Too many activities

[Ghanagirl]

Hi just wanted some feedback from other parents. I have 6 year old twins and I'm finding the amount of homework they are expected to do overwhelming as they also have extra curricular activities, at present DS does piano and Spanish after school once a week then football and tennis on Saturday DD does the same except not football but gymnastics on Sunday, my husband wants them to have tuition in maths and English for 2 hours on a Friday after school is this too much? They constantly moan about piano
practise but otherwise seem happy with the amount of things they are doing.

I would say no to tutoring - it is too much. I am as pleased as anybody if my children are on the top table/stream but I am not going to pay good money to make a 6 yr old do extra work just to stay there. There really is no need. Your children will work at the rate that suits them and will develop accordingly. They do not need the extra pressure of worrying about what table they are on. You really do need to be looking at the bigger picture on this, not worrying about what table they are on in yr 1 or 2 in one tiny bit of London. It doesn't matter so long as they are roughly where they are expected to be for their age. What your husband wants to do smacks of competitive parenting if you ask me. He isn't really doing it solely for the good of your children.

Of course if the school is so bad that people are getting tutors to compensate for bad teaching then you have a problem but the solution then is to change schools, not make your children work on a Friday night to compensate for the school's failings.