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?

DD doesn't tell me she's bored. She comes up with very elaborate games that I have to be involved with. I feel guilty but I hate it so much and try and find various ways to get out of it or wait for the perfect moment to slink away and she'll carry on by herself. Sometimes I enjoy it and get involved, but sometimes I desperately don't want to do fucking imaginative play

I have a DS who is 5.5. Pick up is at 3.20; as long as it’s dry we go to either the school playground (available to the kids til 4pm) or the park over the road from school. Then walk home and arrive 4.30pm ish. I think it’s good to give a bit of decompression time then so CBeebies goes on or DS can draw, play with Lego etc while I sort dinner. Early dinner at 5.30, bath around 6.45pm, a bit more drawing/Lego/board games then bed.

I have a 7 year old.
If the weather is nice, sometimes park after school.
At some point between 3:15 and bedtime, the following has to happen (unless she did it before school - usually we get one done in the morning):
Music practice unless it has been done before school.
Reading
At least one of spelling/times tables practice

Other than that she gets to choose what she does (but no more than half an hour TV time). She likes to play on the trampoline, draw pictures, tell imaginary stories with her toys, go on her rollerskates. Sometimes she might want to play a board game or do a jigsaw.

One evening she has a swimming lesson and one day a week she has violin, but other hobbies are at the weekend at the moment. One day of being in a school club which extends the day till 4:15.

We read - all of us sit in the lounge with relaxing music on and read our books together. My kids English work at school has improved massively since I started doing this.

They then either help me with dinner, or they go and play with their toys.

Sometimes we watch something on TV together and have a cup of tea.

We do some gardening.

They do music practice.

We play on the trampoline.

I told them a bored person is a boring person, so my kids are never bored.

Starting bed at 8 for a 7 year old seems quite late, what time does she actually go down to bed? Mine go up 7.15 latest, washed, changed, read to me, I read to them, lights out at 8. So I'd look party at if she's going to bed too late.

Does she / you want to do another week day activity? We have an afterschool club one day til 4 and Beavers one night 6-7. Home usually by 4 tho so three hours to fill Inc dinner. They'll play, read, chat to me whilst I do dinner, they are slow eaters too, watch telly, sometimes a computer game, crafts etc.

OMG some of those sound genius.

OP - 6yo usually park after school so not home until 4. Then dinner, reading, lego, crafts, playing with brother. TV one or two days. Library or groceries one day if the weather is good. Often wants me to play for an hour or so or wants to bake something.

After school clubs or activities I take them to, talking to me about their day, decompressing, homework, playing outside or walking the dog, bit of tv, a few chores, dinner, bath/shower, bit of reading.

I agree, I never told my parents I was bored. There is always a boring job to do.
My children liked the free time, now they are adults I wish we had done less.

I think everyone's different. Some people - adults and children - like to be out and about, socialising, doing hobbies, exercising.

As an adult, I would get bored pottering round in the garden on my own/watching TV/reading every single day between 3:15 and 8pm. Some adults would love it and consider it vital downtime.

There's also a huge middle ground between hours every day entertaining yourself and being scheduled for every moment

I would add a couple of activities but also some things like going to the library to choose different books into the after school routine. It will still leave plenty of time

No clubs on Monday so usually home 345 have a snack ( something unhealthy like crisps mostly) then a mixture of tv/ tablets/ switch and when its dry they'll play in the garden we have a climbing frame with swings, monkey bars and a slide, a trampoline, goals, basketball and a dartboard out there. We have a pool table in the kitchen so they'll play that too. Dinner is at 530ish. The eldest will often play in the street with some other local boys on their bikes.
Tuesday the eldest has cubs, he tends to stay on his tablet or switch before. The youngest is much more likely to play with toys or go outside.
Wednesday the eldest has an after school sports club and then the youngest has beavers so not much time for playing at home
Thursday no clubs, we sometimes go straight to the park after-school and stay at least an hour, the eldest plays out with his friends and the youngest does a mixture of toys outside play and screens. The 4 of us do a 5k walk most Thursday evenings as its the only week evening none of us have a regular commitment.
Friday is swimming for the youngest and cricket for the eldest
They only have reading and spellings so we do those either as soon as they get in or just before they go up to bed.
I also do a couple of play dates each term

Mine is 9.

