What sports and activities for my daughter?

[Luna9]

My 9 year old DD is doing quite a few activities and sports at the moment; she enjoys them all but I have been thinking whether they are necessary and whether to drop one or two; all of them are recreational. Which ones from the following list you consider more important in terms of physical and mental development, social interaction and to keep as an adult.

netball: she does it a school once a week
Tennis: outside school, 1 hour per week
Swimming: half an hour per week but may increase to twice a week
Rythmic gymnastic: one hour per week
Ballroom dancing: once per week

She also does

Brownies
2 extra curricular clubs in school which are creative ones
One art club outside school; one hour per week which is finishing before Easter and we will replace with a language class to practice her second language.

Within school ours she does Lamda, choir, band and a musical instrument.

She is sportive and creative and enjoys them all but are they all necessary/important? Is she going too much?

Thank you for your opinions

Which does she like doing most?

It doesn't matter whether they're necessary (for what?) or important (to what?) and any of them could become an enduring interest which she might choose to pursue as an adult. But I suspect the ones which will endure are the ones she likes.

It does sound a lot. But if she is keen, is not unduly tired and still has some unstructured time to mooch/hang out with friends/rot brain in front of screen, then there's no reason to impose a reduction.

She says she likes them all and is always keen to go. Everything is local and maximum one hour so she still has relaxing and screen time of at least an hour per day during school days and more on the weekends.

It does sound like a lot but if she likes all of them and you can afford them then why give them up. I'd make he give something up only if you maybe want her to put more effort and commitment into one of them.

DD8 is doing swimming with school, ice skating, ballroom dancing and piano.

We try and limit them at max 3 activities in our spare time as we are both working full time so everything tends to happen at the weekend. Piano also needs the extra commitment, practice so that is more like a daily activity.

doesn't look like too much to me as most of them are weekly once. As long it keeps them happy and fit, should be fine. Once she comes middle grades, you can reduce depending upon pressure of studies.

Thank you

That's helpful advice. She does enjoy them and have the time at the moment and they keep her away from the tv so we will keep them until she decides not to. I imagen she will have more pressure at secondary school so we may as well do it now.

well on the surface it looks like a lot but then quite a few are during school time.

I suppose it comes down to a few things

can you afford for her to carry on doing them all?
can you fit them all in ongoing? (homework may go up so may need reviewing in future)
are there any she isn't keen on? you have said no so this can be ruled out

looks like she has a very good balance of types of activity.

My yr2 and yr3 children do 4hrs of dancing and 1hr of drama a week outside school. yr3 child does an instrument at school and a lunchtime hobby club.

At the moment she. has the time and we can afford them; she doesn't get much homework and is doing well a school so will carry on for awhile and reevaluate later depending on how much time her sister who is in reception needs and if I need to dedicate more time to her with reading and maths.

The activities are not demanding as nothing is competitive; more fun and recreational and I don't do the run everyday.

Thank you for your opinions

I think the problems might come when you try to add in more/equal activities for her sister as I am a big believer in trying to at least offer a similar range of activities for my children if they are interested rather than end up with it one sided but if it works at the moment for you all then I think stick with it. Some of them will no doubt at some point become less appealing to her and others more so some will probably drop off before becoming a problem.

Some children thrive on having lots of activities (and different groups of school/non-school friends).

It might be just a coincidence, DD(8) does quite a few activities inside and outside of school, but a Mum with a less busy child did comment how my DD doesn't faff around and dawdle! I quite expect DD to ask to drop activites if some of her friends leave or as she gets older (so I figured she could do what she fancied at this age within reason).

I've seen many a reception/yr1 child reading in church halls/gyms/poolside/park whilst their elder sibling is at a club. Oder siblings tend to lift share too.