What are your kids in?

[meganmecrazy]

The school sent home a letter the other day about Girl Scouts and with Annie mentioning it I remembered I wanted to start a thread to find out what all YOUR kids do. Now that my squirts started Kindy, they come home wanting to do all the activities that they hear the other kids talking about. So far gymnastics, girl scouts and cheerleading have been mentioned by my DD and soccer, baseball and basketball have been mentioned by my DS. But, ummm, how much is TOO much? Thought it would be nice to hear what other kids are doing and what parents thoughts are on the different activities - is it a PITA, do you enjoy it, etc.

My kids don't have that hectic of a schedule (yet. ) I don't have that much to complain about except for the cost of dance lessons!

Aaron (5-years-old):
-Dance (tap & ballet, so far) one night a week
-Musical Theater lessons one night a week (before dance classes).
-AWANA at church one night a week

Aubrey (5-years-old):
*Same as Aaron*

[DawnMarch]

DD:
Spanish (2 days/wk)
piano (1 day/wk)
swimming (1 day/wk)
Girl Scouts (maybe, hasn't started up this year yet, but it's only 1 day/month)

DS:
soccer (2 days/wk)
piano (1 day/wk)
swimming (1 day/wk)
chess club (1 day/wk)
cub scouts (again only one night/month)

[Misty Cato]

My oldest is 4.5y and he refuses to do anything but preschool. I'd love to get him into something active; T-ball, soccer, martial arts, anything. He absolutely refuses. He has so much energy and is a really social kid, so I think he'd have a great time if he gave it a shot, but he won't. He's just intimidated to go do something without mom or dad. He's so young, I haven't pushed it.

Oh the one thing he does want to do - Boy Scouts. Unfortunately you have to be 7, so that's a no go atm.

[meganmecrazy]

Oh the one thing he does want to do - Boy Scouts. Unfortunately you have to be 7, so that's a no go atm.

Oh yeah, my DS wanted to do it after hearing daddy talk about it. LOL! But after I found out he had to be 7 first that was out of the picture. I think when the time comes I will sign Aaron up for T-ball.

[BrattyMeg]

Mine have a 1 activity limit..they have to choose..only exception the oldest 2 are allowed to be in chorus at school and have 1 extra activity...I refuse to be a car mom and with a houseful it's hard to be in more than 1 place at a time lol

oldest is 13 in chorus and she's actually not doing anything right now extra but we've done soccer the last few years and dance..she wants to do ballroom dance now but having a hard time finding a local school that teaches it.
DS is 10 and is in chorus and karate
and one DD is 5 and playing her 2nd year of soccer

[AnnieBananie]

I can't get DS to take swimming lessons... he's only 4 but he should learn... but he freaks out so forget it. He'll do preschool next year. That'll be enough for him.

Faith will be in swimming lessons, possibly Girl Scouts, and a sport if she picks one. She'd be great in gymnastics but we'll see. If it were up to her, she'd be in some sort of extracirricular every second of the day. She's overachieving that way. LOL

[Sharon Kay]

Always try to have family dinners during the week...at least a few nights...don't get too busy for that...it's really important to keep the family connected.

I'm not one that is good at not having too much...we just had our robotics kickoff TODAY ... now our schedule is going to go crazy! ...but it's only for 6 weeks...unless we win...and then add another 4 weeks...

[Kat Stokes]

My oldest is in little league baseball. For fall it is 1 practice a week and 1 game a week. In spring it's 2 practices and 1 or 2 games a week. I it!! He also MIGHT do basketball this winter. We'll see.

The little one isn't in anything - yet. We'll start him in t-ball when he's 3-1/2.

[AnnieBananie]

Originally Posted by FlirtatiousBrat

I refuse to be a car mom

Word.

[KristinCB]

Lily is in Sparks (equivalent to daisy in girl scouts i think) and she is signed up for gymnastics.. only problem is they might conflict so if they do she will be in sparks and skating instead of gymnastics.

[kscwgirl]

Abby is the only one with any activites right now. Aside.. seriously, 7 for boy scouts? WTF happened to tiger cubs??? They should do Tiger Cubs at 5.....

Abby's schedule
Monday kids choir (30 mins, not sure how long this will last)
Tuesday after school - dance
Wed nothing
Thurs nothing
Fri nothing

Daisy meetings are once a month on varying days.

[rochelle789]

My 5yo is in competitive gymnastics. They practice twice a week for a total of 5 hours each week. That completely wipes her out, so that's our limit during the school year. During the summer she also has swimming lessons.

I just started a parent-tot gymnastics class with my 20-month-old. It's at the same time as my 5yo's practice, so it's perfect.

That's it for us.

[carriesmom]

My kids aren't into anything but my DH is another story...
The Elks, School Board, Kiwanis, and now a ref for soccer. My kids will probably end up doing soccer when they get older since their cousins do it right now. We'll see.

