How Many Activities Is Your Kindergarten/first Grade Aged Child In?

This sounds so stressful for the whole family. What's the rush, anyway?

I'm with you on the "one at a time"...kids do not need to be pushed this hard so early!

My daughter is 5. She is in a grand total of zero activities outside of school.
My son is 10. He is in a grand total of zero activities outside of school.

I'm not saying that to gloat, or be one-uppish. Neither one of them wants to be in anything, and I believe that to be in an after school activity they have to REALLY want to do it, and ask me SEVERAL times before I will agree to it. I have tried them both in a few things over the years, but my son (10) is totally non sporty, and there is not much going on for non sporty children. My daughter is a hard case, she doesn't listen. She would like to do dance, but I know what would happen. She would mess around. So I am waiting until she is older, and then she has to ask!

That is not to say we don't do stuff. Today we played outside and went bike riding, and we do stuff like that.

None, except school. But we are lucky to live in mild weather, so she played outside every day.. almost all of the time..

Otherwise , I can understand why people find activities for their young children.

DD does one activity at a time. Right now she's in cheer, which is 45 minutes, one night a week, during the week. She is also in a supplemental math class after school for a little over a hour, 3 days a week. For what's it worth, I also work full time and want to spend time with her when I get home, not drop her off somewhere every night.

I think it's enough for her and our family. She has plenty of time to do activities and figure out what she likes when she wants to. The activities will always be there when she wants to do them. She still needs time to relax, spend time with friends and family, and just be a kid.

I'm not sure when this obsession with overloading your kids with a plethora of activities became trendy, because when I was a kid, this didn't happen at all and things seemed a lot more simple and relaxed. I dont' understand the mad rush to get your kids into 10 different activities at a time. I tend to think that people don't want to actually deal with or spend with their kids and use the activities as a babysitting service. Or, it's more about the parents' ego than it is about the kid having fun or learning something.

I'm surprised at tahe number of families whose K-!st gr. kids are in multiple activities each week. I'm wondering if the family is able to do this because only 1 parent/caretaker is working. When my grandchildren were that age they tried soccer but ended up dropping out before the season was over. No other after school activites other than day care. And they were only able to do soccer because I took them.

Even now at ages 9 and 12 they're not in any activities. Their parents feel that they just cannot cram one more thing into their life. Both parents work and they also now have a 2 yo. And the kids are social and not in need of more activity.

Summer is different. They take swim lessons and go swimming often because I'm able to take them. We visit OMSI (science museum) and in the past a children's museum. We go to Oak's Park, a midway sort of set up. Parents go bike riding with them.

I suggest that if you cannot comfortable make the time commitment then it's in your children's best interest to not get caught up in that rat race.

As a mom of a 12-year-old can I offer some perspective on what lies ahead of you?

If a kid of six is doing four days a week, two hours a day of ANY outside activity, that kid is going to burn out or-- if the kid doesn't burn out -- the parents and siblings soon will.

Kids have more and more activities -- and much more homework, projects, other school commitments -- with each passing year. If he's doing eight hours a week (a full working day in total!) of one activity at age six, what happens by the time he's in third grade or so? Will he still be doing that one activity for eight hours, plus another he wants to try, plus homework, plus projects, plus your church or other family commitments?

Think ahead to whether the football schedule will commit him to eight hours now that turns into 10 hours next year and 12 hours the year after if he keeps going.

You are very smart to have him try different activities through the park district! That way he can taste different things but not be so committed to them that they are eating all your family's time. Soon he'll be old enough that he'll handle a couple of things plus school just fine, but there's no need to rush if you don't want to.

In a way you already answered your own question: "It is a huge time commitment I cannot make." You said it right there. Do not feel pressured by other moms' saying their kids love it. That's fine for THEIR kids and their family schedules, but you shouldn't let it sway you, nor should you let your son's desire to do this sway you if it is a commitment you cannot make, period. He is six and doesn't get the final say. He will have other opportunities. Meanwhile don't lock him into any one thing so very young. Find an activity that isn't eight hours a week!

