To ask how many extra activities your kids do out of school?

[Divaqueen121]

When I was younger I used to do swimming, tennis, 3 types of dancing, 2 musical instruments, rainbows/brownies and my brother used to do around the same amount, my parents really didn’t have much money and it was a real struggle for them to send us but our choice as we begged to go to these things.
I have 2dd’s and 1ds, they have got to be the laziest kids - the little one does gymnastics but the older 2 do nothing except for swimming which I make them all attend all they want to do is play on the iPad/Xbox etc.
AIBU to want them to do these things or do kids just not do as much these days?

My 6yrs old does rainbows, swimming, drama, French school (3hrs), dance and music. And piano at school. That's a lot but difficult to cut it off, she enjoys it all and still has quite a lot of free time.
My 4yrs old does swimming, French school and dance.

Some activities on here sound really cool though :)

DC1 (12) does football only, but it’s quite a big commitment time wise. DC2(8) does dancing twice a week and gymnastics. They both have music tuition for one instrument per week. Hours taken up per week? DC1 5.5 hours. Dc2 5.5 hours. Cost in fees is £80 per month for DC1 and £120 per month DC2. Clothes, competitions, trips etc more on top. Costs incurred all year round. I did nothing as a kid so I don’t mind paying a penny of it. It’s one of the main reasons I work (or so I tell myself when my motivation is low!)

dS 6 goes swimming, beavers and football. When he’s 7 he will start piano. Think he will prob drop football as has little interest in it. Swimming is non negotiable.

My ds is almost 6, in year one. He does swimming, tennis, golf and a sort of all-purpose games class run by his school as an after school club. He likes all of them.

Tbh one of the reasons i’ve encouraged it is that he will just ask to watch tv if he’s at home. I also don’t feel there is enough PE at school. They only do it twice a week!

6 year old DD:
Swimming
Dancing
Aikido
Tennis
French
Multi-sports
Beavers

She wants to do all the activities and would happily add yoga and tennis at the weekend too if we could fit it in.

Mine do an awful lot and want to do more but I know a lot of their friends just have one or two hobbies. I know one of DD1’s good friends has tried and dropped absolutely everything under the sun

DD1 (14, Y9) plays flute and violin but has those lessons in school time. Then at school (a very big comp so they have a lot of activities available at lunch/form time and before/after school) she plays on the netball team (training twice a week, matches on average once a fortnight) and the girls’ football team (training once a week, matches on average once a fortnight), and is in the orchestra and flute choir. Out of school she does trampolining once a week (2 hours), swimming twice a week (4 hours total), drama once a week (2 hours), then she’s on a hockey team that train once a week for 90 minutes plus an occasional match. So she’s pretty busy...

DD2 (12, Y8) does cello and piano lessons in school and teaches herself clarinet/ukulele/guitar/bass guitar. She’s also on the school netball team (so 2 training sessions a week and about a match a fortnight) and in orchestra and senior band. She does 2 hours of trampolining out of school as well, and then is a serious dancer so does 20 hours on school weeks.

DD3 (5, Y1) does after school football, drama, Spanish, KS1 choir, and gymnastics (so something every day!) because her school also offers a lot and if she didn’t go she’d have to go to out of school club which she doesn’t really like. Each after school club is 1 hour - it just means I collect her at 4.15 instead of 3.15. She then does Rainbows (1 hour) on a Monday, gymnastics for 1 hour on a Thursday and 1.5 hours on a Saturday.

DS1 (19, now at a Conservatoire) somehow balanced a part time job, 24 hours of dance a week, and three A levels when he was in school... I still have no clue how he did it. Now he just trains (dances from about 9-5/6 each day) and work’s about 15-20 hours a week.

One a week (each)

15yo DD
Hobbies are:
Sleeping
Applying fake tan
Sleeping
Eating biscuits
Sleeping
General mithering

Mine ds(12) and ds(9) do a lot of sport at school - hockey, rugby, netball, cricket, athletics depending on the season - matches and training mean that they don’t finish these until 515pm or later if it is an away fixture. Both play rugby out of school on Sunday mornings sept-may and one plays cricket out of School on Saturdays May-sept. Ds also just got his black belt karate so trains once a week and dd plays clarinet but lessons are in school time. We eat together as a family most evenings and after dinner is generally homework time.

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Ds (8) does motorbike trials riding all weekend and Wednesday night in the lighter months, plus more in the holidays. Then he does karate twice a week and cycling training to help with the motor biking. He does guitar in school time.

