How many hours structured EC does your y7-y8 or teen do?

[lljkk]

On another thread someone said they'd recommend that new Y7s join "every club going"... but I wondered, how much was truly realistic, given homework and chill-out time demands. What time commitments to structured EC activities have your kids in y7-y8 realistically sustained?

'Every club going' sounds like every child's idea of hell. Chilling out and playing freely is of the essence, and apart from that anything they really enjoy and want to do. If you feel like this approach might be equal to denying your child's hidden genius from unfolding, read this book.

I think the "join clubs" advice was more about creating a healthy social life, and trying new things out, not having to commit or excel at anything or fufill potential, etc.

But I do have a DD who tends to want to do too much, so I am partly wondering if she'll be able to do more in future, or if we need to plan for her to stick to about the time commitments she's already doing.

My DD did join every club going at one stage She did settle down for a 2 or 3 a week. She is a bright, sociable and interested in lots of things.

DC's school does not have a proper playground becuase the leisure centre was built on top of it, but it does give them excellent facilities. This means they like the dcs to be occupied at lunch time, another local school rather than provide clubs just shortened lunch to stop dcs getting into trouble They like the dcs to be involved in 2 a week, which is not really too much.

About 2 weeks after yr7 start the school has a clubs fare after school where parents are invited and the dcs are given information about all the clubs and the opportunity to sign up.
A lot of the clubs were lunch time, a few were breakfast clubs and the sports ones tended to be after school. None of the ones my DCs clubs really impacted outside of school. DD has learnt to play the guitar through one of the clubs.
DS ended up in the 6th form electronics club when he was in yr7 which he really enjoyed.

DD in particular did make friends through the clubs, but she is socialble and makes friends very easily anyway.
They both got involved in the drama side of things even though they don't do anything to do with drama out of school. DD on stage, but DS has done back stage for 4 years now and really enjoys getting involved. It has meant he has got to know children outside his year group.

Out of school DD yr8 does scouts, volunteers on a saturday morning and a few days in the holiday at a SN playscheme and a life saving bronze medallion class. She has just been asked by her swim teacher to help at a SN swim session on a sunday which are a lot of the same children on the playscheme.

DD joined two after-school clubs and now also does 2 lunchtime clubs. I think that's plenty as she does 6 hours gym and has a piano lesson out of school anyway!

She quickly found friends (also new starters) to go with to the two after-school clubs and then went with friends she had already made to the lunchtime clubs, so she didn't exactly join the clubs to make friends

mine are a bit older now, but one was a 'joiner' with little free time & the other wasn't. It depends on the child - what works well for one won't for another. I'd advise them to join what they want too and drop some things later if they feel it's too much.

ds1 in yr7 did boys' choir and reading club, that was all. (1 lunchtime, 1 after school).

ds2 in yr7 does boys' choir, chamber choir, singing lesson, piano lesson, Tech club, chess club, reading club, (3 lunchtimes, 3 before school, 2 after school), plus myriad extra rehearsals and concerts ... He wants to do boys dance and drama, but can't fit it in!

They are different personalities and approaches. ds2 doesn't get stacks of homework atm, when he does, he may need to rationalise his activities.

But actually, I think it works for him to be busy: makes him efficient. ds1 sometimes spends hours over relatively straightforward homeworks, but actually most of the time he's just prevaricating. ds2 just doesn't have the luxury to do that, as he has so much else to fit in, and music practice as well.