[Leila]

JP's going to be doing Scouts this year, through church. He'd like to do something else too, so we'll have to see what's out there and if it works with Andrew's work schedule. (I don't drive, so we have a 'car Dad' here.)

I'm looking for something for D. He'll be 7 in November, but has not one iota of interest in Scouts. Or karate, or dance, or music lessons, or anything that doesn't involve computers or time or weather or penguins and puffles.

[Sheana]

DD #1:
Monday: Soccer Practice (1 hour)
Tuesday: Ballet (30 min)
Wednesday: Girl Scouts (2 hrs on the 1st & 3rd Weds of each month) & Soccer Game (1 hour)
Saturday: Soccer Game (1 hour)

DD #2:
Monday: Soccer Practice (1 hour)
Wednesday: Girl Scouts (2 hrs on the 1st & 3rd Weds of each month), Jazz (30 min) & Soccer Game (1 hour)
Saturday: Soccer Game (1 hour)

I co-lead their Girl Scout troop and DH is their soccer coach so it increases the hecticness of everything x100. You can be a Girl Scout without having to actually be a member of a troop. You're considered a "Juliet Low" and can still sell nuts and cookies, earn patches, etc. just more on your own schedule. You can contact your local service unit or council for more info, if you're interested.

[SeattleSheri]

Nothing at the moment We did swimming lessons for a while, but right now we just go to family swim when the mood hits us.

[jaylensmom]

My son (kindergarten) did swimming lessons this summer...they don't have them in the fall this year so we won't do that until next year...he now wants to do piano (thru the school) and he also wants to do soccer....oh and of course karate...we'll most likely do soccer which reminds me i have to sign him up...i still have to research karate...

[jaylensmom]

oh btw the fees for soccer and piano totally amazed me...it may be because i haven't been involved in the kiddie activities until now...

[kristine]

My oldest DD (7) does Judo. We are thinking about letting her do one more thing, but I'm not sure we'll have time, if she does it will be Hip Hop or gymnastics probably. Thing is, she goes to afterschool care after school while I'm at work, so we are not home until 5, then she has judo once a week, and usually has friends over or spends the afternoon at a friends house at least once a week, maybe twice, so I'm just wondering how we'll have time for homework if we add another activity.

My youngest DD (3) is not doing anything yet.

[rachaelsscraps]

My 4-year old just started soccer!!! That's all he does.... but he's only 4 and in preschool...

[newfiemountiewife]

Once we get moved, our schedule looks like this:

Benjamin (9 years old)
- Gymnastics 1 hour on Sundays

Amelia (6 years old)
- Ballet 1 hour on Sundays
- Figure skating 1 hour each Tuesday and Thursday

Rae (4 almost 5 years old)
- We're trying hockey, if the schedule permits, which will be 2 days, 1 hour each per week
- she's on the wait list for gymnastics, 1 hour per week on Sundays.

Amelia and Rae will be going to Sparks, which is our entry level Girl Guides once we get moved, and if the schedule permits. Amelia went last winter and loved it. It's 1 hour per week. We have to travel an hour into the City for gymnastics and ballet, so I have it all placed on Sundays, so I only have 1 trip in. I'd like to get Benjamin into something else, but he's not into sports, and we're moving to a very small town where there isn't much to offer. Once we get actually moved, I'll be able to dig around and see what he might like.

I told them, they were allowed 3 things each, but less, if one of those three things began dominating more days a week. Amelia is at her limit now, so if she decided to skate more competitively, and needs more skating time, she will have to give up something else. I remember being in stuff 7 days a week, and it was hard.

[Sarah8914]

I agree with Meghan and plan to only let our kids do 1 thing at a time. Honestly, when I was little, I did ballet a couple years, softball for a year and that was it... and I was just fine! I did do choir 8-12th grade though.

Anyway, I don't want to feel crazy driving kids places all the time. I hope to teach my kids piano--at least try to. Kathryn is in ballet right now (almost 5) but we dont have plans for anything else after it's over.

[StaceyA]

Emma (9 in March) will be doing karate starting tomorrow for one hour. She is also going to a drop in "Kids Fun Night" on Wednesday's for an hour and a half.

Cadence (3 in November) has playgroup Tuesday and Thursday morning for 2 hours. She will be in T-Ball in the Spring...she wasn't old enough for it this year.

They both will do swimming lessons in January for 1/2 hour once a week on Sundays.

Brody is still too young, he'll be 1 in November, but he goes to playgroup with Cadence.

[SmallMoments]

Since Luke is only in Kindergarten, we limit him to one extra activity, aside from church. Normally it's not a problem, but in the spring he'll have to choose between soccer and t-ball. Last season he chose t-ball because he plays fall soccer. He also gets to start Upwards basketball this winter. And he takes swimming in the summer.

