I am really curious how many sports or activities are your young children involved in? Why? Because now that my daughter is in Pre-K at a Dutch elementary school, I am realizing a lot of these kids lives are jammed packed. Personally I feel one sport or activity outside of school for a small child is plenty. They're young, they're worn out from school, and they need free time to rest or play quietly away from the hustle & bustle of school and sports. My daughter takes swimming lessons (she's been in swimming lessons since she was 5 months old). But when she started going to school 4.5 days a week, I questioned if the 45 min swimming class once a week after school would be too much. But since she has already swam for so long, we figured we might as well keep her in until she gets her diploma. Now that she's at school and hears other girls attend dance class, she wants to sign up also. Dance & swimming, on top of school, at 4 yrs old, that's just too much right? Like I said though, at her school some of the kids have 2-3 sports they are enrolled in outside of school. Now I know American kids often have sports incorporated into school, Dutch kids also have P.E., but I am talking about after school activities, whether it be through the school or not. At what age is it o.k to be enrolled in 2 activities? When is it considered too pushy? Sure I want to expose my daughter to sports & music, but I also don't want to overwhelm her and keep her so busy she misses out on just enjoying herself and being a kid. What is your take on this?
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:) Danica
This is very interesting. I guess it depends on how many hours she's in school. I guess she doesn't have homework assignments right? You can see how she feels with doing it all since you seem to have left it up to her a little. I think it could also go into account the rest of the family's schedules, too. I'm sure whatever you all decide will be fine. Like you said, you could always start out with 2 activities and if she doesn't like it, stop or you can perhaps do 1 activity each season or something like that if that works out better too! Thanks so much for sharing this with us on Countdown in Style! Don't forget to come back on Friday to see if you are featured! xo
ReplyDeleteMy boys are grown men now but when they were this age they were in only in Tee Ball.
ReplyDeleteEven as they grew up they were usually only in one activity at a time. This wasn't because they couldn't handle one at a time, it was because we had 3 boys and we could only afford to put them into one thing at a time.
I think it depends on each individual child as to whether they can handle more than one activity. My brothers girls were in dance, sports, and music. I think my sister in law spent all her hours off of work driving her children around to all their different activities.
I just re-read my comment and it didn't quite get typed the way I was telling my fingers to type :) My boys probably could have handled more than one activity at a time, but one at a time times three boys is all that we could afford.
ReplyDeleteIn many ways, I am kind of glad that I never really had to worry about too many activities, mine were never really in any. My two boys played violin for a year or two, and my middle one played volleyball for a while, when he was still in public school. Now at 11 & 14 my two youngest do participate in regular activities at church.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could talk to the dance instructor and see if they will let her try it for a couple of weeks and then talk to her about it. And keep talking to her about how she feels. She may love it! :)
But I do agree that some kids are doing way too much. We have some in the states who do, sometimes 3 - 4 activities at a time.
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My 4-year old does swimming 1x per week and dance class 1x per week. If she had her way she would drop the swimming but that isn't an option: she has to know how to swim. Once she has her diploma we will probably drop it and do piano instead. If you are able to provide your child with multi-age unstructured play, that would be best, but honestly I have no idea how to get that here. Check this article out for more on unstructured play: http://www.aeonmagazine.com/being-human/children-today-are-suffering-a-severe-deficit-of-play/
ReplyDeletePlaying outside for hours as a kid was the best!
Delete:) Danica
You all are right, they have a lot of energy, I guess 2 activities isn't too much. But I will give her a few more months to get used to her new schedule!
ReplyDelete:) Danica
My son is now 9 and we rarely do more than 1 activity. If we do more, it will be 1 sport and somethong like art.. It sounds good to put them in multiple things when are young, but as they get older when you add homework and the fact that they start to really like things you wouldn't be taking away some other activities that they like. What I find in that happening is thatsince parents don't want to take any of their activities away the parents and up tired trying to shuttle them around from activity to activity and get their homework in.
ReplyDeleteBut ultimately it's up to you as a parent and someone who sees them everyday to figure out what works best for your family.
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~~April~~
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