How many activities does your Year 2 child do after school?

[AtheneNoctua]

I just want to make sure I don't push her too hard. But I also don't want her to miss out on things she might benfit from learning. Please tell me what you think of the schedule.

School (obviously) 8:50 - 3:15 M-F

Mon lunchtime - free play
Tues lunchtime - choir*
Wed lunchtime - book club*
Thurs lunchtime - school council*
Fri lunchtime - free play

Mon after school - 30 min violin lesson* followed by Kumon Math (also about 30 min)
Tues - tennis
Wed - nothing after school
Thurs - nothing after school
Fri - dance (ballet, modern, and tap - 3 classes back to back)

Items marked with "*" we are considering but have not yet committed.

Okay. So there is a lunchtime club offered every day of the week. How many would you sign your child up for?

That does sound like to much to me. I don't have a six year old, but remember only doing ballet and piano at such a young age.

Nothing at lunch time but play with friends.

DD1(yr2) does ballet/modern/tap on a Monday after school.
That is all.
She may be starting the violin at school this term, as an extra but during school time.
Her class all start recorder this term.

I have kept after school activities to a minimum until she is in year 3 as I believe she needs unstructured time to play and relax and her and dd2 love playing together.
I also want her to be able to have her friends over to play after school and this is already impossible with some of them as they have activities 4 days out of 5.

Our school doesn't do lunch activities for the little ones, but if they did I'd say one at most. After school we're a bit like others on here, so park, playing with friends, swimming, the library or just coming home and doing whatever. Much less structured really. The school day in itself's enough I think, though DS is a year behind your daughter and it sounds like he's at a very, very different sort of school .

My 6yo does:

Gymnastics 5.00 - 6.00 on Thursdays
Beavers 6.45 - 8.00 on Mondays

I think the problem with your schedule is with the lunchtime activities. Three structured activities throughout lunchtimes is way too much, IMHO. She's 6 - can't she just play with her mates?

"Why are you making a 6 year old do more maths after school when she will be doing maths every day at school ?"

Because she is good at math and our school seems to think math is for boys. So I decided to find her the attention she deserves outside of school. I am not going to have her overlooked because she is a girl.

DS was Y2 last year and had things after school things 4 days a week (and two things on one or two of those) - 3 activities through school and 3-4 others.

I thought (and still think, TBH) it was way too much but they were all his idea and he didn't have anything at lunchtimes. School days have shifted this year, and all activities are TBC (well, 2 confirmed, one of which is now on Saturday morning). I don't want to end up with as many, but already have the feeling we will.

Structured lunchtimes and weekends as well sounds tough. I think children need time to be bored sometimes (and feel bad that my DS gets very little of that in term time, but at least he has weekends and lunchtimes)

Gosh, I haven't decided what she's doing yet. I will probably choose one thing a week but the rest of the time she just loves imaginative play with friends or her brother when she's not at school.
She does a lot of artwork at home and I plan to get her walking in the forests and enjoying the onset of autumn.

I wouldn't plan lunchtime activities, they need some non structured time at school to play.
I think the violin followed by math. sounds exhausting

I have a yr 2, I would allow one activity at lunchtime, and one activity after school - NOT on the same day.

Oh for goodness sake why do so many parents not just leave their childrne alone to play and find their own ways of occupying their time?

I'm with smee and colditz on this one.

You are a mega pushy parent. Your DD will rebel.

DS would be horrified if he thought I was going to try to regulate his lunchtime play in any way.

Athena, why don't you just send her to a better school that appreciates her maths abilities more instead of worrying about afte school activities but sending her to a school that is obviously sub-standard?

Smee, you are far from alone voice. I agree with you too

Interesting too that the maths gender bias at being school is being 'countered' and yet theres no footie or karate or indeed running around in woods on the agenda - all the activites could be seen as 'girly'.

Do we subconsciously sometimes overschedule girls especially to prepare them for working parttime and having kids and doing all the housework - ie turn them into mini-mes?

dd is about to start Y1: swimming after school once a week, Gardening Club after school once a week, and that, for now, is that.

She may decide to do a dance or music class on a Saturday morning if she wants to.

And she is soo busy using her imagination, playing with friends, drawing and writing, hanging out with her little sister...I know she's not Y2 yet, but I honestly can't imagine her with half that amount of extra curricular structured activity.

There is a lot of time in the years ahead, after all...

DS1 isn't in year 2 he is in year 1, but I have not intention of him doing more than 1 activity after school this year, next year perhaps 2.

I am with Smee on this.. I really would be thinking more about my childs ability to cope and less worrying about maxing out your nanny!

DD is starting year 2 on Wednesday. There aren't any lunch clubs at her school and we wouldn't sign her up for them anyway as she needs time to just play with her friends.

