What does your child do after school?

[8mileeminem]

I'm just wandering what other people's children do after school and before bed? Do you let them chill and do whatever they choose or do you have a strict structure of things to do.

BIt of both really. Tonight the older one has —mostly eaten— played on Xbox and is now at Explorers. The younger one has come with me to DGPs then watched tv while I’ve cooked them baked some scones before she went to bed.

How old are your DC?

children do after school and before bed?

It's at least 6 hours, so there's rather a lot of stuff, but other than activities, which are common, none of it is an imposed structure.

Dd is in Yr 1 and does a mix - two days of a scheduled activity (drama club and swimming), two days of playing/reading/homework at home and then usually on Fridays a playdate or outing or just staying home, depending on how tired she is.

Could schedule in more but she's pretty tired after school. Might try Beavers or Rainbows when weathers better. School can be quite sedentary so something active is good.

We have a 'no tv/ipad on school days' rule, otherwise she'd just zone out from 4-7pm every day.

Mine have swimming, tennis and dance and singing on 4 separate days and then when we get home they just play for a bit, we have dinner then they do their (minimal) homework (bit of reading and spellings really) then the older one has 5 mins of violin, then they watch tv before bed for half an hour or so.

Today it was pouring with rain so tennis was off, so we came home and watched a film together, did some Lego etc which was lovely.

They do a lot of after school stuff between them, but if I ever suggest dropping anything they won’t hear of it.

My dc are 10 and 8 . Every other night they are at sporting activities which takes them right up to bed time. On the days they're not doing sports I let them choose what to do whether it be play out with friends or watch tv or play on Xbox all evening. They've got so much structure in school and sporting activities I think it's important to let them to decide how they spend their spare time

Pick kid up at 5:30 from after school club 3 nights a week. He does sports on the other 2 nights so every night we are home 5:30-6. We usually go out Friday night, the other nights he does want he wants around dinner.

2 DS's age 7 and 4 plus a baby here. eldest has a music lesson on a friday. apart from that we usually either go to the park or come home and play unless one of them has a play date or we have to do an errand or something. Eldest does homework after dinner then bath, books and bed. No tv or ipad on school days except friday evenings when we watch a family movie. I have recently found that if I give them some focused attention when they get home by playing a game with them or doing an activity (eg baking or crafts or something) then their behaviour in general is much better.

A sport/activity most days - gymnastics, tennis, football, playball, multi sports and drama - divided between two children although some activities they do together.

This generally takes us to about 5pm. Then it's dinner, homework, 30 minutes tv and bedtime (which in itself seems to take about an hour ).

They're busy but they're only doing activities they choose to do and enjoy. Occasionally play dates but mostly they see their friends at their clubs.