Full disclosure: When my daughter was five and six, we held activities to just one during the school year. Kids that age need down time and need more rest than we think. (Now of course it's much more with four dance classes, rehearsals, Girl Scouts and huge school commitments -- but she's twice your son's age!)

We are a bit like B. My son is in kindergarten and we have no official afterschool activities at present. He goes to half-day kindergarten, comes home, we may have a piece of homework and we do eye exercises almost daily (we work with an eye therapist for his vision issues). This really gives us just enough down time for him to play with his beloved legos and for us to get outside on his scoot bike or out playing, or he helps with some housework. Or we find a neighbor kid and play. And then, too soon, it's dinnertime.

He will have loads of time to do so many things as he gets older. Do what is right for your family.
He hasn't outright asked to be involved in any extracurricular activities at this point, and until he wants to drive that train, I am not going to complicate our lives further. So, we have a happy, well-rested kid for school the next day.

We limit our son to 1 activity at a time. Most of the sports he wants to do meet 2-3 times a week, so that's all we can handle. For soccer and hockey we had a little overlap with seasons, but that was just for a few weeks and we had to choose what games and practices to go to when there were conflicts.

The practice is usually 1-2 hours and games are usually an hour. He needs that much exercise, so I love it. On the other days I go play outside a sport with him for at least 30 min at the house. Activity or no activity, that's where his head is..sports. My non-sporty husband and I wonder where he came from. It's good for me though, I call him my personal trainer and I now have a mean slap shot.

My 6yo does swim team. It's only for 2 months at the beginning of the summer but he loves it. That's all he does right now.

Soccer- one one hour practice per week, one game on the weekend. It's plenty for my 6 year old. Occasionally he'll do an art class after school for an hour, but those run in 3-4 week sessions, so we don't have to make a long term commitment for those.

my 5 year old son was in wrestling but it's over now. It was 2 days a week for practice and 1 day on the weekend for a match.
I am SO glad it's over now so we can just relax :)

my kids play soccer and softball but only 1 at a time.

My son finished up basketball last month. It was a hour weekly practice and a game each weekend, which lasted about an hour. He is starting soccer in the next couple of weeks and it has pretty much the same schedule, except games are on Friday instead of Saturday. I don't see us getting into things that will require practice that takes up most of the week until he gets much older. When I was in high school, I had stuff going on almost every day of the week and it was easy to get burned out.

We have a slightly flexible one-activity-at-a-time rule in our family. Right now, DS (1st grade) is in diving lessons. That's once a week on Sunday mornings for 45 minutes. Diving ends at the end of the month and then soccer starts back up.

Soccer is one, week-night practice, and one , Saturday game each week for a couple of months. Each is an hour, so then we're at 2 hours a week.

Then he'll probably be off of activities for a couple of months until he starts ballet in July. If he decides to stick with dancing in the school year, that will be one week-night and a Saturday morning each week, and we MAY still let him do the Sunday diving class if he's attached to it.

One week-night and a weekend morning is pretty much my limit on organized kid activity for now.

You know what? What "other moms" are doing with their kids really doesn't matter. What matters is what works for your kid and your family. If you are not able to do 2 hrs. a day 4 days/week, then don't. Personally, that sounds like a bit much for this age anyway. Do these families eat dinner together? Do these kids have time to play freely and just be kids?

For what it's worth (and this is only what worked for us - others will make different choices, and that's okay), at that age my kids did gymnastics once a week for an hour. That's it. We spent our other afternoons playing with friends, or doing activities as a family, or just staying home and running around in the back yard.

And about football... My father was a successful varsity football coach for over 30 years. He recommended starting boys no earlier than age ten. He said that starting earlier did not make a difference in their ability to play the game, and that the chance of injury in younger kids was too high.

i only allow my son to do one activity at a time, he is 6 and in kindergarten. he has done gymnastics, soccer, and tae kwon do. i enjoy my family - last thing i want to do is spend all my time playing chauffeur and standing around watching them do something. i'd rather enjoy family time. i put that of higher importance. i am sure it works for some people but it absolutely would not for us.