She goes to swimming lessons on a Tuesday at 5pm and every other Wednesday evening she goes to Pony Club.

Other than that she is free to do what she wants - sometimes riding her ponies, sometimes watching kids TV but always doing her homework in the evenings.

When does your DD get time in your scheduling to do her homework/reading?

"Friendships are not cemented in the waitful period beforeschool, or the occupied period of various classes, they form in the playground, and she has frighteningly little playground time."

Thanks for saying that colditz. We've just had the clubs schedule for this term. DD1 has just gone into year 3. Two infant sites have fed into one junior site, and they have reorganised the classes so she has lots of new classmates to get to know. On that basis, I said she should make sure most of her lunchtimes were free, so that she could get to know her new peers. But most of her established friends seem to be doing a club practically every lunchtime. Their mums looked at me like I was mad when I said I thought playtime was more important than clubs at this point.

So now I don't know whether she will end up making some great new friends, or be millie no-mates in the playground .

Have compromised on two lunchtime clubs, both of which are activities where she will hopefully also be able to get to know some new people. Her best friend is doing different clubs, so hopefully that will help. Keeping fingers crossed that the strategy works!

My son does football and Tae kwon do. He wants to also do tennis and gymnastics. I have told him no. I think it is better to have fewer sports/activities and let them settle into those and give them a chance to excel, rather than spreading it too wide. In a way it is a lot easier to take your child to a range of activities than challenging their intellect at home. But we have now find a good schedule of free play outdoors, cycling trips, mountain walks after school, which I think will exercise all his muscles brilliantly. This automn we have done mushroom picking and pickling, we have been picking berries and made jam. We have looked at plants, and birds, and gone fishing. These provide excellent opportunities to bond with your child and talk about nature and the world around us. We also bunt cupcakes. I know you cant go fishing and mushroom picking, but you can use your local environment and have a stimulating time. Or is that too much to ask of your nanny?

Doesn't it depend as well what children want to do. I resisted out of school activities for ages - now (just going into Yr3) dd does:

• surf club (1.5 hrs plus, wipes out Thurs pm entirely)
• ballet
• riding (though that only runs til end September) is hassling to go to art class (1.5 hrs starting 9.30 Sat am - I'm really not keen) and I know would say yes like a shot if I offered music lessons.

My ds is Primary 3 so Y2

He does

Monday - Beavers
Wednesday - Piano lesson
Sunday - Church then Rugby training or match.

He wants to go to swimming lessons too. But we go swimming as a family twice a week so I'm not sure about that!

my ds is 6, in Year 2. He does Beavers on a Thursday. he may pick up an after school activity at school one day. We are thinking of getting swimming lessons for him and dd. That's it. And that's enough for us.

"Do we subconsciously sometimes overschedule girls especially to prepare them for working parttime and having kids and doing all the housework - ie turn them into mini-mes? "

Actually, my aim is to prepare my children to work full-time and be in a position to pay someone else to do the menial housework.

" Athen[e], why don't you just send her to a better school that appreciates her maths abilities more instead of worrying about after school activities but sending her to a school that is obviously sub-standard? "

I am generally happy with the school. I just don't want my DD to be taught that math is for boys and Barbies are for girls. I am especially happy with the teacher she has this year. It would be a bit silly to pull her out of school and go find a another one just because of their sexist attitude towards math (and it is sexist). But we have dealt with it. Kumon has helped, and lots of kids fromher school go to Kumon. So she is in good company.

Doesn't it depend on your child and what they want to do? Some children really love free play, whereas some children prefer structured activities? If they are not enjoying it, or too tired, you can rethink.

FWIW, DD (Yr 2, 7 in Jan) does:
Monday after school - swimming
Wednesday after school (but at school) - French club
Saturday am - drama & dance

We are planning to start piano lessons, and if school offered drama club after school again, as they did in the summer term, she would probably do it.

Her school don't offer lunchtime clubs in the infants, but I'm sure both I and she would be tempted by a few if they did (she has the sort of personality which very much wants to participate in everything!).

Athene - I think your plan for alternating weeks violin & maths sounds a good one if your nanny agrees.

I do think lunchtime activities are a bit much, but that is probably because DS's school doesn't do them (DS occasionally misses 10-15mins of play time for a piano lesson, but not every week).

However, I would voice some slight dissent on the after school stuff. If the alternative is coming home and doing lovely creative stuff/ going for a walk/ rioting in the garden with siblings/parent/nanny/friends, then that's fine, but for my DS, on days when I am workings, the alternative is unstructured play at after school care - so if he chooses to do a school-organised activity instead then that is more than fine with me. He doesn't get much mushroom hunting or mountain climbing time, but that is due to my and DH's work commitments rather than DS's activities.