How many activities does your primary aged child do after school?

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My circumstances are that DD is 7, she stays EOW with dad and one midweek overnight. All her activities fall on the days she's with me as her dad isn't interested in taking her anywhere I ask him to so she wouldn't have consistent attendance.

DD does:

Tap dancing
Rainbows (soon to be Brownies)

Swimming
Drama

Karate

Two of the three days she has back to back activities, these were spread out across 4 days initially owing to her turning 7 and going into the next year group of class and her fathers refusal to take her to activities she's having to do two activities on two week nights.

She seems to be ok with it and luckily we only live within 5 minutes of the activities so she can come home from school, eat, change and we do her reading. She gets a bit of down time too as we don't rudh straight out from school. She still gets to go to bed at 7.30pm on nights she has activities so she's not out late.

I just worry it's a lot for her. She doesn't want to give anything up and really loves her activities. I've been firm and told her she can't take anything else up now and if she wants to then she has to drop another activity.

No activities on a Friday. We have one dedicated home day in one weekend a month so we get down time.

DD is doing well at school and happy.

Am I over thinking or is she doing too much??

Sounds okay to me if she’s coping. Maybe reconsider if you notice her struggling

I think if she's coping and enjoying everything then it's fine. Some children thrive on lots of activities, some need more downtime.

Mine did one sport, swimming, and beavers/cubs. Plus they could do one school club.

Sounds pretty normal to me. I would be guided by how you DD feels.

if she’s happy, still enjoying all her activities and has time for school and fun then all’s well.

Adjust as appropriate as she gets older.

Seems fine if she's coping. My 7 and 4 year olds do rainbows/beavers (one in each), swimming, dance.

7 year old does an instrument too but during school hours, so I don't count that.

So she has 2-3 really busy days and 4-5 more relaxed days where she can recharge and have unstructured time? If she’s not tired and enjoys it all then she’s fine.

i guess just watch how it evolves - as she progresses these activities may become bigger commitments or maybe homework increases and something might have to give, but for now it sounds like she’s happy and enjoying a variety of interests.

mine are similar age and have an after school club 5 days a week (different activity every day but all at school) and then 2 sports activities on Saturdays. I make sure Sundays stay boring, but at this age I think kids are starting to explore potential interests and it’s nice to give them the opportunity to try a bunch of things and see what sticks longer term.

Sounds lovely as long as she's happy with it! DS is 5 and he does 6 activities a week (but this is mainly because I need to work, so he'll do them instead of ASC).

I think at this kind of age you'll know if she stops enjoying it!

Totally depends on the child, their personality and energy levels

DD1 - hardly any
DD2 - 😱 something every day, two at weekends and two on Thursdays

My 7 year old does similar - swimming, karate, drama, beavers and twice a week after school club. It feels a lot but as long as they’re happy and enjoying the activities I think it’s fine.

Personally, think it is too much. Should be max 1 activity a night at this age. My 7&9 year olds might do 1 or 2 activities in a week but they really just need down time at home. Unstructured time is so valuable. School is busy enough without adding lots more in the evenings.

Also, remember not to overstretch yourself. That was why our limit was always three... that times two was 6 things to accommodate.

Totally dependent on the child. DD (at primary last year) did 5 sports sessions a week and an instrument + practice and band. Plus matches at the weekends. We said she can continue as long as her school marks stay consistent. If they drop, we'll reconsider. DS did hardly anything, he preferred to play out with his friends.

Honestly, this sounds a lot like the stage I went through with my daughter last year. She was 7 too, and her schedule looked really similar, swimming, drama, dance, plus gymnastics. Like your DD, she loved all of it and didn’t want to drop anything, but I had the same worry: is this too much?

What helped me was finding a way for her to wind down that wasn’t just screens or rushing into the next task. Totally by chance, we tried one of those Paint By Numbers kits during a quiet weekend at home. I figured she’d get bored halfway through, but she loved it, it was calming, creative, and gave her a real sense of accomplishment without any pressure to “perform” like in her other activities. Now we keep one going as our go-to for slower evenings or that one weekend a month we protect for downtime.

If your DD’s still happy, doing well at school, and getting enough sleep, I’d say you’re doing a great job. It’s just a balance, and it sounds like you’re already really in tune with her needs.

Mine don't do any.

When they hit high school, one started football, another started st John cadets

It's completely fine, it sounds as if DD isn't in after school club, so she's only really doing an extra 4-5 hours of fun stuff, a mix of arts, sports and socialising each week. Some kids have a few hours of after school club every day, so on top of that would be a lot. We also tend to project how tiring swimming is for an adult doing it properly when kids are often taking turns and maybe actually swimming for 10mins or so.

My primary offers a lot of clubs, so this would be totally normal at our school. Lots of families break up the period of after school care by them popping into Spanish, Judo, guitar etc in the middle of it. it doesn't seem to be more tiring than the club itself.