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?

My 8y DD is about to go into Y4. If last year is anything to go by she had up to 20 minutes a night homework, plus reading. Sometimes a little more, sometimes less, sometimes nothing.

As for activities, this coming term she will have:

Monday - once a month @ library, book group for an hour
Tuesday - after school, drama for an hour (6:30-7:30)
Wednesday - after school, Brownies (6:00-7:30)
Thursday - ad hoc, climbing (4:30-6:30), probably once a fortnight
Friday - I look after her best friend and sister after school; so regulalr play date

She will also have piano lessons wthin school hours which means 10 minutes piano practise a night.

And she has a dyslexic support teacher and gets about 20 min homework a week from her.

Oh - forgot Saturday am (half an hour) - swimming

My 7 yo does swimming, football, Beavers and karate plus guitar practice. He reads maybe for 10 mins but not every night and has homework only at weekends.

DD does her reading in bed, pretty much every night. But we don't see this as being "homework" as such as she likes to read. I listen to her read a page a couple of times a week so she gets practise at reading out loud.

dd (just 9) is about to go into year 5. It is about 30mins homework iirc, not necessarily due for the next day though. After school (which is 8.20am-4.20pm) she'll do Brownies, choir, 1hr-ish dance classes then a music lesson, extra curriculat club at school. I'm not normally one to overschedule ! ds (12) otoh does very little afte school apart from a school club but often sails at the weekend.

ZZZenAgain, you obviously interpreted the original post differently to me. I read it as meaning that the eldest child gets 5 hours of homework per week(ie one hour a night, as this is part of after-school, evening activities, not weekend activities) plus half an hour's supervised reading each night. That is one and a half hours of time over which she has absolutely no control and is well over the amount of time the school expects her homework to take at age 7. Why insist she takes that long over her homework? Why not allow her the reward of a bit of unsupervised, free time for doing a good job of her homework over less time? Is the school really too inadequate to provide her with an appropriate amount of homework that she needs it to be added to at home?

DD (Yr 3 next week) has volunteered to do hockey/tennis and football/cricket (after school activies) plus she is trying to get into the netball team which involves matches.

In addition we take her to swimming class one evening and pony club another evening.

She is expected to read a book a night which involves about half an hour in the evening and possibily finishing it over breakfast.

Not sure about levels of homework yet...

I can't understand why a nanny would complain about what any of these children are doing although I can appreciate that fitting in all three single handed would be a nightmare!

DS1 is nearly 8 and goes into Year 3 at the end of the week.

Monday: Hockey (1hr)
Tuesday: Craft Club (1hr)
Wednesday: Urdd (1.5hrs) followed by Football training (1hr)
Thursday: Sports club (1hr)
Friday: Piano Lesson (30 mins)
Saturday: Football match
Sunday: Sunday school (1.5 hrs)

I don't know what the homework will be like in Yr 3, but it is more than Yr 2 where he had 10 mins reading a night plus one short piece of written homework at weekends. He also practices his piano for 10 mins every night.

He chooses to do the activities that he does, and has actually asked to do Cubs too in Septmber, but I think that he has enough on already.

Maybe I am regimented, but I like to think it's more about being organsied. Before all activities were done at school - which believe me makes life a lot easier.

I would see what the time was, and take a Monday night previously for us:

3.30-4.00 finish school travel to swimming
4.00-4.10 have snack
4.10-4.15 get changed for swimming
4.15-4.40 one child doing homework one swimming
4.40-4.45 child get changed for swimming
4.45-4.55 change wet child from swimming
4.55-5.15 do reading with child who had done swimming
5.15-6.00 dinner in cafe at swimming
6.00-6.15 drive to next activity
6.15-6.30 go home cook tea for dh, get younger one ready for bed, free time
9.30 collect the elder one from their activity.

So from 6.30 my primary school child was free to do exactly as they wished, as they were fed, cleaned etc.

I wouldn't consider dinner in a cafe as a daily solution to an over crowded schedule - maybe if the cafe food was of high quality and it was only one night a week but the OP is talking about an over-crowded schedule every night.
Does no one sit down at the table to eat a proper meal with their children anymore.

