How much sport is too much for a 6 year old?

[JojobaFromOctober]

My 6 year old has been in gymnastics for a few years and she'd like to continue with that, but also said she wants to try handball this year.

They are both 2 x 1 hour practices a week and nothing goes on too late, it's all on weekday afternoons when she would otherwise be in the after school childcare club - the latest finish would be 4.20 pm.

I feel that 4 hours of after school sports per week would be fine except that 2 of them are scheduled on the same day. They don't overlap but there is only a 20 minute gap between them. They are in the same place so it's not an issue to get between them. Theoretically she would easily have enough time to change, have a drink and maybe a snack.

But 2 hours of after school sports on the same day, is that going to be just too much for a 6 year old? I'd be happy for her to do handball since she expressed an interest and I think it's good to have a bit of variety and not concentrate on just one sport so young, but this seems a bit extreme - should I say no or get her to pick just one sport this year? I might possibly be able to ask to switch gymnastics groups or for her to attend just one handball practice per week.

At that age my DD had two swimming lessons (school and normal), PE, and an hour dance lesson in the same day. She slept well that night, but it was manageable.

Give it a try and see how it goes.

If she's keen, and wants to do it, it will be fine.
Soda law says school PE will be that day too!

Why not try it and see how she goes. It’s a shame she can’t do an hour a week of each really, that seems like enough at 6, but if two hours each is the minimum then you may as well give it a go and if it ends up being too much she can drop which ever she enjoys the least.

I'd give it a go. You can always stop. Getting them active while young is a good idea.

I think it’s fine. Maybe you could just let her know that she is trying out handball but doesn’t need to continue if it’s too tiring for her?

If you think about it, the only reason it’s odd is because it’s organised. My daughter is nearly six and often runs all the way home after I pick her up from dance, then bolts out to play football in the garden - it never occurs to her that she might be tired after her dancing!

That wouldn’t worry me at all. She’s 6, it’s a pretty energetic age . If she wasn’t in one of the classes she’d likely still be bouncing around somewhere, they don’t sit still for long at that age ime. You’ll know if she finds it too tiring in which case you can always pull her out of one.

I think that's fine. By the time they are nine, the sports clubs are 2 hours anyway. I would keep an eye on her towards the end of term and be flexible with letting her miss sessions if she seems too tired.

the activity itself is fine.
I would however observe if she gets on with tiredness and homework.
at that age I limited dc to one sport and one musical activity due to that.

At six my youngest did about nine hours of dancing a week. At the time she loved it. At eight she dropped down to 4 hours but as of September be doing 10 hours a week. As long as your child enjoys it and isn’t too tired, let them set the pace .

Oh that's a relief that people don't think it's necessarily too much. She went to a free trial for the handball earlier and she was buzzing as she came out, she said it was so much fun. I think I will sign her up and see how it goes, thanks.

I’d give it a go but talk to her about how you need to trial whether it works and she can cope with it. DS 6 currently does 3x 1hr football in the evenings after school. For a while there was also an hour of cricket in there too. He also swims at the weekend, and football league matches are about to start up again on the other weekend day. So I don’t think it sounds like too much in total but the 2x sessions on one day may be tiring. You can only try it out and see.

Yes, good point, I will make sure she knows that of course she is free to drop it if it's too much for her.

Some kids would breeze through it and others would find it too much. I would let her try seeing as she’s keen and be ready to drop something if it gets too much.

Depends on your child. my 4 year old (boy) does 2 hours of ballet per week, 1.5 hour stagecoach, 1 hour multisport plus 2 afternoons of school PE and parkrun on sunday. So 3 hours plus parkrun, school PE and stagecoach, and its just about enough for him.
my 8 year old does swimming (0.5 hours), fencing (1 hour), cubs, school PE (2 full afternoons) and parkrun. So 1.5 hour plus cubs, school PE and parkrun, and its what he needs.
8 year old wouldn’t want to do more, 4 year old easily could do more.

I think it depends so much on the child. My 5yo is normally the type to be buzzing after school, certainly not tired at 3. But, for a few weeks we had swimming and gymnastics on one evening after school and it was too much. I moved the swimming as soon as I could as she wasn’t concentrating as well and it was hideous for me having to look after her toddler sister for two activities in a row. I’m not sure how much of the challenges were related to the covid redirections rather than doing two activities per se.

Yes, I know what you mean and I will keep an eye on the situation - I honestly don't know whether it will suit her. She's not a particularly hyperactive bouncy child, when she's at home she tends to do things like drawing or Hama beads or Lego rather than running about. But she has always really enjoyed her gymnastics, for the social aspect as much as the physical aspect I think, and she's been really enthusiastic about handball ever since she had a taster session at school last term. She doesn't do any other organised extra curricular activities.