Too Many Activities for DS5

[Amsylou]

I just wanted some perspective on the amount of activities my DS who is 5 and in reception is doing. For context, most of these he has started this academic year and my thinking is to get him to try different things to see what he enjoys with the intention of narrowing down to the ones he loves. Except, I think he might be doing too much. He has a packed week and honestly it feels like he doesn’t have down time in the week. Please help me see if it’s too much and if so what you think would be worth getting rid of or keeping.

Monday:
Football 30 mins at lunchtime.
Squirrels (scouts) one hour after school approximately a half hour drive away.

Wednesday:
Rocksteady 20 mins in class time (a band where he plays keyboard and performs once a term in a concert).
Lego club at school for one hour after school.

Thursday:
Piano lesson 20 mins in class time.
Basketball at school for one hour after school.

Friday:
Swimming lesson 30 mins nearby after school.

(I was also considering stagecoach on a Saturday in the future but think it would be overkill!)

A lot of these happen in school time which is fine I think.

has he asked to do all these or are you pushing them? When does he get to play with his toys and do his reading book etc?

id be temped to drop Lego club on Wednesday. If he loves Lego that much he can play it at home.

do not sign him up to any more, let alone a weekend commitment!

This is a lot for a 5 year old…. What do they think, do they appear tired?

Are the school clubs childcare or purely for leisure?

The problematic one is Squirrels just because its so far away.

I’d ditch rocksteady, it’s super expensive and a poor way to learn an instrument. My daughter did it for a term and learnt pretty much nothing.

if he’s happy doing all that and you can afford it and he doesn’t seem too tired, it’s fine. If any of those aren’t true, cut back.

Our do school clubs five days a week as our childcare so I don’t count any of the French, chess, coding, magic, journalism, fencing etc as their proper activities - if they learn anything it’s a bonus - we pay for these as we need them in school for that extra hour.

so it’s just swimming lessons and scouts then? Nah that’s not too much. I have 5 year old daughter in reception and she does more than that at the weekend though - not schooo days as she’s be knackered

By the way we ditched rocksteady this month. £48 a month for what on earth?! Useless.

I personally don't think it's that much. If you take out the in school elements it's only 4 things per week. None of which are particularly late in the evening.

Does he enjoy all of them? What would you want him to give up? Scouting can be hard to get back into and has so many benefits. Is there a closer Beavers for him to move to when he's old enough? Swimming is a life skill. I can't imagine lego club or basketball being particularly strenuous.

Both my kids did more at 5 and still managed plenty of downtime. I think there is a natural drop off as they age so I've always encouraged trying as much as possible when they're small. Dc1 now 10 does a martial art, scouting, swimming and a musical instrument plus a few-in school things.

There's no rush to find the thing that he likes at 5. The chances are he'll spend the next few years trying multiple activities out. My 8 year old niece still tries out new clubs every term. Some people are still trying new hobbies into adulthood! Your ds is unlikely to settle on what he loves at this age, and nor should he particularly, it's healthy to explore different activities over years to come yet. I'd reframe your thinking around that slightly.

I'd stick with swimming and give him a choice of one other evening activity a week. Funnily enough I don't think a weekend class would be a bad thing as there's presumably some downtime across the rest of the weekend, but I think 4 school night activities a week is a lot in reception.

From my own experience I think that reception is too young for after school clubs . Maybe a friend to play or trip to local park on the way home ,is more than enough for that age group.
Maybe a Saturday morning club would be ok .
My children started swimming lessons and football in Yr 1 .

The 2 hours in total out at Scouts on a Monday is a tiring start to the week. Is there no group closer or on a different day? If not try again at Beevers age.

This would have been too much for my DC when she was in reception. She found school very tiring. But every kid is different - I know one little girl whose parents book her into loads of activities, including trampolining, as she seems to have limitless energy.

Doesn't seem like too much to me. My 4y/o reception-aged DD does 4 extra curricular (i.e. not in school time) activities a week, 3 of them on school nights. She loves them all and would do them every night if she could (although even if this was an option I wouldn't let her because she kids do need some downtime).
It sounds like most of them fit into after-school club time anyway. Would you even have the option to pick him up earlier with your work schedule?

I don't think it's too bad as Tues/Wed are at school so they still have the rest of the evening plus weekends free as downtime.

Thank you for all your responses. To answer a few questions, DS does wrap around care Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. So the Wednesday and Thursday are instead of this for an hour. It’s extra money but he really enjoys Lego club (the one I’m least keen on) and basketball seemed like a good idea because of the sport. I would likely take one of these out as it’s a cost factor (as we pay double as he goes to wrap around after) and to do both seems too much. I think getting him to choose one of these might be best.

I really appreciate the feedback on Rock Steady. I think given he is doing piano (only started this term as he was on a waiting list) then this is something we could reconsider. He enjoys it but it’s pointless with piano too. He has his performance tomorrow so that will help make a decision there. He isn’t doing much practice for piano so we ideally need to decide the priority there.

There isn’t a closer squirrels, although a much closer beavers. It’s helped his confidence a lot and he has learned a lot so I’m somewhat reluctant to take him out of this.

Our son is high energy (and suspected ADHD) so in many ways the activities help with this. He hasn’t complained about doing these activities, and when asked wants to do them, but I’m worried he will find it harder as he moves to year 1.

He doesn’t have much time to play with toys in the week, expect maybe half an hour before and half an hour after school/activities. He also doesn’t watch much TV so there is a plus there. Weekends are deliberately less structured and we will have days out or stay home if he’s tired. My feeling is we don’t have a lot of time in the week to go with the flow and do things together, but with wrap around care that would be the case most days anyway.

Thanks for the responses. Rock steady is the one I just hadn’t considered dropping but it is the most expensive and honestly may not be worth it (plus I’m not keen him missing class two times a week).