To ask how many hobbies your Primary age children do per week?

[MaryShelley1818]

DS is nearly 6 (Year 1) and does swimming one night a week and Karate one night.
DD is 2 (3 in a couple of months) and does "ballet" on a Saturday morning.

I go to all the hobbies while DH has the other child - he absolutely pulls his weight and does everything for us but I enjoy mixing with other parents and the social aspect more and he doesn't so both happy.

Last night I got an email from Scouts (Beavers) offering DS a place to start in January - he's keen to do this so I will of course facilitate it.

But....it feels like a lot. DD will start swimming lessons too next year and in time may choose other hobbies too. How do I do 3 each per week?? Or is this just normal life with kids.

For context - we both work full time, and also have very busy weekends - just family days out, swimming, parks etc

My 3 year old DS doesn't do any atm tbh. But he'll start swimming lessons when he turns 4 and then I might look into football too if he wants.

We do loads and it’s bloody exhausting. I do most of it and DH helps at weekends. Ds is 9 and dd 10.
Mondays - dd netball 5-6.30, guides 7.30-9
Tuesday -dd riding 4-4.30, ds riding 4.30-5 then dd netball strength and conditioning 6-7
wednesday - both church 3.45-4.30, ds swimming 6-6.30
thursday - dd tutoring 4-5, ds has 3 hours with respite carer so I can catch my breath
friday - dd drama 4.45-5.45
Saturday - ds football 9.30-10.30, dd tennis 10-11
sunday- dd netball match sometimes morning, sometimes afternoon, ds tennis 12-1
throw some parties in to the mix and it’s absolute mayhem

Music lessons and choir done in school time thank god

Mine does 0...
I try to take them swimming myself once a month each to get them used to the water but eldest will start swimming lessons at school next year anyway I believe (when he is 7).
I try to take them out to a softplay once a month too so they can run around and go nuts for a couple of hours (and to playgrounds multiple times too of course).

I'm not really aware of much irt clubs/activities here other than football and dance classes eldest isn't really interested in.

I don't think not doing extra clubs will really affect them at this age, I didn't do any until I was 13 and joined army cadets, did that 1x per week and shooting at the range 1x per week (but also skived off a lot with my friend). Don't think OH did any until he was around 13 either when he did air cadets.

I'm shattered enough as it is with early morning school runs without adding in clubs on top.

I think some people forget that kids can pursue hobbies and interests without necessarily having to do an organised activity. It doesn't all have to be things like sports and Scouts either. I did loads of hobbies as a child but pretty much no organised activities or classes, and that suited me perfectly.

I'd just play it by ear.

We have two kids, year 2 and year 6.
Year 6 does tennis on saturdays, and 3 sporty after school clubs (at school).
The year 2 child is extremely high energy.
He does

• 3 after school dance clubs (tuesday, wednesday, friday)
• a sporty lunch club (wednesday)
• one hour tap dance on thursday
• 3 dance classes on saturday
• swimming on sunday
• once per month an extra 3 hour dance class on sundays

Year 6 child (tires easily) - swimming, ballet & conditioning, netball, choir. This is light as she has exams at the moment, will be looking to add drama and another netball, poss DT club.

Year 4 child (duracell bunny) - swimming, netball, hockey, gymnastics, Brownies, choir, drama x 2. Will be adding another gymnastics and another netball in Jan. Insane really.

However a few of these are at school which helps.

My year 6 DA does hockey on a Sunday (which swaps to cricket in the summer). There’s a midweek training slot for that as well.
Then he plays an instrument through a school so has one lesson a week plus two different band rehearsals each week (one weeknight, one on a Saturday morning). He also plays a second instrument for fun (teaching himself currently) so a lot of evenings are taken up with practising all the various music he’s been given.
He usually has one after school group each term too - either sport such as athletics or something like Young Voices.
He was doing Cubs but when he moved up to Scouts it was on a different day and so he had to drop it as it clashed with one band rehearsal and he decided he’d rather do that. As they get older I find they spend more time focused on one or two things rather than doing lots of different things.

7 year old does swimming, football and Beavers. Plus guitar during school hours.

5 year old does Rainbows, swimming, dancing, gymnastics and Beavers.

My ds used to swim once a week and do football twice a week when he was at primary school.

When he was 9 he stopped playing football and did cubs instead.

