How much homework and afterschool activities do your primary school kids do?

[NannyR]

I work as a nanny, looking after three children aged 7 (year 3), 6 (year 1) and 4 (reception).
This morning Mum presented me with the timetable for afterschool activities she has planned for the coming term.
The 7 year old has fencing, swimming, football and gymnastics plus a total of 5 hours homework (with two private tutor sessions included in this)and half an hour of supervised reading each night.
The 6 year old has judo, swimming, football and gymnastics, plus half an hour homework and reading per night.
The 4 year old has swimming and football plus reading practice.
Nowhere in this schedule is there any time for going to the park, playing, having friends for tea or just flopping in front of the TV.
They go to a private London school and the recommended homework for year 3 is three pieces of work a week each to take 20-30 mins, so a max of 1 1/2 hours per week. Mum is convinced that everyone else is doing extra homework and private tutoring and that her kids will be fall behind if they just do the recommended homework, but from the nannies and mums I've spoken to this isn't the case.
I think this whole schedule is completely insane and is going to result in three exhausted and burnt out kids. Because the parents work full time, I'm the one who has to implement this and I just don't want anything to do with it - it goes against everything I think primary school kids should be doing.
I suppose the point of this post is, am I right in thinking that kids need time to chill out after school or is it becoming more normal for kids to have loads of planned activities and extra homework?

I would be quite pissed off if my nanny expressed an opinion on my children's schedule, unless she was saying that the children were suffering as a direct result of it. Otherwise, I wouldn't really want or expect her opinion.

My sil is like this. her ds1 goes to 4 activities a week. struggles academically.
my ds goes to none currently. trying to get him into beavers. stopped swimming, becasue he wasn't progressing - lots of other mums stopped too interestingly. did football club, on wednesdays last year in the summer, becasue i was on mat leave, but i'm back at work p/t now so he goes to after school club so he can't do that.

one of my pet hates is parents who have their kids in loads of clubs. TWATS.

good god Oblomov - some kids don't want to do lots of activities, some do - why the judging??

I've got one who wants to do loads and another who wants to do very few - does that make me only half a twat??

Thanks for all your replies.
A couple of points - firstly I consider myself to be a "professional" nanny, of course I will be looking after the children as the parents want me to, I'm not going to skimp on the homework etc, I just don't agree that it's necessary. And I'm not against this because it makes my life difficult (as Bonsoir insinuates); on the contrary, as the youngest starts school I will be at home all day and I suspect I'm going to be bored stiff, hence me looking for a job with younger kids to keep me busy.

I genuinely don't think that finishing school at 3.30, 45min-1hr of sport, 20 min drive home, tea, 1 and 1/2 hours reading and homework then bed (which is what the parents are proposing) is in the best interests of a seven year old.

I know I should broach this with the parents, I have mentioned in the past that I think the kids are doing too much, but as Rabbitstew says I am effectively criticising their parenting choices so its not an easy subject to bring up.
Oh, and by the way, they're girls!!! Girls enjoy playing football too!

I can imagine its not an easy subject to bring up. Especially if the parents don't react well to discussing their parenting choices (I had some great discussions with our p/t nanny when we had one, we both learnt a lot from each other). You probably know them well enough to know whether its worth talking to them about it or not.

1.5 hours of homework and reading at 7 . My nephew and neice (at private French schools) do a lot of homework, imo, but even my 8 year old neice does less than that.

I hope you don't think I was insinuating you'd shirk any of it, I wasn't - just struck me that I'd be flat out trying to do that much with my two!

Totally agree with you OP. How are children going to learn to entertain themselves if their whole life is mapped out for them?

My DD is in reception and does one activity a week (on the weekend). After school she goes to the park with friends, plays with her brother, entertains herself in her bedroom, or plays in the garden.

I am totally about young children having jam-packed scheduless.

Oblomov - glad you think I'm a twat for allowing my son the opportunity to do what he has asked to do.

Would you suggest that I tell him he'll be coming home at 3.30 with no clubs, because otherwise some members of society think that his mum and dad are TWATS.

But my older dd only does activities 3 nights a week - does that make us 3/4 twats???

sometimes you write a post.and later regret one single word. sorry about the word twat.

"Totally agree with you OP. How are children going to learn to entertain themselves if their whole life is mapped out for them?"

I don't think that learning sports is "having their whole life mapped out for them". On the contrary, being proficient at several sports by adolescence means that teens don't mope around with nothing to do after school once they have grown out of toys.

DD2 is 5 and does swimming,2 sessions of gymnastics, cheerleading,karate,violin and gardening club every week.She does violin practice and reading every night and spellings and a worksheet every week.

DD1 does all the same but also Brownies too

I think what undercova meant by 'having their whole lives mapped out for them' is that everything they do has a set of formulated rules. They are not being given the opportunity to make their own decisions, or to be independent.

A smart child in this situation would treat school as leisure time and do bugger-all all day!

I understand the point about lives being mapped out for them. During term time dds' lives are heavily scheduled so why does it surprise me when, during the holidays the first thing they ask in the morning is 'what are we doing todaaay?'

I think there is a very big difference between a child wanting to do activities, and a parent dictating what activities they are doing.