[aggiefamily]

Tiger Cubs is 1st grade or completed K.

This is our fall schedule:
M- off
T- Tiger Cubs (Garrett)
W- Awanas (Garrett and Lance)
TH- Soccer (Garrett)
F- off
S- Soccer Game (Garrett)

In the winter we will have Basketball instead of Soccer. In the Spring we will have T-Ball as the sport and both will be playing. And in the Summer it is TKD and swimming.

[lauren grier]

ce wants to do hockey it'll depend if i can come up with the $$ in time.. but it's only on saturdays.. I don't think he'll be doing anything else during the week. One is enough for me.

[Stacey42]

Both boys take tae kwon do 2x a week and Havoc starts Tiger Scouts this week, it's a twice a month thing that DH is the primary parent for.

[Yvette]

DS is 6 (grade one), starting in October we will have skating for 1 hour Friday nights and indoor soccer for 2 hours Saturday morning. I would like to do swimming lessons as well, but I need to check into the schedule first.

[emmasmommy]

WOWIE. Some of you are buuuuuusy!

Emma's only 4 and she's in gymnastics on Monday nights for 45 minutes.

She wants to join soocer next year (I told her only one thing for this year) and she'll also do girl scouts next year. Everything starts at 5 here.

[ajf9597]

DS (1st grade)
Monday-Football Practice & Boy Scouts
Tuesday-Swimming Lessons
Wednesday-Church
Saturday-Football

in the spring we add Baseball, which is on Thursday nights, but no football, although he will still have practice on Mondays. And he wants to play soccer which is on Sundays.

[Lauren Reid]

We have....

Monday (church class - 1 hr)
Tues (gymnastics - 1 1/2 hrs - jessica)
Friday (gymnastics - 1 1/2 hrs - boys)
Saturday + one other school night (soccer - josh)

The boys did Cubscouts last year, but it was just too much to do this year cuz they meet weekly plus other activities and on top of the amount of HOMEWORK the boys get, it's hard to add on more activities at night....

[Robin Carlton]

Activities seem to have exploded in our house this year...

Emily (6)

Art Masters for an hour on Tuesday nights
Acro Class for an hour on Friday nights
May add a more traditional Dance class on Monday nights too.

Katie (9)

Art Masters for an hour on Tuesday nights
Cheer for an hour on Wednesday nights
Ice Skating for an hour on Saturday mornings

We tried to get Andy to do the Art Masters Class too, but he was really resistant still and since he is only 4.5, we aren't pushing it. I'm actually loving all of this - it's a great excuse to spend time with the kids away from the computer. I didn't really get to do any activities when I was a kid, so I love letting them sorta do what they want.

[jessica31876]

My 12 year old son doesnt do much because of his learning disability he spends alot of time doing schoolwork/homework.

My almost 16 year old spends alot of time at his grandparents helping with the stuff they cannot do themselves.

My duaghter who is almost 18 does student government and young republicans club. She was going to do powder puff football this year for girls but we didnt get her physical in time for her to be eligible. I think she is trying out for volleyball and track at some point this year. She is the joiner of the three kids though. In the past she has done track, volleyball, ROTC, drill team, step team, young artists club, chorus, National Honor Society and a few others I cannot think of. Along with all that she has accumalated like 300 (or more) hours community service.

Ohhh also she was on newspaper staff last year and even though she isnt on staff she has had one article published this year so far.

[nun69]

wow....I have 4 kids and DH and I work full time so it really is impossible for us to be at more than 2 places at a time..since Abby & Peyton are under 4 it is hard to get Sam {16} and Ben {8} to differnet places...

but Sam does do FBLA at school and will probably be working soon...up until she was a freshman she was in choir {at school} and some sort of sport....

Ben did baseball last year, but nothing this year..I just came back from deployment so it was kinda hard to get him signed up for anything~

[meganmecrazy]

WOW, lots of y'all are busy! I'm exhausted just from my kids little schedule! LOLOL!

[LeeAndra]

Last year, Tyler did 3 mini-sessions of basketball at the YMCA which was one practice/game a week on Saturday mornings. That worked out well for everyone since we took turns taking him depending on whom had him that weekend, and then there would be a 2 week break in between sessions.

This year, Tyler's mom has signed him up for Cub Scouts and tae kwon do. Since we are non-custodial, most of the practices and meetings fall on his mother's time, but Jeff is pretty good abt going to meetings and such even if we don't have him.

It looks like Tyler will have den meetings every Tuesday (her time) and a pack meeting once a month on Wednesday (our time) in addition to other offsite Scout activities. The TKD school he's enrolled in has a 3 year unlimited lesson package, so conceivably, he could take a TKD lesson 6 days a week every week. So far, between the two of them, he's been going 2-3 times a week for lessons, and Jeff has gone to watch abt 1/3 of them.