He used to do the odd after-school club too like recorder choir or tag rugby.

DD (9) does a musical theatre group on a saturday, and has weekly piano lessons. Until recently she had swimming lessons on the weekend too, but she didn't enjoy it so we stopped as soon as we were satisfied she was competent in the water. She does an Arts and Crafts club but that happens in school during school time. She also does one-off drama/dance/creative writing workshops in the school holidays, but these are usually one full or half day. DD is Autistic so we are conscious of not wanting to overwhelm her with too many activities, she probably needs more downtime than other kids her age. Some of her friends do an activity every single evening afterschool, there is no way she would cope with that.

1 different midweek activity each, 1 different weekend activity each, and both do swimming lessons (ideally in the same session or consecutive sessions but that's not always possible)

I have a reception age child (5 in jan) he does swimming once a week and has done since he was 3.

He isn't really interested in much else at the moment and the clubs at his school (aside from the generic after school club) are all year 1 and above.

My 9 year old does Cubs and swimming, 6 year old goes to Beavers.

I'm a Beavers leader so I take 6 year old with me while dad stays with 9 year old, he then drops him off at 6.30 and picks up me and youngest. He picks 9 year old up again later

I usually take 9 year old swimming mostly because I like watching but if I want a week off or he just wants dad to go for a change then dad is happy to do it.

Most extra Beavers / cubs activities fall to me as I'm likely involved anyway as a leader so usuallybim at camp / days out / fundraisers anyway

We have DS6.
Looking at the posts here, think we might be overkill. We are spreading the net wide until he finds a sport/ activity he likes, then reduce and focus on key sports.

Our weekend alone has 6 activities (swimming both days, hockey, rugby, tennis and footie)... then Beavers during the week as well as 3 school related activities afterschool (courses like extra Spanish or French lessons or gymnastics etc but varies term to term).

We feel swimming a life skill and want to ensure he is at an advance stage for (self catering) holidays with pool. He is also very active and best way to ensure he is tired end of the day.

Most of the (working) parents in our year use the afterschool activities as effective childcare.

Quite common where we live to have kids at these weekend sports (bump into same groups) as city based and can walk/ cycle to most activities..

Fortunately, having only 1 child allows parents to tag team activities so do get some "me time".

Ds7 does 4 clubs, after school sports club, beavers, swimming and cricket my 4yr old will be doing squirrels and swimming from January

I think some people forget that kids can pursue hobbies and interests without necessarily having to do an organised activity

Some kid like lots of activities. When DD1 started secondary she was doing at least one hour of sport every day, about half of which she was choosing to do at free before and after school clubs that were her choice to attend. It was only in lockdown that she started doing a lot of quieter activities at home. But even as a teenager she has noticably more energy than most people and is constantly doing stuff, when she drops an activity it doesn't take her long to start complaining about losing fitness and then picking up another. My other two are happier chilling than DD1 so they choose to do less.

I think forcing kids to do lots of activities when they would be happier with less is not good but for the energetic extroverts I think the limit is probably the finances and time of the parents rather than the child. It should be child led.

Mine is 7 and does swimming once a week and learns a musical instrument through school. I can't afford anything else until he's a strong swimmer and we can swap swimming for something else.

Two kids, 5 and 3. 5yr old does dancing one evening. 3yr old, nothing.

I really don't understand the pressure to have kids at all after school clubs etc each week. Kids need down time.

Dd Yr7 does swimming, dance, choir, drama and sometimes tennis on a Sunday. She’s also in a national choir that rehearses monthly. She’d do more if I could afford it.

Dd6 (year 2) does Lego club and performing arts (school clubs). Then swimming on Friday evening and tennis on Saturdays

8 YO & 5 YO.

Both do Scouting/Guiding appropriate age group, dance club at school, swimming lessons, gymnastics and junior Parkrun.

Eldest does choir and piano. Youngest does a craft club.

They like to be busy.

DD aged 8 does swimming, recorder lessons and Stagecoach (singing/dancing/acting). She also does book club and coding club through the school. It feels like a lot as we also have to fit in homework as well as down time!

My DD (11) does too much

Football 3 times a week plus has just been selected for school team so that will be more

Plus

Scouts
Curling
Swimming
Basketball
Running

Off to high school next year so this should drop to just Scouts, Football and Curling

DS at secondary just does Explorers. Swimming and DoE volunteering