[workingdad]

Our oldest is in kindergarten, full-day, and my wife was concerned about overscheduling. For Pre-K, she was only in one full-day and two half-days, and we were worried about the transition. So during kindergarten, we did soccer in the fall and nothing else in the spring. We did want to start her with dance but the studio nearest us closed. We also wanted to start her with piano lessons, but the number we had for the reccommended teacher was incorrect, and inertia has taken over. She used to do gymnastics, but we wanted to give her a break from it, and besides, her favorite teacher took time off to have a baby.
For first grade, we're planning on getting her into dance classes; she loves to dance and is good at imitating moves on videos and also creating her own. We are mulling over gymnastics, and still thinking about the piano. And there's also trying to find a good foreign language class....
but how much is too much? Do you think it's good for kids to have just one or two after-school activities during the course of the year, or can they handle more?

[scrapbookguru]

hmm the long and short of it. My opinion is that it really should somewhat be the childs choice. I think that too much is often more than one activity. Why not focus on only one activity or add a second and thats it. At least then the child has a chance to get better at something than trying to work at all these different things.

If that is seriously what your child's kindergarten year looked like - you need to rethink it

[workingdad]

Originally Posted by scrapbookguru

hmm the long and short of it. My opinion is that it really should somewhat be the childs choice. I think that too much is often more than one activity. Why not focus on only one activity or add a second and thats it. At least then the child has a chance to get better at something than trying to work at all these different things.

If that is seriously what your child's kindergarten year looked like - you need to rethink it

Sorry, if the post was not clear (i corrected it). All she had was school and in the fall she had soccer. No music, no dance, no gymnastics. She does not want soccer next year. She would like dance and gymnastics (if her favorite teacher comes back). Piano lessons don't seem to interest her, but she is "writing" her own compositions -- she sings the notes, writes them down like they are "do-re-mi" from Sound of Music, and then my mother will transpose them into sheet music (she has a program that does it now).

[mommysqueek]

My daughter is also in kindergarden. We did have her playing softball . That was 3 night's a week. That got to be alot. She will be 6 next month and we are signing her up for the swim team. I figure the child will let you know what is to much for them. Let her decide what activity she like's best and go with that. If she changes her mind move on to the next.

[mcmama]

Originally Posted by workingdad

For first grade, we're planning on getting her into dance classes; she loves to dance and is good at imitating moves on videos and also creating her own. We are mulling over gymnastics, and still thinking about the piano. And there's also trying to find a good foreign language class....
but how much is too much?

When I was administrator of a music school, I saw way too much overscheduling of 5 and 6 year olds. True, we had some children who thrived on dance, karate, and violin at that age, and did all those things well. But for the average child when you have a "if it's Tuesday this must be piano and if it's Thursday this must be gymnastics no wait who decided to have a birthday party today, oh gosh we'll have to move something to Wednesday" type of menu choices for activities, you often have trouble.

One of the things we found with the music school is that there is a certain amount of self discipline involved in learning to play an instrument well enough to enjoy it. That's also true of dance and sports. If you really want the child to fully benefit from the challenge, you can't be treating it like a "today is music day" thing. I am not talking about the music together classes, I am talking about starting private lessons or Suzuki groups for piano or violin. (We started some violinists as young as 3 and 4; with most little pianists we found it was better for them to wait until they were about 6 or 7).

Kids can't really get a sense of whether or not they truly enjoy a challenging activity unless they are supported in settling down to enjoy it. Unfortunately, I have seen people need to hurry up the music lesson because the six year old has a soccer game and the seven year old has a swimming lesson, but what do you mean they're not ready to play on the recital?

Give each activity time. This is something we have had to carry forward into the teen years - if you want to play on a team, you might want to rethink the school play. If you want to play on a team and be in the school play, you might want to rethink orchestra. If you want to play on a team and be in the school play and play in the county orchestra - all in the merry month of may - what are you, nuts? Going to school in your spare time?

I love what your wife is doing with writing down her songs. Most kids don't know you can do that.

[workingdad]

I have to say that my daughter is not an average kid! I don't mean that to be defensive! She's really supersmart. Some kids you can tell, even at 5 (excuse me, 6 this week). She could probably handle it better than we can handle her doing it! But I do agree that the kids have to really get into that one activity and take the time, espcially at this stage. To do it just to occupy time is silly. I like George Carlin's idea that kids should spend at leat an hour or so every day just daydreaming. When we first bought our house it had a deck, and my nephew used to stay with us on Fridays after school and he and my wife would just hang out on the deck and do that. it's important to have than unwinding time.

[pattiewrites]

My girls do one activity during the school year. It was dance for a few years, but they wanted a change. They chose cheerleading and we do that during the year. Over the summer, they will be doing cheerleading and gymnastics. They may do some swimming lessons too. I'm still looking into this one. And this will be in the summer when school is out, so I think they have plenty of time for just hanging out and daydreaming. For my girls, I think one activity is plenty during school, especially since cheerleading is 2 nights a week for the Kindergarten daughter (1st grade next year) and 3 nights a week for my 2nd grader. I think they need the other nights to just relax. Plus, my girls get a fair amount of homework.

[Tsunshine]

Overscheduling kids is actually a bigger problem than most parents realize. It often adds undue stress to a child's life, even if they seem to enjoy it. They miss out on play time when their imaginations kick in. You said your child loves making up songs, well if she's too busy doing everything else that will stop. Let her be a kids right now. It's great that you want to give her so many opportunities but it's not really necessary. Lots of kids grow up doing nothing put playing and they are happy. If she really wants to do something let her choose one thing.

School will only get busier the older she gets. I always feel sorry for those children who have to pass up playing with a friend or another activity because they are enrolled in so many things that they have to attend because their parents paid for it. I think they miss out on a lot of growing experiences from interacting with others and just having fun when they are over scheduled.

You might want to read my nature deficit blog which talks about why kids need time to play and interact with nature, which so many kids are missing out on becuase of overscheduling. http://parenting.families.com/blog/n...g-our-children