TV
Tablet
Rollerskating
Park
Playing out with friends (most likely)
Drawing
Asking for snacks!

@Thoseyummyspicycheesethings when mine were that age if they weren’t at clubs (so just 2 school evenings) i’d deliberately leave the car at home and walk the 20 minutes to school to collect them. Their activity for the evening was walking home! It always took 2 hours on the way back, after they climbed every wall they saw, visited the park and helped me to choose dinner in our local M&S. I have really fond memories of those long walks home.

They’d be knackered by 5.30 - 6. So we’re happy with then just homework, TV, dinner, bath, story and bed.

@Thoseyummyspicycheesethings is walking home from school an option for you?

Mine had a variety of activities 25-30 years ago. However they also had each other and as three sisters close in age (20 months between 1 and 2 and the same between 2 and 3) they entertained themselves.

Sport or piano after school then home for rest, Mario kart, dinner, shower etc

I think for many children that age they have at least one hobby that they are very involved in so it takes up a lot of their time - for my 8 year old it's dance, which involves various lessons/practices/comps but also means she has of friends with this shared interest so there are often arrangements to meet up. When she has free time she still plays with toys a lot (sylvanian family mainly at the minute, but it varies!).

After school clubs until 5 pm 4 days a week (art, coding, judo and one just general play). Once a week an out of school hobby. Just time for homework and dinner!

Play, snack, homework, some more activity or class, do chores, dinner, finish homework if needed and downtime to read, bake, watch a movie, draw, or just hang out. Help with pickup before bedtime.

If she talks about being bored, it's chore time.

Agreed, DD will happily entertain herself but DS needs running around like an over excitable puppy otherwise he's bouncing off the walls.

They go to a childminder on the days I teach (3) until around 4.45. They do crafts there or play games. At home we have dinner then they might have a swimming or karate lesson 6.30pm.

On evenings with no activities they play outside, watch TV, have device time (fire tablets).

Before bed they all read for half an hour. I have 4 children. 3 under 10. One teenager.

I am exhausted for them. When do they get time to
"just be" just to watch tv, go out and play, lie on the sofa and daydream or play with all the toys that were given to them for Christmas and Birthday?

At that age my children had swimming,football and tennis. So two evenings with organised activity. Play park and maybe play date occasionally. I don’t think it’s necessary to be overloaded with back to back entertainment. Snack and chilling ,watching TV is absolutely fine so children can unwind and relax.

My 7 year old has Beavers, swimming and football training so on those three nights there isn't time for much except dinner, homework (reading and spellings) and a quick shower before bed. On the two nights he doesn't have activities he plays in the garden if the weather is nice or plays inside with his toys if its not, then a bit of TV/ninendo switch time before he has a shower and gets ready for bed. He goes up to bed at 7.30pm but is allowed to read for half an hour before lights out.

At 7 mine were in bed by 7. 30 and usually would be going up for a bath at 6.30 and would then have a bedtime story etc til lights out 7. 30
School finished at 3.20 so by the time we'd walked home it was after half 3, especially if they'd chatted/played with friends walking the same way. Dinner was at about 5 when they were that age. Some days they had wraparound if we were working but on the other days they would read, play etc til dinner (sometimes helping a bit eg unloading some bits from the dishwasher or laying the table?) then dinner, then a bit of tv, then before you know it it's bathtime. The time never dragged. And mine also had a bit of music practice to do (but at that age it would have been 5 or 10 minutes) or maybe had a swimming lesson one day or football club after school or whatever.

What you wrote makes no sense to what I wrote. Me not entertaining my children 24/7 doesn't mean they aren't doing anything or leaving the house. They have friends they make their own plans if they want to sit in the house bored alone thats on them

Swimming one right, cubs/beavers another on different nights but all must come for the ride, another activity on the fourth night. We often go to the playground before activities. We only have one free evening. They read, watch TV, play games on their tablets, homework, play football in the garden or other general play. When it warms up a bit I'll take them out after dinner to a near by play area.