My ds brings home a list at the end of every term with the list of clubs for the following term. He marks on the list which ones he wants to do, we then point out any clashes, and he decides which one is more important to him.

During the holidays decisions as to what is being done are normally whole family decisions, on the day when my ds is with CM or Nanny, as he's normally the only one, he is given the choice as to what he is doing.

We do no organised activites at weekends, that is when it is family time, or when I'm doing housework is the time the children have to occupy themselves, and will disappear into the garden, or make dens in their bedrooms etc, or play on electronics, or watch tv.

With regard to rollacosta what a bizarre comment re 'A smart child in this situation would treat school as leisure time and do bugger-all all day!'

My dc work hard in the school day, particularly hard as they are both dyslexic but the school didn't notice. They thoroughly enjoy playtime, they work in class, and then love the additional activities plus the opportunity that it gives to mix with different groups of people.

One activity per evening plus homework and reading leaves masses of downtime IME. The problem of no downtime arises when children do three or four after school activities, not one!

English schools get out so early that one activity on top of the school day barely extends the length of the "scheduled" day to that of, say, a French school.

I agree with you Nanny- what happened to free play and tie to be creative??

I wouldn't want this for my child and feel sorry for some of the other posters kids as well on this thread as well. Their lives are so regimented and intense they are in danger of burnout by the time they are 7.

time

Pleased to report no sign of burnout yet by my 14 year old daughter! So we've gone 100% over your predicted time!

I think some of hte posters on this thread are assuming that children who do a lot of activities are being made to do them at the expense of free play etc

There's a big difference between an active child who's desperate to do activities and wants to soak up new skills and experiences and mix with a wider range of children, and a more laid-back child who resists the thought of anything organised.

All the things my dc do are things they've chosen to do - in ds2's case he's only now starting to want to do clubs etc at the age of 10 - I wouldn't have taken him along to all the stuff dd does at 7 as I'd have been dragging along an unwilling child

If we all accept that kids vary, and that what is supportive and encouraging for one is all wrong for another, there isn't much to argue about really.

dd1 loathes organized clubs and activities after school, would prefer to go bird spotting or make something or sing. Some of her friends get bored if they don't have structured stuff to do, and/or physically active stuff to do, every day. Neither are wrong.

And no one knows the OPs charges except the OP, and, I assume, their parents. Sometimes, though, we all impose what we think is right on a child when its not actually right for that specific child. I've wasted hours trying to persuade/cajole/pressure dd1 into activities before listening to her and hearing 'its not right for me at this time'.

agree for the most part w Bonsoir.

My 6yo DS ( about to be Y2 )has swimming, cricket and tennis during the week, football at the weekend. The days he doesn't do sport he is very antsy and needs masses of time in the garden or park. The sports helps him work off the bags of energy he has been hanging onto sitting in the classroom all day.

He's academic so thats covered at school, but there's not nearly enough activity for him, despite PE twice a week, and big playground and field for use at break and lunch.

After the activity, he eats dinner, plays with DD, maybe a little tv if its raining or in the garden playing football either solo or with neighbour's DS. We tend to do a bit of reading and sometimes writing just before bed and a little in the morning before school as he's an early riser.

It depends massively on the child. Some need more rest and sleep, some need more external stimulation etc. I would only be concerned if the children were doing activities they weren't esp keen on and were getting very tired.

I'd hope that if I employed a Nanny for nearly 3 years that I'd trust their professional judgement with regards to their job - my children, I'd at least wish to hear their opinion. I think if they had to take their kids through a week of that kind of life they would most probably reconsider.

Their schedule seems too full to me - where is the space for quiet time to pick up a book, play a board game, play with their toys, do some craft, baking, dodge about on the swings at the park, have a playdate over? My children do 3 activities a week, they'd like to do more but at the same time we all look forward to coming home from school and having nothing planned - it usually only happens once a week, but it is highly valued by them & me.

I think there is room to assume that the children enjoy their sporting activities, but I really do think that the rigid timetable of homework for the oldest child is stultifying. Homework should take as long as it takes - to set time frames is to have a total lack of trust in your child's abilities, self-discipline and desire to do their best. In the long run, therefore, I think this aspect of the kids' day is taking away a choice which they should learn to make for themselves (how long to take over their homework). However, it sounds as though the mother isn't there to see what, if anything, they are doing homework-wise each school night, or how well motivated they are (or aren't), so I guess it's her method of feeling that she is gaining some control over and understanding of a process in which she is not actually involved???...

As a child, I was very self-motivated and would always get on with my homework in order to get it out of the way so that I could enjoy my free time without a conscience. I would have been extremely demotivated if this had only resulted in being given more homework to fill in an allocated time schedule, or in my having to help more around the house than my siblings because I had been efficient enough to get on with what I had to do and thus managed to finish my schoolwork before them.

I think 4 x sport for a 7 year old is probably excellent (fitness levels, work off stress, boost immune system, etc etc) if the dc is not under stress to perform to high levels which I doubt at age 7.

Half an hour supervised reading per day is surely the normal expectation of dc that age (or is it? Seems so to me).

Two hours tutoring - dunno about this

Three hours a week for school homework is ok, depends what they are given. It's just over half an hour a day which is not excessive.

I suppose they have weekends free to meet friends, do their own thing. I don't find it that drastic really.