Too many activities

[Xantheticus]

Trying to work out a balance of after school extracurricular activities. Interested in people's thoughts on whether this is too much for an energetic not very academic 9 year old boy:

Wednesday 1 hour karate

Thursday 30 min guitar then 1 hour karate
Friday 2 hrs athletics club (summer only)
Saturday 30 mins swimming lesson

Also wanting to add 30 min drum lesson. He is happy with everything now but I'm wondering if adding in the drum lesson will be too much.

Wondering how other people spread your activities through the week. If your DC do two instruments, how do you balance practice time?

I'm wondering if it's fair if one DC does two instruments when the other only does one. (Same activities but gymnastics instead of karate and keyboard instead of guitar).

Are you on a mission Micah? :) Then I am on a mission to keep your attention to the original question :)

And it doesn't matter what you or I think - it is an empirical statistics :)

Xanthe - DD dropped piano recently, she had lessons from 6 until her 9th birthday. She has decided to concentrate on her second instrument because she can play in an orchestra.

Fine with me, her musical knowledge is greater for doing two instruments for a few years.

I would encourage him to do whatever he likes tbh but I am fairly relaxed about what DD does.

I wouldn't bother with tutoring at 9, DD has always hated maths. Her maths has improved no end since we started using the Maths Factor, gimmicky perhaps but she actually likes doing it whereas she hated text books (we both have maths degrees, we couldn't make it fun enough to interest her). She has declared herself allergic to maths but she does this willingly (four of their sessions a day, good for mental maths).

As long as he is getting by I wouldn't worry at all, I was crap at maths until I was 14 and ended up doing a degree. I didn't have any additional help at all. I clicked with a fantastic teacher the year before I started my GCSEs and he made me a) love it and b) get it.

Childhoods are too short in my opinion - if you have the time and the cash to invest in something he loves and he is happy to do it, fits everything in with enough down time I would do it.

Howabout, that's a really good point about being more likely to practice 10 mins each on two instruments rather than 20 mins on one. I hadn't thought of that. I'm wondering too if drums might give more opportunities to play in school groups later on than just guitar.

My bookish DD does 2 hours afterschool judo and 1hr swimming a week in school time. Then I take her for 2 hours of music theory+instrument. Those activities plus practising and the small bits of homework she gets during the week are manageable.
I also keep one day for doctor/dentist/library visits.

Any more and we'd both start grumbling (her brother makes demands on my time, too)!

She's 9 BTW!

Lavendersun, I've just been looking up the maths factor - it looks good. Thanks for your reassurance about not doing tutoring. I couldn't see what they would do for him at this age when he gets the basic maths concepts just can't seem to retain any times tables or number bonds. Repetition seems to be the only thing which helps.

I think that there are other maths things out there Xantheticus. I only chose that one because it was free for 30 days to see if DD got on with it, which she does.

We are really relaxed here - my parents were so laid back about everything they were horizontal and we all did really well academically.

Four of those sessions on Maths Factor takes about 10 mins, on the iPad in the leather chair - no pressure at all. DD no longer stresses about her maths homework, am sure it is down to the mental maths on the iPad.

Maybe 15 mins come to think of it - but, DD did her maths homework in the time it took her boiled egg to cook this morning. It used to take her 20 mins before the school hols, she started Maths Factor when she broke up for the summer.

For us, the key is that she actually likes the iPad thing.

Times tables on journeys and while getting ready for bed or waiting for dinner etc and adding and subtracting games every time we had sweets or anything else to share helped for us - I sometimes think the current emphasis on learning concepts rather than number facts gives some DC the mistaken impression that there is some dark art to learning maths facts which makes it seem harder than it is.

I've always wondered when kids who do loads of after school activities, have time to do their homework? My eldest DD is 8, finishes school at 3.30 and only does one extracurricular activity as I just don't know how we'd fit it all in. She still goes to bed at 7 as has 2 younger siblings, but reads until 7.30. Do other people's kids go to bed a lot later/ not get homework every night or what? Genuinely curious.

Urgh, it's a bloody nightmare this after school classes thing! However, the kidlets seem to love it all, so I soldier on. If he is happy and you are happy then I reckon do as much as you both like! I wouldn't worry about fairness on activities - they should just do what they want to do.

Mine are 7 and 9 and do Beavers and Cubs, DD1 3-4 hrs of swimming a week, DD2 a half hour swimming lesson and both do a 45 minute cheerleading class which they adore. I find a good time for getting things done is the morning. They have always woken early so they often do 5-10 minutes on an instrument in the morning, get homework done or we go and jog up and down the road with the dog. And they catch up on Strictly and Bake Off!

If he's very motivated by music then I wouldn't hesitate (though I might consider asking him to choose between drums and something else). My daughter plays 3 instruments, does theory classes and plays in 2 groups, and while it's very time consuming, it's her choice (though I'm working on persuading her to drop her third instrument because I think it's too much).

I think that some children actually need plenty of stimulation out of school, but I tend to think it's better to focus on at most 2 or 3 activities because children tend to get more out of activities if they are more committed to them.

