What does your 8 year old do in their spare time?

[champagneplanet]

DD1 is 8 (Y4) and generally very well behaved, great report with regards to behaviour and is achieving the expected level at school. We occasionally get some stomping/moodiness but generally she's a good girl.

My concern is really surrounding what she does in her spare time, she dances and swims once a week each as hobbies which is fine however she and her friends are getting to the age where they play roblox, they want to watch (and be on) tiktok, facetime each other and watch vloggers on your tube. I feel like they are losing their childhood to a degree. I was 100% playing with dolls, lego, etc at that age.

I want to find a happy medium between what is too much of the above but also allow her to feel included with others and be a bit streetwise.

As a comparison what is your 8 year old up to in the evening and spare time at weekends and how much 'tech' do you allow?

Blimey. Zero tech for my dd except watching CBBC! Mine plays/fights with her siblings, does homework, reads the Beano, plays outdoors in the summer, reluctantly does violin practice, goes to Brownies etc etc. I haven't heard of others in Y4 being into tictoc etc but perhaps we are a bit sheltered.

I hate tiktok believe me, and I won't let her have it but they all want it (and some have it).

She is starting to become more interested in cbbc rather that beebies but will watch with DD2.

I think it's a classic case of me feeling like the worst Mum ever for saying no just because some parents allow it.

Piano practice
Footballl, kicking a ball round the garden (she has a net, and some reluctant goalies)
Drawing
Lego
Reading
PS4
TV
A bit of baking

My 17 year old is on tiktok , wouldn't let my 9 year old near it!

Roblox and xbox are the choice activity and im fairly lax on hours in but info expect a balance snd often boot him off to go play out.
He chats to his mates on FaceTime in the evenings but 7 is the cut off, none of the above in the bedroom overnight

Well the ipads broke so no gaming now but he does watch a fair bit of YouTube

DS2 is 8 and watches Miranda every spare moment he has at the moment. No idea where the love for it has come from but he bought himself a t-shirt with "such fun" emblazoned across it during half term and made my day.

He also goes swimming, kayaking, plays for a football team and builds all manner of shite with Lego.

iPad/Nintendo Switch if they've earned it for the weekend. Not allowed the internet. Probably too much of screens though, I was planning to come on and ask how much is reasonable for them to have on a weekend day!

Allowed tv after 530 until dinner (usually 630)

Else play fights with brother. Plays with Lego, sylvanian families, dominoes, geomag, drawing and craft, reads, board games. Netball and dancing once a week.

Mine seems to have a lot of screen game time compared to the rest of her class. Not heard of any of her class being into vloggers, you tube or FaceTiming. Certainly had no requests for it.

Dd year 4 is not allowed on roblox tic tock etc. I am apparently the worst mum ever as all her friends do. They all apparently have their own phones too. She dances three times a week, plays the violin, goes swimming and plays in the girls football team at school. At home she loves reading, playing with lego, craft and playing schools. She watches full house, fuller house and the next step on Netflix obsessively. She will happily watch cbeebies with her brother I'm not encouraging her to be older than her years. She still loves dolls and got a toddler doll for her last birthday. Said doll currently has a broken arm so has been playing a lot of hospital imaginary games this last week. I was roped into being a consultant over the weekend.

My DD's use tiktok on a private account much to their disgust so they can make a video but not share it.

They also play roblox with friends and can watch YouTube but it's restricted on my husbands account.

Aged 8 they are not interested in CBeebies and neither is their 6 year old brother. But I see tech as them winding down like me and my trash tv.

They also go to brownies, an art club,play violin and swim once a week. I'd like them to read more but one is now getting into Harry Potter so you never know

But! They did play with dolls for most of yesterday and enjoy rock star timetables so I think it's pretty balanced. If they didn't enjoy craft so much I'd be more worried.

Outside of clubs 8 yr old plays Lego, draws & makes zines, plays with siblings, listens to podcasts (history of Rome at the moment 🤷‍♀️🤣), reads books & comic books, mine craft or similar a few times a week but otherwise no tech

My girls are 7, they have no access to screens apart from tv where they will watch Netflix. They haven't shown interest in tablets or gaming.

