Extracurricular clubs - am I giving him too much?

[duothea]

My son is 7.5. Year 3.

A usual week:

Monday - nothing
Tuesday - external from school tennis (plus this is a games day at school so they play 2 hours of whatever sport it is that week in the morning)
Wednesday - nothing
Thursday - hockey straight after school, at school. Pick up, and then a 30 min piano lesson
Friday - cricket straight after school, at school.
Saturday - nothing
Sunday - sometimes Parkrun, always swimming in the afternoon

He goes to a very sporty private school so a lot of this is to keep him involved, keep his fitness up and generally is in the spirit of the school. However, I worry that it's quite a lot.

He seems to be coping ok, but sometimes complains of being tired and hungry - isn't that normal for 7 year olds?

DD is year 4 also at a sporty prep. School has them stay for ‘enrichment’ activities until 5.15 Monday-Thursday, after that clubs run until 6.15 which she does twice a week. They give them tea to tide them over so no complaints of hunger! Outside of school she also does Brownies. Friday is early finish at 3.30 and we keep that free for playdates. Saturday she does tennis and Sunday hockey. Through school they have sports 3 times a week and swimming once. She’s fine and enjoys it all, all her friends do similar so it’s pretty much the norm. So I don’t see the issue with your schedule. Just ditch the park run if he doesn’t like it (mine HATES park run despite being a good runner) and up the snacks.

I'm not there at school to feed him sadly!

It's swimming lessons - it's his favourite. Will stop the parkrun

Oh I see, ‘swimming’ just sounded like a flexible thing, but lessons are different of course. I think dropping the parkrun would be a good idea.

This is a more varied programme, however.

I'm finding it hard to answer OP as I'm not sure how much sport he gets at school?

Our dc get games every day except Sunday at prep school (plus I think one week day/rest day off, but they do have matches on Saturday so the equivalent of every week day with none at the weekend). I therefore would not want to be doing so many after school sports, as I prefer them to spend unstructured time, and they have music practice.

So it looks way ott to me on the sports front ...

It would have been too much for ds at that age. And nowhere near enough for dd.

It really does depend on the child.

@Calliopespa true, we are trying to do a sport, art and something for the brain in after school clubs ;) dance/music is his passion, hence the three dance lessons and lamda/instrument/singing.
Hates swimming, so that will be stopped as soon as we possibly can

How much homework is he doing in the evenings? My similar age DD does slightly more than your DS activity wise but she does have a long day some days with homework too. Also are the weekday ones all term time only? The terms can be pretty short can’t they - the holiday is a break for them too?

They have games one day a week, and PE one day a week

All are term time and no homework, just reading and piano practice

Looks great to me. There's loads of weekend free, not sure why people are advising to bin off parkrun?! Get up, do park run, got hours free to hang out at home together before swimming.

He'll need a lot of food though. Always have food at pick up time!

Oh that's actually surprisingly little for a prep. Maybe your schedule is not as much as I had assumed then.

But as a general rule, I would be looking for at least one total rest day and no more than one structured games hour a day. That's not to say they won't run about that day: they are children so they will. But I've read quite a bit about self-regulated play being better physical exercise for children than organised sport sessions. Like the old days!

Another rule I have heard is no more hours per week than the child's age (formal sport that is, not child-led physical play). Over-use injuries in growing children are much higher than when I was a child. We had games a few times a week in school but matches were not these big long affairs they can be now. After school we just ran round the garden (hide and seek etc, made our own fun). If someone had a "hobby" sport, it was normally only on a Saturday. I think after school sport is a more recent thing born of the "can't get too much" philosophy. But I think you can overdo it while they are growing.

You don't think two full sessions of games/PE is a lot?
it ramps up in years 4 to 6 and then is astronomical from year 7.

dreading it, not sure he'll keep up

Well mine have always had at least three a week at school, and I think it ramps up at year 3 to more than that. And Saturday matches starting Year 4.

But on the whole, I find it a bit OTT for little growing bones and am a big believer in children running about free range in place of organised sport.