Am I pushing my 3.5 year old too much with number of activities?

[nightowl28]

I have a 3.5 year old DD who does full time nursery (8:15-3:30) Monday to Friday.

She has Ballet on Saturday mornings 30 minutes

Most weekends we go swimming as a family.

And currently want to put her on for

Drama Sunday mornings 1.5 hours
Tuesday after schools Gymnastics 45 minutes.

She already does Tennis and drama at nursery too during the week.

Is this too much for a child this age? I'm conscious about pushing her too much and it backfiring on me.

My dd is 7 and would struggle with all of that.

At that age your dd should be as "free range" as possible.
Children learn so much by just being.

It's also good to just be at home and let the day flow naturally.

I've seen it with my own sil. Her 3 dc have been to every club imaginable at great cost, never seemed to have any free time and were never actually consulted as to whether or not they wanted to go.

Now they're older they do nothing as actually have a say.

Let her just be a little girl and there will be plenty of time for all of these activities once she's older.

Far too much, could you manage this much activity?

Children need time to relax & free play

Poor kid

My 3.5 year old dd does drama, ballet, tap and gymnastics each week will go skating and swimming as a family. She only does half days at nursery though, she enjoys all these things and if she didnt she could stop. Even at full nusery for a lot of kids these things are considered down time and what they enjoy doing. The kid your talking about still has 4 evenings a week, most of saturday and most of sunday to do nothing. It totally depends on the child, even if im not paying for a club my DC will fill their freetime with those kinds of activities.

I'm a music teacher.

No 3.5 year old should be learning instruments. (In response to PP, not OP!).

My 5 year old just goes swimming. I'm waiting for him to ask to go to activities before I sign him up.

Crikey. My nearly 4 year old does afternoons at nursery every day and that's it, he has plenty of time to join clubs in future if he wants to. He's still learning how to be a kid!

I wouldn't. I think that it's extremely important for children to learn to entertain themselves. Last thing you want is for them to grow up an irritation to the people around them because they can't cope with not having something to do all the time. In between nursery, dinner, bedtime routines, teaching them to read etc. I don't see how you can find the time for leaving them to their own divorces and extra curricular.

Another thing to bear in mind is that lots of activities might work now, but when kids start reception they might really struggle with it all.

Mine went to nursery from 10 months (although not everyday) but she was never as exhausted as the first few terms at school. In fact we didn't have her do any activities outside school until she's had done a few terms, because she was grumpy enough with exhaustion as it was.

At that age both mine were at nursery 8-6 mon-fri. We did no extra activities except occasional family swim at the weekend (messing about in the water, not swimming lessons!)

DS (16) is a talented dancer and gymnast.
DD (11) is a talented musician and dancer.

They haven't suffered from lack of clubs at an early age

I disagree about the swimming too, DS can't swim (of course not, he's 23m) but he loves the water and because he started so young he's never been scared which is great for hair washing or paddling pools or beach holidays.

Plus at this age it tires them out nicely so they have a long nap after.

At 3.5 1 or 2 activities per week plus nursery sounds plenty.

To be fair to the OP, the tennis and drama is done at nursery (so during nursery hours).

Ideally you would have at least one unscheduled day - signing up for Drama would mean that you would have an activity both days of the weekend. As your daughter already does drama at nursery, there probably isn't any need to do more at the weekend.

I don't feel strongly about Gymnastics - if it is right by the nursery or right by your house then it is probably okay. If it means a journey then it may be too much.

Way too much for her age.

Our 4 year old DS is in nursery the same amount of time and just does swimming on a Saturday morning. It's enough, they need to relax at home a bit too!

I was making a point OP - this poor child is loaded up with far too much. Children also like to veg out, play imaginary games etc. - and that is all good for them.

Try kids health, motherofsix

Way too much. Learning to be low key and have down time is learning too.

Children need time to be bored and devise their own ways to spend their time. All this obsession with structuring children's time for them is really damaging, in my opinion. You end up with teenagers who have no idea what to do with themselves if things are not arranged for them.

Stop keeping up with the Joneses, your child is taking the brunt of your competitive parenting.

Dd1 at 3.5 did ballet and loved it, Dd2 had swimming lessons as her preschool activity.

I think 4 activities a week for a 3.5 year old is madness.

Mine now do 3 activities each a week outside school including rainbows/ brownies, dance and swimming.

Whoever said about swimming: yes it's a life skill but not one they can gain u til at least five, developmentally preschoolers are not ready. It's a gigantic con. I mean, it's not as if you're going to leave them unattended in a pool anyway. Better to start them at 6 and get it all done and dusted within a few terms.

What utter nonsense. Dd2 could swim 10m by the time she started school. 'Done and dusted in a few terms' er OK then I doubt your dc can swim particularly well. Dd1 at 9 is just getting to a decent swimming standard now, has just completed bronze challenge. a few terms

Lolz this is EXACTLY what I mean 10m? What use is that? Absolutely none. Started my son at 6 and by the end of the year could swim 1000m. Could never have done this at 4, absolute waste of money taking preschoolers to swimming lessons (if you understand anything about child development)

She needs to spend time with a loving, interested parent. Too many activities leaves no time for that.

Whatever you say cheesy. I bet he was in the Olympics for his age by 8 eh? 10 metres means that they can enjoy going swimming without armbands and can play happily in a pool as long as you are watching them. 1000 metres in a year at 6 yeah right

Too much for that age

My 7 year does 3 per week, 30min swimming on the weekend, 1.5 hour brownies and 1 hour yoga. Apart from the 30min swimming they are all very relaxing activities and I feel she still has lots of relaxing time.

That's far too many activities, she needs time to just relax and play and spend time with her parents that is not structured and activity based. Just let her be a child.