round and TKD once a week. He was also in basketball twice a week, but the season just ended last week and there's no fall basketball. He'll do basketball again in the winter.

He played soccer in the spring, but much prefers basketball so we'll be sticking with that along with the swimming and TKD.

I prefer having scheduled activities since my kids ONLY want to have screen time when we are at home. They could spend every single waking moment playing Mindcraft and it's a huge battle to get them to play or do anything else.