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

Almost 7 year old DD does four (swimming, rainbows, gymnastics and stage coach) I think it’s one too many.

I have 3 kids and the activities contribute to a general sense of madness and exhaustion! Only one of them is primary age though - DS is in Y3

He plays football 3 x a week, swims x 1 a week, surf life saving x 1 a week, rugby x 1 a week.

I have 2 dc in primary school and they do piano lessons once a week after school and soft play group once a month after school. Most of their activities are in the school holidays which works out better for us as dh works in the evenings.

I forgot to add, DC1 also does a sports club at school once a week, only started this year and was resistant despite the fact that it's at school, with teacher he knows and with his classmates... but we pushed a bit and glad we did because he enjoys it now.

Last year he was learning an instrument at school (an extra but within school hours) and really enjoyed it but when there was a different teacher this year he didn't want to continue He's shown a lot of interest in the piano recently (we have one at home) but I'll probably just teach him myself as I'm doubtful that lessons would be successful - too much pressure for him.

One does karate, swimming, football (training and match weekly), scouts, guitar and chess club. The other does stage school, singing and swimming.

DC1 (age 9) plays 3 instruments, music theory, brownies and swimming lessons. Plus choir. woodwind ensemble and orchestra after school but they'd be at after school club anyway so it's childcare really. When STEM club and chess are on, they do that too.

They historically did gymnastics, tennis, ballet but dropped as they picked up more instruments (their choice).

DC2 (age 7) does Football (training plus matches) plus beavers and swimming. Multi sport but as with DC1, that's childcare not a deliberate activity.

Had also dabbled with gymnastics but dropped for football.

Both will do park run if we are around. But it's drop in so non-committal.

We both work FT in professional jobs with long hours. We can't fit any more in.

DD

Monday off
Tuesday orchestra then brownies
Wednesday off
Thursday tutor
Friday piano
Saturday netball then drama
Sunday netball match

DS

Monday off
Tuesday tennis
Wednesday scouts
Thursday off
Friday golf
Saturday football then drama
Sunday match

It's too much but they both love it. And I'm happy to facilitate whilst I'm able

I look forward to the holidays !

Two kids, one aged 7, one aged 4, no hobbies.

By the time I pick them up from work after 5, there isn’t time in my opinion. I would find it too much of a rush and think they would much rather be at home. My eldest has ASD so is a home bod, my youngest is tired after a day at nursery.

At one point we were doing swimming, gymnastics, kickboxing and beavers. It was a bit too much, then DS decided he really didn't enjoy kickboxing and gymnastics any more.

So it's now (age 7, year 3) beavers on a Tuesday evening and swimming on a Saturday morning. Beavers also do weekend hikes/remembrance parade/sleepovers etc. I feel like most kids do more tbh and are we doing enough! But he is happy.

But the main thing I want to say is DO BEAVERS. Scouting is amazing. They do so many different activities, they make friends, have adventures, they gain so much independence, it's honestly amazing. DS is often nervous to go to a party or school trip without us. But went to a beaver sleepover for 24 hours without hesitation, and loved it, and is doing the next one soon. Other activities they may get bored of, but Beavers is so varied. And if it's anything like our area, waiting lists are so long that if you don't take the space now - they literally won't ever get in.

Ahem. DO BEAVERS 😁

Mine are 7 and 4.

7 - Beavers, swimming

4 - Swimming, starting squirrels after Xmas

They both go to a local club at the church one evening per week as well.

That will be 4 week evenings with activities on.

DD aged 6 does swimming on a Wednesday

DS aged 4 does Rugbytots on a Saturday

DD has tried activities in the past, dance which she did for a year and just gave up in the end as she wasn’t bothered and recently Beth Tweddle gymnastics which she did for 3 months before she quit - her own choice!

we have realised she’s not a sporty child and enjoys crafting and art clubs instead so
will be looking into those at school next year!

ds will start swimming lessons next year

try not to compare yourself to what anyone else is doing.

it’s more about what works for you and you don’t want to burnout and become overwhelmed trying to keep up with activities, school, work, house etc.

maybe try and enjoy the evenings with them instead of another club x

Dc1 (8)
Kickboxing
Swimming
Drama
Football. Plays for a team so training and fortnightly games in season

Dc2 (5)
Rainbows
Swimming
Drama
Squirrels
Two types of dance

So basically 5 for dc1 (football counts twice) and 6 for dc2. Both would like to add more things, music lessons for dc1 and another type of dance for dc2 but that's a definite no atm.