I was a bit at the idea of a cafe dinner on a regular basis. We do have supper at a cafe or a takeaway on a Friday night as I do the weekly shop and DS1 has his piano lesson, but I wouldn't do it every night! I'm also not convinced by the idea of one child doing their homework/reading while the other one is swimming, surely it would be better to do it at home where it was quieter?

It is difficult when you have several children who want to do different activities (I have 3, with different interests), but there is a point where you have to draw the line.

That is one night - domesticsluttery you do that on a friday we used to do that on a monday.

But I was just showing their are ways of looking round these things.

I'm not saying any of the following are right but neither unlike many posters on the thread do I see this as bad parenting, but with regards to reading I have seen the following take place:

Child reading out loud on the way to/from school whilst parent drives
Child reading in car, whilst sat in school driveway waiting to go in to school
Child reading in car, at pick up time, waiting for sibling to come out of different class.
Child reading on way to/from activity
Child reading at activity
Child reading whilst parents cook tea
Child reading whilst parents clean up from tea
Child reading whilst parent bathes sibling
Child reading in the 5 minutes before lights out

Personally I would say none of these are ideal, but I think it's 100% better than no reading at all.

But as I have said previously one of many reasons why I pay for private school is that my dc get to do all the activities they want and I don't have to drive them round everywhere.

Onemorecupofcoffee - please clarify what sitting down having a proper meal with your children is?

Whether it was at the cafe, 5 star restaurant or home, my children have always sat down with their parents (the cafe was the only place my dh could not be present with us), around the dining table, eating with knife and fork.

I wouldn't say that any of those were ideal places to do structured school reading. OK, my (book mad) DS2 frequently reads to me when I am bathing his sister, or on the bus, or before he goes to sleep, but that is reading for pleasure reading rather than homework reading.

The OP said that her charges had lots of activities every night. You provided a solution, but as the OP's problem is not restricted to one night (whether it be Monday or Friday) then using your solution would involve a cafe tea every night, and homework done in the middle of a noisy leisure centre or similar every night. Which IMO is not a solution.

colapips, the parent concerned sends her children to private school. Clearly it is not a private school which provides enough in the way of sporting activities and homework, however. Either that, or you are missing a trick - you too should additionally be looking for outside activities and private tutors...

Colapips your solution to the nightly task of juggling homework and afterschool activities while still obtaining adequate free time relies on an evening meal eaten at a cafe - which I have stated might be OK for one night but is not what I would consider ideal for 5 nights a week - which is what the OP's challenge.
As for what I consider a proper meal - home cooked healthy food, eaten at the table with all available adults sharing the meal id possible.
I would consider a meal eaten in a Cafe or a Restaurant as a treat regardless of who was present - not a way to feed a child five nights a week - which given you were responding to the OP, your post suggested.

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

Gosh - I don't have the energy for all of this...

Mon, Tues, Wed - after school club because working
Wed - DS1 chess club
Thurs / Frid - friends over
Sat DS2 football club
Sun DS2 football match

DS1 (9) - very competent reader
DS2 (7) - less interested, don't force him to read

Oh yes and school provides NO HOMEWORK up to the age of 12 Its amazing how many teachers go great when I tell them.

I think you are absoluteyl right OP. If you were our nanny, I'd be really pleased. I think sometimes us mums get so caught up on the O MY GOD everyone is having tuition / swim lessons/ french / japanese / fencing etc etc and so my kids must do the same or they will be left behind! O NO! And actually, especially if you are working and stressing all the time, it is really helpful to have a caring perspective from someone else, like the nanny, who gently challenges this madness. I would really appreciate a gentle suggestion that this is not going to make for happy children. I am sure this mum is just doing her best for her kids, but you are the person she trusts to look after those kids all day long so she obviously values your opinion. I have a nanny and I rely on her so much to be my eyes and ears and feedback constantly about what is and is not working, I would be really annoyed if she didn't raise concerns with me.

You aren't just the hired help there to put up or shut up, you are like a member of the family - a trusted and valuable member. Speak up!