What Activities Are Your Kids Involved In ?

My 10 year old son is a Cub Scout and in two 4H clubs. He skiis and takes swim lessons at intermittent periods through the years, no team sports anymore. He plays the trumpet. He is also interested in joining the Lego Robotics club in his middle school.

My 14 year old daughter is involved in several afterschool clubs - science club, art club and a student government club. She is active in two 4H groups, she skii's and owns 3 instruments. She volunteers on a local Youth Council. She may consider a high school sport next year when she is a sophomore.

I have two girls ages 6 and 3. The 6 year old takes dance class 1x a week, and plays soccer 1x a week. If there were one more activity she could do that as well. We are trying to get her involved in Girl Scouts. I like her to have one artistic activity and one Athletic activity. The 3 year old doesn't really have any activities because there are none for her at age 3. We don't have mommy and me type things here. She will take dance next year. I want them to have enough time to do school work and have some down/play time too.

Currently none!
They did t-ball and tae kwon do for a while and hated the structure big time.
Mine are all about playing with their neighborhood friends outside, and making up their own creative games.

I love watching Supernanny and she's big on warning well-meaning parents against overloading a child's schedule so that it's more work than good for them. I'm trying to keep that in mind but the temptation is great to let him explore everything at once. Instead, he's got just a few structured activities and we focus his life more on imaginative play, exploring daily things like walking through the woods or whatever, lots of music and dance on all the time, etc. We have special outings we do as a family (the zoo, the rodeos, horseback riding, flying kites, fishing, art museums and activities there, etc) and encourage him to entertain himself at home, too.
As for structured activities, when my son was 2 he did swim lessons (he was GREAT) in the summer and began gymnastics in the fall. Gymnastics didn't work so good even though he liked it.....he wasn't quite mature enough to sit in a circle and follow in a straight line and listen to the coach, etc. We would get frustrated that he wouldn't listen, he would get frustrated that he couldn't go do what he wanted to do (all the fun stuff in the gym and he has to sit and listen?), etc. We pulled him out of that when the semester was over. He's 3 now and we have him in mother's day out 2x/week, we have a standing playdate on Tuesdays where we play at a park and then walk to the library's storytime and then go across the street to McDonalds for small fry club (story, craft, sometimes a special guest, lunch, then play). He takes the best naps on Tuesdays! He's learning a lot and doing well in mother's day out--listening to the teachers, developing social skills and he loves it. Tuesdays are just fun, but stuff we can do together (crafts, etc), and also time to socialize with other children. He also goes to church on Sundays and is involved there. In the summer, mother's day out is on break and we go back to swim lessons all summer. Next fall he'll be 4 and will be going to mothers day out 2x/week, church on Sundays, and soccer 2x/week.

I have one in GirlScouts, piano, drums and volunteers at the library
One is a cub scout and soccer or baseball, depending on time of year.
One is in Drama, Academic Derby, swim, and plays in the orchestra.

My 18 year old plays basketball (for church), plays tennis (school), and in school choir got his eagle scout.
My 15 year old plays basketball (for church), Boy Scout has piano lessons and is in the science club after school.
My 14 year old nephew is in Jazz band (before school), wrestling (just ended) and has his own band.
My 10 year old nephew is in drama.
My 6 year old plays baseball every year and this year we are starting football, he wanted to do wrestling but dad said not yet...he has swimming lessons every summer too.
My 4 yr old is in preschool 2x a week and drum lessons from cousin (above w/ the band) and has swimming lessons in the summer.
My 2 yr old will start swimming lessons this year and hopefully gymnastics in the fall/winter.

That's it. That's all we do. I know my younger kids are getting closer and closer to cub scout age....so not looking forward to that:(...so time consuming and seems to last for YEARS?

That's alot of activities!! My daughter is in ice skating once a week (and yes we live in FL :-) ) and she's a girlscout 2 meetings per month with pop up activities maybe once or twice a month on the weekends - twice a month they fall in the same week and that seems like alot to me! lol other days she is outside playing with her friends.

I'm tired just reading that list! Of course, I'm sure I'll be that busy once my babies grow up and start activities too. For now, only my 7 year old son is involved in anything and he takes piano lessons and one sport per season - baseball, basketball, and football. When he is in 3rd grade, he will start choir, but all that is involved is going to school 30 minutes early, 2 days a week.