I didn't start my son in any activities till he was in 2nd grade.
He wasn't ready to listen and follow direction before then.
He got plenty of unstructured playtime.
Now that he's 14 he's involved with taekwondo (just earned his 3rd Don black belt this last weekend) and band.
Even with just those 2 activities there are sometimes conflicts but he manages to stay on top of his school work.

My 5 year old sons are in Kindergarten and we didn't do any activities this year because we wanted them to adjust to being at school for a full day, which is tiring in and of itself!

Every child and family is different. Some kids are able to handle more than others, but you need to take into consideration YOUR needs and limits, as well as the rest of the family's needs.
At that age my kids generally did one activity per season, and it was once MAYBE twice a week. That's what worked for us.
Just curious, would you need to stay for the two hour practices? If your son likes it that could be a good time for YOU to go work out or run errands or something (unless you have little ones in which case it's probably more of a hassle than it's worth.)
Whatever you do, don't worry about "keeping up." As a mom of three teens (two of whom have played varsity sports in high school) I can tell you that playing organized sports much before the age of 8 or 9 really doesn't matter in the long run.

We homeschool, so we do two 1.5 hour co-ops, and then she does story time and one other activity.

Her best friend has school 4 days a week for 3 hours, 3 hours of cello, 2 hours of chorus, 1 hour of ballet, and story time. We never seen them because they have no free time.

I don't believe kids are missing out by not taking a million classes. I use to have my daughter in classes everyday. We are much happier playing freely.

My oldest daughter is now if 1st grade. For the past two years she has taken a combo tap & ballet class that is an hour and half each week. She is also is Girl Scouts which is also an hour and half weekly. She currently has no interest in sports at all but she will be attending a YMCA sports themed week long summer day camp this year so that might change :)

Peace and Blessings,
T. B

My son is 7, in first grade.
He plays soccer during the fall season. That's it.
It's 2 practices a week with a game on the weekend.
My other son is on the premier team in this area and plays year round. 3 practices a week and games on the weekend.
That's enough for me!
The rest of the time he is outside playing with the neighborhood kids or at his older brother's practice running around with the other younger siblings. He seems happy and hasn't asked to do anything else.
L.

My son did more when he was in part-time preschool, but we dropped down to one activity once he started full time kindergarten. (Actually, we initially dropped down to two: soccer and cello, but the soccer schedule really wasn't conducive to a kindergartener ... they had some games at 7:30 at night, which is my child's bed time, so we cut that out quickly.). We will do more over the summer, but will make sure we still have time for lazy days at the pool.

We both work full time so DS (7) is in an after school arts & enrichment program 3 days a week. He gets the school bus there and we pick him up at 6 pm. He gets LOTS of outdoor play time plus a bunch of art making. Other than that - he will be in 5 weeks of chess beginning next Friday - once a week for two hours. And he is in Sunday school - Sundays from 9:30 - noon. I think the Sunday school is a big impediment to family time and would LOVE to drop it. We may stick out the year and see. I would NEVER commit to a sport that was 4 days a week. Playing one sport at that frequency is physically BAD for kids - they develop overuse injuries. Kids should play varied sports that use different muscle groups. Also - please take a look at the head injury data for kids. My son will never play football. His brain is way too valuable. This is the first year he has been in ANY activities or in Sunday school. Last year he was in kindergarten and they had after school outside play time until 6 pm. He was there three days a week and home right after school (3 pm) 2 days a week.

One. My kindergarten aged daughters do ballet one day a week, for one hour. That's it. The rest of the time is school, playing at home, playdates, going to the park, riding bikes, and all that other fun kid stuff.