I don’t know how children who have many hobbies manage to take part in each fairly. Ds has to prioritise his trials meaning that he often misses out on karate tournaments etc.

DS (13) does:
Athletics (once a week)
Open water swimming (once a week)
Land training (once a week)
Swim training five times a week)

I didn't get to do any clubs and always feel a little sad I don't have hobbies as such - DH was very sporty and still goes to football, golf which he is good at.

My DS aged 8 currently does..

football (he plays for a team so training on Tuesdays and matches on Saturdays - he also did a club at school on a Monday for a term and literally lives and breathes football!!)

Guitar - I think an instrument is a nice extra to know

He has also done golf lessons to get him to a good enough stage that he can do a full 16 hole course with his dad (we will probably do. Few more odd lessons here and there)

Middle son aged 6 does..

Football (plays for the same club as his brother - he currently is playing matches as he plays for the year above at the moment.)

He did multi skills after school which he loved but as it was a free one you just do one term and then let others have a chance.

He does tennis - although the teacher has recently changed so I think we might stop this and swap it for something else - we are thinking perhaps a dance/drama type thing or possibly gymnastics/trampolining.

He also has piano lessons.

Daughter age 4 just does gymnastics at the moment which she enjoys!

I may also pick up swimming with middle son but then I think daughter would want lessons too - eldest can swim self taught, middle son lacks confidence so I think needs to learn and daughter I think will be ready to swim very soon.

mindutopia i love your daughter 'packing parcels' as an activity! Very sweet.

DS' schoolday finishes at 4.30.

Mondays: i do zumba at the school, he has an extra hour to run around with his friends - he is delighted with this!)
Tuesdays: we meet a friend in a park to play with (specific friend, dufferent school, otherwise they'd barely see each other and they get on great).
Wednesdays: straight home. Play in the garden, out on the bike, walk the dog or chill with Lego.
Thursdays: different park with 2 other friends, the 3 get on like a house on fire, never fight.
Fridays: swimming.
Weekends: chill. Usually a long country/mountain walk and a picnic. Sometimes meet in-laws and multiple cousins.

DS did do judo at school at lunchtime (they have 12.30-3 for lunch to fit in other activities), but he wasn't keen.

His homework is read one book per week and write about it a little. I love his school!

How on earth can people tolerate buzzing around until bedtime every evening with activities? What about time for a nice home cooked dinner together?

Easily - I do the bulk of dinner prep during the day when they're out at school, DH works an early start/earlier finish work pattern anyway (does like 8-4 instead of 9-5, but often it's 7.30-3.30 so he can get a parking space at work in reality). Days it's a later on in the evening activity like Rainbows/Karate we have a nice home cooked dinner together before one of us takes them out to that. Other days I start off dinner prep and leave it for DH to flick the oven on and finish off sorting out side salads or whatever when he gets in. I pick them up from school and take them to their activity which runs 4-5, and then we get home for the nice family home cooked dinner.

Still plenty of time on the evenings they're not doing activities for them to play in the garden etc, and weekends too.

My DD who is 13 does choir Monday straight after school, guides Wednesday and an hour maths tutoring Thursday. From September to March, bizarrely, on Tuesdays there is netball.
My older DS's used to do rugby, football, karate, sport based things.

Most activities in our house are straight after school and DD comes home and makes herself a snack after that. I do dinner as normal when I get in.

Cubs is Saturday mornings, but she's now moved up to Scouts which is a midweek evening (2 evenings for boating for summer). So we have a slightly quicker dinner than usual those nights before it, and she gets a glass of milk and straight to bed when she gets home. Coder DoJo was the same, although an earlier finish so closer to regular bedtime.

DS(11) does athletics on Mondays and Wednesdays and sometimes Saturdays.
Cubs/scouts on Thursdays
Football on Friday and Sunday

He dabbles with things like afterschool Art club, or coding or trampolining. Has also been coopted into school football team which involves staying later some nights. He's also out loads on his bike and kicking a ball around with mates.

I'd like him to do drama and singing as i think he'd really enjoy it.

Amazed at all these kids who do three or more sports though, two is more than enough commitment for DS.

Two of mine do football (training and matches), cricket (training and matches) and athletics twice a week. The other just does athletics twice a week. All also do school clubs at least once a week which sometimes involve matches / competitions. Also athletics comps at weekends sometimes but we don’t tend to do more than about 7/8 per year.

It keeps them off screens and does involve quite a bit of juggling at the weekends but they all enjoy what they do. In good weather they are out a lot being active but if stuck inside they veer towards screens again. They go swimming for fun with friends but we stopped lessons once they reached a stage I was happy with!