How can your 5 year old son be a boy scout??? Cub scouting begins in first grade!

WOW! That's quite a busy schedule for everyone. But when do they have time to just play? I'm not criticizing, I'm just wondering.

Girl God Bless you I Have 4 kids a 17 ,12,10 and 7 year old . It seems like we never have time for our selfs . It is great just always remember when they are grown you have raised GREAT ,WONDERFULL,CONFIDENT CHILDREN and they will thank you later!!!!! keep it up i feel like i am not alone now!!!!
GOD BLESS!! V.

My kids, ages 4 and 5, attend a gymnastics class once a week. They are both in school (preschool and pre-k) and attend Sunday School at our church. We like to have family time in the evenings but sign up for other activities as we learn about them (library programs, craft workshops, youth group activities, childrens theater shows, etc).

My 12 year old is in competitive swimming, Black belt in Taekwon Do and plays violin. We hike with a group every Saturday early morning and she does volunteer work once a month.

My 4 year old hikes with me twice a week (incld Saturdays with the group), does story time at the library once a week, Taekwon Do and starts soccer this year. He does volunteer work with us as well.

Every 3 months my kids participate in marathon events. My daughter does the 5k and my son and I do 1 mile kids walk/run.

I’m with some of the other responders that said kids also need time for just kid stuff.

Other than our scheduled activities we play at the beach a lot or park with friends. My son and I have arts and crafts time set aside everyday as well as time with his friends for creative and pretend play outside.

Most importantly though, we set time aside EVERYDAY to just cuddle and spend quality time as a family, we sit down for dinner and talk every night with no worries. That’s my favorite activity!

my almost 7 year old son is in Awanas with church, upward basketball (almost done) and will be in coach pitch this year that's all my husband will allow him to do right now hopefully I will be getting my daughter into dance this fall/winter. God bless you

Wow! I don't know how you find all the time for so many activities. I only have one and feel like I'm over-loaded. He is 7 and has swimming once a week, basketball twice a week, and baseball (batting practice) twice a week. Thats five days a week and it is getting old. Good for you for having so much energy. Some times its good to take a season off just to have a little down time, for kids and mommy too.

I am assuming that most of these activities are held at school. If not
your life must been insane. I have four kids. They could do anything
they wanted after school if it was at school. Outside activities, they
each picked one.Family life was too important to me. We had dinner
together every night. Less is more in many ways.

Hi,
My daughter is 10. We're not a very athletic family, although she has participated in summer programs (usually one week at a time) for soccer and dance with limited enthusiasm. During the school year, I like her to have free time after school. I've spent a lot of time in the classroom as a volunteer and it's not like when I went to school. They have a LOT of material to cover and it's pretty fast-paced. After a full day of that plus 45 min - 1 hour or so of homework, she's ready to have time alone or play wii for a while to unwind before dinner.

My husband gets home from work around 6 and we all sit down as a family to eat dinner. It keeps us connected and I feel it's really important to have that face-to-face time. FYI - kids who eat REGULAR meals with their family are statistically less likely to smoke, drink, do drugs or engage in risky behaviors. That said, my daughter has taken guitar lessons and more recently horseback riding lessons (1X per week through late Fall). We may start that up again in the Spring since she really liked it.

We spend a lot of our free time at church. My daughter will sometimes attend a kids' Bible program on Thursday nights while the adults have their own study at the same time. On Sundays she attends Sunday school while we're at regular service. Next year, she'll get involved in Youth Group which I'll also be involved in. There's also a special girls' Youth Group that focuses on purity.

On weekends when the weather is warmer, we go to the park, spend time visiting family or sometimes do a day trip. Lots to do in NJ & NY. We like having free time on the weekends. I could never be a soccer Mom and be tied into a schedule of practice/games/traveling teams, etc. Just not my thing.

I understand that most kids enjoy a lot of activities. I believe you should allow your children to explore different activites to see what they enjoy and/or what they have tallents for. Just my opinion here, but I think there are a lot of activities that reel you in for big bucks when the kids don't really need to make a career of any one thing. I also think life is stressful enough for our kids when they grow up. They shouldn't be scheduled every minute of every day and/or expect to be entertained all the time or have an organized activitiy all the time. Just my 2 cents. Good luck - good question!

My 7 year old son - Cub Scouts, baseball
My 3 year old daughter - Music Together Class (once a week)
My 2 year old son - Music Together Class (once a week)