How scheduled is over scheduled?

[Jo]

How many different activities do your kids participate in? How many during the summers?

[Mary]

Madalyn was in two things this winter. She's in dance (tap/jazz), which is one hour on Wednesdays. Then she did basketball, which was an hour's practice on Mondays and a game on Saturdays. Basketball ended this past Saturday, though so she just has dance until t-ball starts up. T-ball and dance only overlap for a few weeks and then dance ends for the summer and then we just have t-ball through June. When it ends she has the rest of the summer off till dance starts again in September -- and I'm not sure she'll even be doing that next year because I think she's losing interest. If that's so then she will just do basketball in the winter and t-ball in the spring.

I don't think what we do is too much. It's a little busy when two of the things overlap but each activity is only about an hour; it's not like the entire afternoon/evening is wasted and it's not standing in the way of her doing her homework or going to bed on time or anything. And there's still plenty of time for me to get stuff done. I think "overscheduling" comes when the kids' activities overtake the entire family's schedule and make it tough for anybody else to do anything. Also if it's affecting their schoolwork it's too much, and if it's keeping the family from ever spending time together then I think something needs to be cut, as well. I think two or three nights a week is about as much as I'd be willing to take on.

[Val]

Right now Cailin only gets to chose one at a time. She's in kindy and has gymnastics 2 days a week at the rec center. That may increase as she gets older. During the summer it doesn't change just because of cost. So stinkin expensive.

Over scheduled.... a certain child comes to mind lets say "M" M goes to gymnastics 2 days a week and her mom "S" was requesting private lessons on top of that. Then I found out M also plays in a soccer league which practices 2 times a week and has one game each week. 6 days a week with sports for just one kid is overboard to me. I want my kids to be good at stuff, too but this is a 5 year old that's getting pushed on top of what the teacher does in class.

[Shana]

Not a big fan of overscheduling here. If anything, it makes me feel frantic.

Each of our kids are in one sport at a time. Right now it's track for Kaleb, snowboarding for Rach and skiing for Kara.

Rach does take guitar lessons periodically throughout the school year, but they are just 30 mins in length and close to the house, so not a huge deal.

Summers.... are for relaxing ;)

Having said that, Kaleb does keep up w/his running over the summer, so as to stay in shape for cross country in the fall, but he does it on his own time, no worries :D

[Jenny]

We are weaning ourselves off overscheduling our kids :) I think if the kids dont have time to use their imagination to keep themselves occupied, they are over scheduled.

Next year we are buying snowboarding passes and hanging out as family instead. No more hockey, no more off-season training, extra extra extra stuff.

The thing is, compared to OTHER families around our area, our kids are in NOTHING right now, but we have to look within our own family to see what works.

[Jejune]

We have a rule that each child can have only one extra curricular activity per semester. We may be lax about that this year, though, as Gabriel already is in Chess Club, but now has an opportunity to take a Spanish class, and we'd really like him to do that. But, because we have to put so much work into their schools, and because they have homework, we do try to limit the activities. Gabriel was deciding between chess and karate, but he picked chess. I think it was actually a good choice for him, though, since he's enjoying it so much.

[Jo]

I am worry about the summer with Mira. We have a ton of activities we are considering. None would be on the same day and most are just weekly things that last about an hour or two. She does better when she stays busy and I don't worry about the busy aspect since Montessori goes 5 mornings a week. I just don't want to her to be run into exhaustion.

When the kids are older, they are going to have to pick one athletic activity a season but beyond that, we will see what works.

[Polly]

So far we've done two classes. Mom and Baby Yoga and Baby and Me Swim. I can't say I think that Elizabeth will be better adjusted or smarter-but it's fun and it gets us out of the house. Those are my two requirements for a class for a 10 month old. (Although, since she is crawling I spend most of the yoga time chasing her around the classroom. Oh well, it's exercise.) We participated in a pilot program for stroller exercise at our closest REC center and I'll definately sign up for the regular class as soon as they put it on the schedule. (Hey-the baby weight is slowly coming off)

We also signed up for Let's Make Music later this spring. We are limiting to 2 classes a week. Otherwise, Elizabeth would be miserable and so would I. I'm looking forward to going to the pool a lot this summer to play and hang out with friends!

Polly

[Shiloh]

We keep it to one activity per season. Morgan plays soccer in the spring and fall, basketball in the winter, and I think she'll do swim team this summer since we go to the pool nearly every day in the summer anyway. With soccer and basketball she usually has one practice and one game per week and I think that's plenty.

I never got to do any activities as a child, because my parents were always working late or out of town, so it's important to me that my children get to do these things, but I don't want to go overboard.

[Erika]

I think it depends on the child as well. I was heavily into music and would often have a class everyday. I was in 3 orchestras, studied violin/viola and piano, had theory classes, chamber music and even took up the oboe at one stage. On top of that, I played hockey in school (though my music teacher insisted I give it up as I could hurt my hands!). While I was busy a lot, I loved it and thrived in it.

With Sasha, I plan on getting her into dance and gymnastics from the time she is walking (certainly dance then with gymnastics coming later on). She is a very flexible baby and loves dancing already and I want her to have physical activities. She will also do music classes (unless of course she really hates it) and when she is older, we will put her in a martial arts class, again unless she really hates it.

[Tamika]

I agree it kinda depends on the child - but then again it depends on the family too!! We fall on the 'one per season' rule too. Kaylyn is in either gymnastics, swimming or horseback riding - on a rotation it seems. This coming spring she will be in both gym and horseback riding, but only because a gym session falls in the exact same timeframe that the boys are in gymnastics class - so I may as well pay for her to be in that then a babysitter.

As for when they get older - one for sure - possibly two dependin on what the 2nd is for example - one sport and one music/education activity. NO more than that tho for the child and also the fact that I have 3 kids - and only 7 days in a week! LOL

[Kate]

At the moment, Maia has a swimming lesson and an art class every week, and she says she wants to play soccer too...but because I'm studying fulltime too, that's probably going to have to wait a while.

As for the summer, we don't really schedule much of anything, but if there were to be something happening that she was interested in during that time we would definitely be up for it.

[Victoria]

We do one extra activity a season. Patrick and Bryce are taking acting class right now. Anna takes a 2 year old class for 45 minutes 1x a week, if there were more classes for Anna thru the park district I'd have her in another.

Patrick sees a tutor on Sat mornings and he'll continue that in the summer.
Bryce will be in T ball and that is all that is scheuduled for us.

[ColleenC]

If it were up to me, I would love to have Megan in TONS of activities. Mainly because I wasn't put in any as a child.

Right now because we are going to be moving, we don't have the kids in anything. In April Megan will be starting her tennis lessons and then I think in the fall I want to put her in hip hop dance class, she didnt really like ballet, they didn't play 'cool' music. I want to put her in gymnastics but dh doesn't want her to be. He's overprotective and thinks she is going to break her neck:shakehead

As for Cristian, Im not sure what we will put him in. Steve wants him in hockey, but we will have to see how he does on rollerblades this summer, because the poor kid has my coordination and can barely walk without falling down LOL

The cost also helps in making our decision. Tennis for Megan(Cris is too young)is 140 per session and because there is limited space people register for all at once so that is $560(double that when both kids are in it)and then whatever other activity they are in. It gets way too high especially for our income ;) Then Steve will make his tennis membership a family one so he can take her on weekends so that's another $50 a month.

It's a good thing that we are good with money, otherwise we'd be screwed LOL