At that age my boys were in weekly half hour swimming lessons year round, then they also played soccer for about 1 1/2 hours two nights a week in the spring. My younger son also did Sikaran for about 1 1/2 hours twice a week in grade one, except during soccer season. They also had Sunday school and choir practice. I liked to do drop in activities at the Y, that way were were not obligated to go if we were too busy or didn't feel like it. They actually do less now that they are older because they need more time for homework (we dropped the martial arts).

My daughter is six in K. She has ballet after school (at the school, one hour) on Mon, softball practice every other Wed (at the school 1.5 hours), w/ hour long games on Sat and piano on Thursdays at home (45 min). It is A LOT for her. Our life is pretty mellow otherwise. If the activities weren't right at the school and things she loves, there's no way I would transition her.

My friend's kids are in activities daily and busy all weekend. Could not do it, but works for them.

For our family 2 hrs, 4 x p/ week is too much.

My daughter is 4 YO and she is in dance (1 hr/week), soccer (2 hrs/week), and swim lessons (1 hr/week). But I rotate them so she does only 2 activities at a time, for my own sanity. (For example she was doing soccer and swim, and now she is doing dance and soccer.) She really wants to take gymnastics so I'm trying to figure out how to work that in once she starts kindergarten.

we sometimes have 2 or 3 activities going on.. but.. that is for just a few weeks.. (like swimming is almost over and soccer starts)

so the most activities we would have is 3 but often we have 0 activities.

right now.. we have nothing .. swimming class starts in early april.. soccer will start in late april.

They dont get home from school till 430. so ther is not much time for fun in the evening.

My 7 year old/1st grader is in gymnastics, does pageants and praise dance team at church. She is also my youngest child. Were a busy family during the week but were all moving so she might as well be too.

Mine do Soccer (1 hour on Wednesdays, 1 hour on Saturdays), flag football (1.5 hours on Sundays), Gymnastics (1 hour on Mondays), Swimming lessosn (1 hour on Wednesdays). We will be swapping out Tennis for Swimming next month.

So a total of 4 days have activities with a 5.5 hour time committment/week.

I wish they could do more only because they would like to experience other things (music lessons, golf lessons, baseball) but I only have so much in funds and time. So they do have to pick and choose. I discouraged baseball this season because I'm sick of the time committment on my end. Football is never happening with the hours of practice every day.

My six year old kindergartner is in a lot of activities but he loves them. He has energy to spare at the end of the school day, so I don't think it's too much. He does t-ball, math club, and chess club. He was taking Kung fu, but they are taking the month off. We will see how he does with t-ball before we decide whether to re-up or not. But all but t-ball are about one hour a week and math and chess are pretty sedentary, so it's not a huge time or energy drain for us. Also most of the activities are at his school, so I don't need to drive him all over creation to get him there. If I thought it was too much, I'd have him choose one or more to stop.

My son is in kindergarten. He will turn six in a couple of months. He is in half day kinder and goes from 10:10 - 1:30.

One morning a week he has a swimming lesson before school (20 minutes) and then plays for another 20 minutes in the pool before we get him ready for school.

He plays on a baseball team that has one weeknight practice (one hour) and a game on Saturdays. (total weekly commitment is about 3 hours, including drive time).

In the fall, he does soccer instead of baseball, but the time commitment is about the same.

That's it for organized stuff. We're also still part of a playgroup with a bunch of friends, so we go to the park with them once a week, but that is pure fun.

Next year, we will probably add cub scouts and maybe piano lessons, but we'll stop doing swimming lessons.

My daughter is 5 and in full-day kindergarten Mon - Fri. She goes gymnastics 1 day a week (1 hour) and dance 1 day a week (which consists of 2 classes, ballet and then tap, back to back, 50 minutes each). She actually wants to do MORE but it's tough with my work schedule the way it is. I've already told her that for next year she will need to pick probably just 2 activities and that will need to be it.

To me 2 hours a day, 4 days a week, for a sport at this age sounds insane.

