What do children do after a 3.15 school pick-up until bedtime?

[Thoseyummyspicycheesethings]

3.15-3.30…what do you/they do for the rest of the evening?
Dc has piano one evening, just for half an hour, other hobby is at the weekend. Sometimes she plays with a friend, if they’re home (same street) but mainly her two friends are home later and too late to play.
We have a snack after school, she plays in the garden, does homework, dinner later, maybe plays football with Dh or a quick bike ride around the block. Mainly she’s bored and looking for things to do until bedtime at 8 ish
As a child, my mum picked me up at this time and I remember being happy to just relax at home and watch tv, I had no clubs.

If you pick up at this time, what do they/you do until bedtime?

Oh and sometimes take Ddog for a walk
When she was younger, she was fine and happy to come home and read or watch tv/play

how old?

my kids get picked up later as we both work but even then generally go straight to other activities, or home for a quick dinner then onto an activity. All as requested by then.

if she’s bored playing / reading / crafting maybe ask what she wants to do?

sport or music 5 nights a week for my kids. Friday they are home at 5 this is the earliest they are home and they get free reign - screen time or do what ever they want till tea and then we do a family film night

Practice the piano? My DD’s practiced instruments for 30-60 minutes each evening, they also had choir twice a week so with home work, reading, general life stuff there wasn’t much time

Play, do homework, watch some tv, eat dinner, read a book.

Park was on our way home and there usually 30 mins there if the weather was good. Then snack and chat about the day. Then homework. Then dinner, play, bed.

We had afterschool music, swimming, martial arts, hockey at various points in school career. Also, there were weekend music classes at some point. Play dates and parties etc.

I don't remember boredom being a feature.

Being bored and finding ways to entertain themselves is an important life skill. They don’t need constant activities or guidance on what to do.

If mine tell me they’re bored I immediately tell them to do chores or extra homework (we have some home study books just for this really). They don’t complain often!

DD1 - Monday Brownies
Tuesday - after school club
Wednesday - Tutoring
Thursday Netball club
Friday - I'm off so we go to park or shops after school

DD2- Monday Ballet
Tuesday after school club
Wednesday - swim lesson
Thursday - Rainbows
Friday - Park/shops

Also homework to fit in, we try to do a bit each week day so weekends free for family time/parties

When my daughter was thst age, we used to stop off at the park once or twice each week, but most evenings when we got home, she got changed and then we sat and played for a couple of hours and then did her reading for school until she had her dinner between 6-7 pm

We call in the park or community center on the way home, so arn't usually back until 4 (other DC gets hom3 just after on school transport), then half an hour decompressing and having snack. We have tea around 6.30, then do any homework and start winding down towards bed after, so there's only really 2 hours to fill (4.30-6.30)

They go to a club one night and have a friend come round another. The other 3 night, there is quite a bit of telly watching and pottering on at home. Sometimes some drawing/craft or music practice, sometimes play with toys or go in the garden.

7

It is a lot of time to fill watching tv and reading, most adults would get a bit bored with it too

I think she probably needs some more activities - a sport? Rainbows? Drama? Or more playdates? A weekly trip to the library? Could you set up some activities/crafts at home for her? Mine won't get out crafts independently but if I put something out and give a few ideas they enjoy it

Mine went to afterschool club 3x per week at that age, as we were working.
Then I changed jobs so 4x a week I picked them up at 3.15. We had a mix, so activities once or twice (brownies, swimming) and maybe a play date or park visit another day. And one day home straight home and tv or play. But would have been a bit much to have all 5 days of nothing scheduled in from 3.30.
Of course if they had friends in the street they could have played with, that would have filled the time, but we didn't have that (unfortunately).

We had 2 days of activities, 1 or 2 days going to the park with friends near the school,.

We had a no screens rule during the week, but they used to then come home and play or read or draw, go on the trampoline, play football in our back yard. When they got to about nine or ten, each of them would cook one day a week or bake.

Reading or watching Mysterious Cities of Gold! (I’m old though) 🤣

DC with ADHD - busy work, or heavy work to undo the 6 hours of sitting still. Stick him up a ladder to wash the walls, knead bread, cut the grass with scissors... I've got quite inventive over the last few years but it bloody works!

Ours are primary aged and do clubs for an hour twice a week, normally go around someone's house/have someone over once a week, then watch TV or play computer games the other days. If it's dry they spend a lot of time in the garden playing football.

Their screens have always had time limits so they can't spend more than an hour on them a day. Our school doesn't give out homework but assume as they get older this will also be a thing.

Mines get the school bus so not back till four but a mix of music practice, homework, trampoline, playing outside.

It’s quite sunny today so probably stay outside for an hour ( the dog will join them) after grabbing a snack, homework, music practice, dinner at 6, chores stack dishwasher, clean table / floor after dinner, put away their own clean laundry, quick tidy of bedrooms then they get about 45 minutes of screen time.

My 8 year old goes to bed at 6pm (early riser) so for us it's not massive amount of time to fill. We have dinner early and the rest is play time, playing out in the garden, watch a film, crafting, drawing, playing in the bath. All of mine really need the downtime from school.

9 Year old with ADHD here too and its exhausting keeping him entertained after school sometimes!!

He does sometimes like to come home & just chill, game or watch his iPad.

Doesn't usually last long though until he wants to do something else, so he will go in the garden, play with his toys ( although I've noticed doesn't happen very often - he's bored of toys now! )

I try to arrange lots of play dates, people coming for tea and find most parents then invite back, he has football 2 evenings a week and goes to a youth club once a week too!

When football / youth club isn't on were walking the dog, over the park, making easy cakes, think rice crispy, cornflake cakes, something he can do whilst i'm prepping dinner.

Failing that, I get the crafty stuff out, pens paper etc and ask him to make me a poster or something!

Mine does after school club 3x a week until 6pm but the other two days it's a snack and bit of chill out time with the TV, then it's homework, then playing or crafting and then dinner time, Bath time and stories etc.

We walk home from school which should take 15-20 mins but generally we aren’t home much before 4. Sometimes a trip to the shop or library on the way home. Dd is 5 and has some tv - CBeebies type stuff before dinner and we usually watch wildlife documentaries with her before bed. Dinner takes a while. Other than that, she has a snack, plays with toys, does Lego, draws and does crafts, reads her book to me or I read to her, plays with her brother, plays in the garden and picks weeds for the tortoise, plants seeds, helps me with cooking, plays the floor is lava. We tend to be in the house so I can be vaguely around for DS who is 14.

i used to take DS to a park after school often where loads of other kids would go from his school and I could sit and chat with other parents (or sit on my phone 🙈).

My DD was like this at 7. At 16 she’s still like this!

She did lots of extra-curriculars like Brownies, gymnastics, swimming, dance etc. We did play dates most days, parks etc. She just isn’t the type of person that can sit around and entertain herself. She also needs human interaction so required attention from me or a friend at all times. It was (and still is!) exhausting!

DS on the other hand was always happy to read a book or play with his Lego on his own for hours.

It’s all well and good saying that being bored and learning ways to fill your time is a good thing but some people just aren’t built that way.

Finding similar children who were always up for a play date certainly helped. I found a really good mum friend whose DD was exactly the same so they spent a lot of time together.

Now DD is a teenager, she has lots and lots of friends and socialises every day after school.

Why does she need to be entertained all the time? It’s a long school day as it is. She is bored because she doesn’t know how to occupy herself due to having something scheduled in. Surely some crafts, reading, music, even doing some baking. Some of her days are filled but she doesn’t need it all the time.

Beavers, after school clubs, dinner, homework,
bath time