Mine play football for a local club, play in a junior orchestra, love riding their bikes, swimming, they fight and argue a lot too

I also have a 8 year old who is not allowed roblox when apparently all her friends have it.
She plays on the nintendo/ ipad (time for this starts at 5pm and finishes at dinner time, usually 6pm), watches cartoon network and similar channels or videos on amazon prime of people playing minecraft. She goes to swimming lesson and Brownies as organised activities.
She also draws, reads, sellotapes recycling together, plays with/ argues with her little sister, makes a mess

My 8yo spends her time:
Reading
Music practice and lessons
Drawing (sometimes based on YouTube tutorials)
Lego
About half an hour of TV (usually Operation Ouch)
Cubs
Choir
Drama
Swimming
Football
Baking / craft activities / sewing with granny
Educational apps (like squeebles times tables) on ipad (maybe an hour a week)

She doesn’t have a phone, and has access to an old iPad with no internet access (just educational apps) but nothing else. Anything online she has to ask a parent, and it depends if I’m free to sit and oversee or or not.

My 8 year old watches quite a bit of YouTube and also plays roblox .

She dances on a Saturday and does gymnastics on a Sunday .

She likes to draw and make things so spends some time doing that.

She also has a 4 year old sister so will play dolls with her sometimes but usually gets bored .

brownies, swimming and dance as structured clubs, CBBC rather than Cbeebies, recorder practice, drawing/crafting and a very recent discovery of youtube and Tiana which I'm less keen on.

My 9 year old DS is not allowed any social media and I haven't heard of rob lox, tiktok etc.

He does dance, drama, guitar lessons and bouldering outside of school and eco club and choir after school clubs.

7 year old does bouldering and horse riding.

They are allowed an hour on a 'small screen' Thursdays - Sundays and mainly use this for You Tube. They are allowed more TV then this and watch CBBC, Full and Fuller House and currently, Christmas movies on a loop!

They both play lego, dolls, dens, board games and then the park for scooter/skateboard and bikes, climbing trees etc.

We are strict about internet access but relaxed about TV; we love watching films together. We all sat and watched Annie yesterday after an argument about which one was best - DS prefers the newer version and DD and I prefer the original. We won!

Oh and drawing etc.

Roblox, Minecraft, lego, reading, has tiktok to use with friends but on a private account with no followers, drawing, joke books, science kits, crafty bits, YouTube, tie dye kits.

I hate the idea of “losing their childhood” just because they have some things we didn’t have. My DD is very much a child, I just choose not to villainize anything that wasn’t around in my day.

2 8 year olds and definitely no tiktok or unsupervised YouTube watching. They film themselves on their amazon fires but that is it.

They play teachers a lot, crafts, dolls, board games etc

My 8 yr old,is not allowed tiktok although according to her everyone in her class has it, was surprised by the number of girls with instagram and Snapchat accounts in her class.

She goes horse riding twice a week,
Piano lessons once a week
Gymnastics once a week.
She has a kitten so spends a lot of time with her, she sometimes plays with her toys or watches Netflix.

Mine does swimming, drama and cheerleading.

She enjoys writing songs, poetry and playing teachers. She also has just properly got into reading for pleasure.

She does like YouTube and watching Strictly and Bake Off, as well as quiz shows like Pointless.

No tech or screens generally. We don’t have any gaming stuff at all.
Violin and piano. Lots and lots of it.
Reads a lot.
Watches sport (which is what they are allowed to do). Tells me about random sports statistics ad nauseam.
Plays some tennis.
Swims.
Lies around staring at the ceiling.
Plays with his brother.
Stares at the ceiling some more.
Rabbits on about sport statistics a bit more.
Enjoys playing cricket/football/riding a bike in the park.
Plays board games with the family.

Dd does dance, brownies (would highly recommend this or cubs etc) , fencing, and horse riding as organised things. Other than that a lot depends on the weather - if it's dry and not dark and we are home then she is out playing probably 75% of the time - trampoline, bike etc. We are lucky we are in a street she can do that. She does also face time her friends and play games etc but in total maybe 2/3 hours a week? if that. She draws a lot and she does play with dolls BUT if her friends come round then we have to hide the dolls which makes me sad tbh.

Wow no tech here. I have a son in Y3 he swims, does gymnastics, hockey and tennis. Spare time is spent reading, playing in the garden, Lego, making a den from the sofa cushions with younger sisters, drawing, kids puzzle books etc.

Definitely not online or even thinking about it.

DD8 - in the warmer weather she was on her trampoline with her brother or doing gymnastics in the garden, out for bike rides etc after school but now the colder weather is here she mostly draws/ makes craft stuff, dances in my room in front of the big mirror, plays on her Nintendo DS or the Nintendo switch with her brother. We aren't massively strict with screen time as she's pretty good at putting it down herself and going to do other things. There are no gadgets or YouTube after 6pm though (even at the weekends). I wouldn't allow access to tiktok etc and I don't know of any of her classmates who have access to that.