When my son starts K next year, he will have 4 activities a week. The ONLY reason for this is that he will be at school M-Th day until 4:30, when my husband can pick him up. His elementary school offers a wide variety of activities from 3:00-4:30, so we will take advantage of those rather than just keeping him in aftercare. The activities rotate every 8-12 weeks and include things like art, languages, science, gardening, dance...I think there are 30 or so to choose from. There is no way that I would be able to drive him around to activities every day, so I am very grateful that the school has so many options in-house!
He is in preschool right now (5 yrs old) and he does yoga, chess club, and lego club at school (again, no driving required). He just finished 12 weeks of soccer, which was 1 practice and 1 game per week. I think that is just about the most I would want to take on right now for non-school activities.

We have done T-Ball, soccer, BMX, gymnastics, tap, ballet, etc...we also have a 9 yr. old that is in more but since they both go to the same studio and gym it's not really a big deal.

I believe that the biggest mistake I made with my daughter was not having her stay busy. As soon as she moved to her dads and he put her in sports she straightened up for over 4 years. She learned a lot about sportsmanship and team work from participating in these things. So I keep the grand kids I am raising very busy.

1 hour once a week for a kid in 1/2 day preschool or kindergarten is way too little. If in full time school, 1 activity at a time is enough. I don't think 2 hours a day 4 days a week is too much committment if that is the only thing the kid does in addition to school. My son just turned 5 in 1/2 day preschool and does karate every other day for 45 minutes and will start doing t-ball in the spring in addition to the karate 2 times a week for 2 hours each approx. Of course it does depend if the child goes to beforecare or aftercare. I am a stay at home mom so I spend a lot of time with me son. Time with parents is important too.

I think 2 or 3 activities a week if fine for a child that age. If you little one wants to play ball, I would suggest T-ball. They usually practice once a week and have a game once a week. I don't think foot ball is a great sport for a small child (unless it's tag football).

Updated

I think 2 or 3 activities a week if fine for a child that age. If you little one wants to play ball, I would suggest T-ball. They usually practice once a week and have a game once a week. I don't think foot ball is a great sport for a small child (unless it's tag football).

I'm laughing bc I swore I would never be the one to cart my kids to activities like a crazy person but I do!
My 5 yr old son and 7 yr ould daughter does gymnastics Mon, Thur and Sun for an hour and 3 hours on Satuday! He needs the energy release and she needs to socialize. The one hour sessions I stay and chat with the other Moms and Sat is my time....2x the amount done on my own. I work full time and we still manage to get everything done, that needs to be for our priorities. Exercise does everyone good at our house.

Hi there,
In my opinion you have to feel comfortable with what YOU are doing with YOUR kids. It doesn't matter at all what other moms do since every family is different, both parents work full time in some households, and some others not; they have different needs and expectations.
Kids do not need a daily extra-curricular activity, and get burnt out (not just them but family!) just to teach them social skills or teach them about exercise. You only need a healthy activity or sport to make out of this something your kid enjoys and keeps him mentally and physically healthy, and it is nothing to do with a heavy schedule.
My little one is a Cub Scout, and attends P.E. twice a week (7 yo.), and his brother (13) is a Boy Scout and attends P.E. twice a week. Both runs every single day with us (mom & dad) after school is D. (home schooled).
A good advice is to "rotate" activities or sports depending on the seasons, i.e. Swimming in Summer, and P.E. in Winter, etc. If you really want your kid to exercise and "socialize", do it this way so he gets the opportunity to try different things and you don't get burnt out as much as he may as well. Take "breaks" also and do simply "nothing" but keep him active running, playing outdoors, going to the pool....it is all he needs.
Don't worry, keep it easy, fun and healthy!

I think 2 hours, 4 times per week is too much for a 6 yo. My son is 6 and does one after school activity and one weekend activity.

It also depends on how much school your child is in, of course. It's tough on full day students, but if he's in only a few days per week then maybe it's okay. On the other hand, if it's too much for you to reach out to, you have to consider your schedule as well.