We have some 8.30 and 9pm finishes, later in the week/weekend, Dippy. Earliest finish is 6.45. Some children change into pyjamas for the car journey home.

Dippy, not much homework here (Yr 5), a maths sheet every week and a project based piece every other week.

Daily work at home is just music 10-15 mins every morning and evening, plus the same of Maths Factor.

We have cut right down (DD's choice), dropped everything apart from music, swimming (which is not optional as far as we are concerned) and football.

DD doesn't go to bed until 8:30 or 9pm though so on the nights we get home at 3:30 that is a good few hours to do stuff. Latest night for us is swimming, home at 7:30pm.

Oh right, DD has homework Mon-Thurs and still needs about 11 hours of sleep, leaves for school at 7.50am so not much time in the mornings either. Thankfully we go swimming a lot as a family and she also has lessons at school. Her one activity is a martial art. Interesting to see how everyone does it, have always wondered

My ds is yr 4 and does the following over 4 week nights
30 min swimming
1hr foreign language
1hr chess club
1hr quiz club

Football 2 hrs Sunday and then has a match every other weekend.

He als has twenty mins homework 4 nights a week as well as an instrument to practice.

It is tough to fill it all in but a lot of the activity time is socialising really and he still has enough time in the evenings to read and play.

I would like to drop something but he really doesn't want to.

If repetition works for your ds than perhaps kumon may help? My understanding is that this is exactly what they do-repetition of maths basics till it becomes second nature :) (though I don't know for sure as never used it)

Dippy, later bedtimes I think. Cathedral choir didn't finish until 6.45 and he still needed tea. I can remember Cubs being a huge step in terms of bedtime, it finished at 8 which was his bedtime then. Equally Scouts in Y6, which finished at 9, which was also past his then 8.30 bedtime! DC have always had homework, but very rarely next day so we could plan it in to the week. Music practise was often on the morning before secondary.

But that's why it's hard to say what works for one child is fine for all

Thanks worriedandlost I think you are right. I looked into kumom in detail last year but ended up deciding it was very expensive for basic maths sheets. I've been making up kumom style maths sheets for the past few months and the repetition does seem to help.

Mistigri, I agree about needing stimulation outside school. And instruments are really hard to pick up as adults. I keep going back and forth about the drums. It's quite a significant expense as it would be a private lesson. The guitar lessons are in groups so quite cheap. I think I'll wait until next year - hopefully he will be ready to stop swimming lessons then.

Octobrea, I'm amazed how much your DD is doing!

DD is 8 (year 4) and does:
Tuesday choir 45 mins (after school)
Wednesday book club (lunchtime) and Brownies (1h30)
Thursday swimming (30 min lesson)
Friday chess club (lunchtime) and clarinet lesson (in school)

Homework is set on a Monday and due in on Thursday, there's always both maths and literacy but usually a sheet of each - this week, multiplication and SPAG apostrophes. Spellings and times tables are done daily, 10 minutes each, we use the Squeebles apps for these as I can tailor them to what she needs to work on.

She needs to practise her clarinet more, though!

Dd is 7 and does
Wednesday netball (30 mins after school)
Thursday violin (30 min lesson)
Saturday violin (30 min lesson), choir (45 min) and dance (2.5 hours)
Sunday swim (30 mins)

She practices spelling, 2 instruments, reading and school worksheets daily but still seems to spend hours watching television and playing with her toys.

My DD has never slept more than 10 hours a night so we have plenty of time to fit everything in (this did not seem like an advantage in her younger years, though).

She does a fair bit outside school, she does get 2 lots of homework each week and we often do it over a couple of days. A short bit of reading each night and (as already mentioned) a short music practice.

She would do something every night if she could - she never wants to drop anything! If she is tired or ill, then we do skip a club.

What really helps is the excellent after school sport clubs our ( state) school has. My ds does badminton, hockey and orienteering directly after school, so no driving to clubs, provides a good chunk of my childcare and he loves them all. Talking to friends with kids in other schools I am very lucky

My ds is 10. He does far too much in my opinion but I figure it is the only time in his life he will have the opportunity to have a go at everything. When he starts secondary next year he will have to cut back on some things and after half term he will give up Thursday gym but he copes fine and really doesn't want to give anything up. His week is as follows:

Mon: After school maths club. Every other week 1 hour general tuition
Tues: 30 mins ballet 2 Hours Gym
Weds: 45 mins multi sports school club. 2 hrs 15 ballet/tap/modern
Thurs: 2 hours gym
Friday: 1 hour hockey
Saturday: He is a dance associate so during term time he goes most weeks and does 5 hrs dance (mainly ballet but some jazz)
Sunday: at the moment they have dance rehearsals for a show (2.5 hrs) but this will stop in a few weeks and he will have a day off. Hurrah!

He is alsleep by nine most nights, He reads before bed and does spellings in the morning. Sunday and Monday are homework days.

Gosh that's an awful lot dame!
My daughter did dance and gym and we did eventually say she couldn't do both "properly". One would have all the hours and a token one. As it happens we've cut both down and couldn't be happier which I'd have been surprised at a term or so ago!

It's lovely he's got passions to follow though :)