Ask:
Just curious what all everyone else does. With six, it is hard for us to get them involved in everything offered, etc.
Answer:
We do Boy Scouts - which is pretty much a weekly time committment for most of the year and then a 4-6 week basketball in the winter. Just those things overwhelm us sometimes with trying to do homework, faith activities, and squeeze in some family time in there. I also work several evenings a month so time is precious. I only have 1 and that eats up our budget and time with just those activities.
I think most kids do too much. They need time to just hang around the house and get bored. I think that's good for them and too much structured activity is not good. JMO
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I agree..and that is part of why I was asking! We are very active in church..Sundays and Wednesdays, and regulary another day or two a month besides those. I also have two in soccer right now, and my oldest works part time afterschool. One of my children who plays soccer also wants to take dance and voice lessons..which will take another two evenings a week..and I know she would enjoy them, but I don't want her OR me stressed out from constantly going and going. With school and homework, soccer games and practices, church, AND two more activities...when do we get FAMILY time?!?! I know a lot do it...I just don't know HOW they do it!
Answer:
Well my kids are teens, so it may not be applicable to everyone...but the both do scouts, sports, and music.
Dd is in scouts, but because they're so old and so busy, they really only meet about 6 times per year now and go on one short trip per year. She does orchestra which is soooooo time consuming and terribly expensive. Plus she does another youth orchestra in addition to the school orchestra. She does cross country which is very time consuming in the fall for about 2-3 mos but isn't very expensive.
Ds does scouts which is pretty time consuming, once per week and one weekend per month camping. He also plays saxaphone in the band but that's not too time consuming (mostly during school hours) or expensive. He also does football in the fall which is very time consuming just for those few months.
When they were smaller, they both did tons of extracurriculars, but not all at once. But they've both done almost all sports at some point in time. HTH
Answer:
My daughter does gymnastics, competitive cheerleading, cheerleading at school, basketball, soccer, gymnastics and beauty pageants (about 6 per year). She is in specialty choir at school and in choir at church. She is also starting piano lessons with our church's children's pastor.
My son plays football, basketball, soccer and guitar lessons. He is also in the church choir. He wants piano lessons for his birthday.
Most of their activities begin right after school so they go straight from school to practice. The gym my daughter trains for gymnastics and competitive cheerleading picks up from the school so it elevates after school care.
We have something going on every afternoon but all practice with the exception of church choir is over by 6:00 PM. They could either be in after school care or involved in sports. I have helped to raise 2 boys and found the more they have to keep them busy the less likely they were to get into trouble. As long as my kids want to do it and their grades are not effected I will continue to keep them active. It has been my experience the older kids get boredom leads to more and more mischief.
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We do pretty much whatever they want to do within reason. I spend most of my evenings shutteling kids around. That is fine with me since I think it is really good for them.
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Extra curricular activities are changing for the boys now that Conor is Starting Secondary School and Tadhg will (hopefully ) be starting College
Tadhg is keeping on Rugby and Guitar with some volunteering work with St Vincent de Paul
Conor is doing Archery, French, Suzuki, will be doing Rugby,,
Both boys have done Swimming, Horse Riding, Suzuki, Speech & Drama, Art, French since they were tots
I guess it depends on the child and their interests an what they might be open to
Anne
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My school age sons, 15yo & 11 yo are involved in church activities on Thursday nights, & Sunday. The 15 yo is running Cross Country Track for Fall & Summer, and the 11 yo wants to play basketball in the Fall. I try to keep them busy, but not too much, so they don't get to overwhelmed for their school work.
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DH had his accident when kids were 5yrs and younger so alot of activities was simply not going to happen-
Football and Cheerleading in the fall/ Baseball+ softball in spring
when sports were made available in school we balanced the previous with the new stuff- soccer volleyaball and jv football in the fall/ basketball in winter and 3softball teams/ 2track teams in spring
[son gave up baseball]
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My oldest DS does Cross Country for school, in the fall he plays on 2 different soccer teams, in the spring he plays on the school soccer team.
My oldes DD plays soccer and basketball in the fall (they overlap for 2-3 weeks), in the spring she plays soccer and kickball.
My other two aren't old enough yet.