DS(9) and DD(6) both do 4 activities each out of school, plus they do a couple of things at school like choir, which doubles up as a bit of childcare.

DS (9) does Cubs, football (1x training and 1x match) and swimming.

DD (6) does Rainbows, football, swimming and piano

We both work FT too, but have recently introduced a bit of flexibility so that we can do more pickups and less after school club. The other thing that has helped massively is that DS now walks himself home from school so has enough downtime before going out in the evening.

Weekends are too busy for us. Gone are the days when we would have a family day out or go to the playground. Saturdays we have football x2, swimming and piano. Sunday's are mercifully free.

Daughter: netball, piano, Brownies. Not from as young as yours - I think from Y3, and can't remember when netball started but she did do ballet for a year before that. The netball was practice one night and on Saturdays practice or a match (this was out of school, she wasn't on any school teams). She also did a couple clubs but they tended to meet during the extended lunch break (school went til 4.30).
Son: drums, sport for school (most Saturdays) and rugby outside of school from age 9 - one night a week and Sundays. He also did a couple clubs during lunch.

One sport and one non sport activity at a time, plus usually does one school club after school per term (not after school clubs, just extra curricular stuff)

DD is 8 (year 4). She does:

• Swimming and rugby at the weekend. She's fairly competent at swimming now and a lot of her friends have given up at this point, although she still seems keen to carry on for now
• Music lesson once a week but this is in school time
• Book club once a week also in school time

Once a month on a Saturday she does an activity based on volunteering with a local community group.

She'd probably do more given the chance as she loves trying out new things, but this is what time and funds permit just now. Single mum and no car so try to keep the shuttling about to a manageable level!

We have one DS, age 9. He plays basketball at school as part of their after school activities twice a week as well as the occasional match with another school. He also does drum lessons one evening during the week and on a Saturday morning.
We're lucky enough to have free access to an indoor pool too, so he goes swimming a couple of times a week but this is just for fun and not lessons. This is all definitely enough for him! (And me.)

I have two Y6 (10) and Y3 (9)

Y6 does dodgeball, football and climbing
Y3 does dodgeball, drama, music, climbing and gymnastics (also unmedicated ADHD so always on the go and into everything so all the activities help to regulate them)
Thankfully I only end up with one really late night a week the rest of the time we are done and home by 6pm.

When mine were in primary school they did swimming, cubs, karate and trampolining.
They are now 13 and 15, the younger one does scouts and karate and the older one just does karate although he does 3 lessons a week.

Dss is 10. We have him 50% of the time and do our best to facilitate his hobbies around that. Golf lesson, swimming lessons and martial arts every other week. Sea cadets every Thursday because its the only day of the week we have him every week. Swimming is on the weeks we have him mid week and golf and martial arts are the weeks we have him at the weekend.

My 5 year old daughter dose swimming, gymnastics, rainbows and piano lesson so 4.

DS (4) does ballet, swimming and Little Kickers (football ish). He also wanted to try Squirrels again (tried 6 months ago but he got too tired and was a bit young for it). That’ll have to be the max for now.

Ds 9 - swimming, violin (at school), and badminton. Has point blank refused to do more. We finally got a place at cubs and he refused!

Dd 7 - swimming, football, badminton.

I wish school did more non sport clubs which might interest ds, but choice is sport or choir only.

DD5 does ballet, tap, swimming and Rainbows along with one piano lesson a week

DS8 does swimming, cubs, horse riding and has guitar, drums and piano lessons.

We are lucky in that a lot of these are after school on the school site.

The weekends I keep free from regular activities as we mostly seem to spend them at birthday parties and I think it’s good for the kids to have some down time!

So far I think we’ve managed to balance his interest and desire to do lots with his need for downtime but it is difficult. He did 1 in reception (a sport at a time - either football, tennis or cricket), 2 in year 1 (football x2, swapped to cricket in summer), and 3 first half term of year 2 (football x2 plus a match - too much I think but one less than his club wants him to do), and 4 this half term as he’s started swimming which is an important life skills and surprised me by coping with it all so far but I’ll drop something if he’s not.

him and me would love him to do cricket, tennis and beavers too but no idea how people do it without the kids getting too tired and needing downtime. He does go to after school club 4x a week till 5/5.30 so maybe different if he was getting picked up at 3.15.

youngest is 2 and does football or rugby and loves it, tried to stop it to save time but he kept asking to go back