QOTW: School Time "Extras"---too much?
Find a Conversation
QOTW: School Time "Extras"---too much?
| Mon, 08-21-2006 - 10:33am |
QOTW:Question of the Week
For this week is about School Time Extracirricular activities during the school year!
Let's just address the Fall/Winter time of year!
What extras are your tween/teen involved in?
How do you know when it is enough, too much etc....
How do you draw that line or do you just let them do what they want?

Pages
My son plans to join one after school club, may go out for one athletic school team sport, and will have guitar lessons. That's enough!
My daughter plans to join one after school club and continue her help out at the Humane Society. That's enough!
For me, it crosses the line into "too much" when it becomes difficult to handle the priorities (homework is a priority and it this year will involve occasional visits to the library and/or working with other classmates on project assignments. They have a few very big projects this year and they will need time to complete those assignments). Also when family time suffers (i.e. when one family member regularly eats at a different time due to schedule conflicts). Occasionally juggling around mealtime or accommodating schedules is fine, but 5 days a week is too much.
I draw the line at one sport at a time, one extra (i.e. guitar or volunteering) and I'm ok with after school clubs (which is limited to one club per student since they all take place at the same time). My preference is that activities take place after school, then we can eat dinner together as a family, then the kids do their homework.
Lynn
My DS 11 (grade 6) is involved in Band (during school), church choir (Tuesdays after school), Youth Club Extreme (church on Wednesdays after school through dinner), Soccer on Sundays from Sept through the beginning of Nov, and basketball on Saturdays from mid-Nov through March.
We'll see how it goes...the soccer is very low-commitment...no practices outside of Sundays...just Sunday from 1-4. Basketball is also low-commitment, played at our church and is only Saturday mornings.
Choir and Youth Club are all year activities, but he loves both and both are through our church, and that relationship is VERY important to us.
Marcy
DD (10) participates in band (during school with the exception of 2 concerts during the year). She does Forest Program in the fall and spring (one afternoon for 6 weeks each time). Her big commitment is Tae Kwon Do. She takes 2 classes a week, private lessons at least one every other week (if not more) and then there's tournaments. Some are away. Friday until Sunday comittment and some are day trips. We do 13 a year. She loves it and is very good at it, but the rule has always been she needs to keep her grades up. We'll see how this goes this year.
Lynn
In the fall she will do rec soccer, dance, violin, girl scouts, and probably some after school activities. I expect that she will have an incredible amount of homework (last year it averaged four hours a night, and included weekends), but she manages to get everything done. If she can't manage her schedule, she will be forced to drop activities. So far it hasn't happened.
In the winter she drops soccer (everything else stays the same), and will pick up basketball and there will be softball clinics on the weekend.
In the spring basketball ends (everything else stays the same), and she picks up softball. This spring she will tryout for travel league softball.
Last year we had dinner as a family every night except Thursday when she had dance. Most of the activities are before dinner or after dinner.
Ramona Mom to 2 great kids and wife to one wonderful hubby since 1990!
My dd is also a competetive gymnast, but not hard core like the other girl mentioned previously. She has practice 3 nights a week for 3 hrs and then meets a few times a month dec - may. She can't do chorus through school this year because of gymnastics. She wants to take a hip hop class which i may let her if they have availability on saturdays. I know it's too much based on her and her exhaustion level. If she's getting overwhelmed, has a lot of homework or needs downtime we skip gymnastics that night.
My son will play soccer at school this fall which is m-th after school. This winter he'll do basketball. He requires a lot more downtime so we're way more careful with his scheduling.
This fall brings upon the new gym schedule with soccer so family dinners are going to be difficult. We'll see how it all goes, which is why usually by the time summer rolls around we're all dying for a break in the routine. (of course there is no break in gymnastics)
Much of my son's activities take place at school and are either after school or during school hours. Mostly he's afterschool an average of three times a week, more when the school play rolls around.
He does school newspaper, drama club, stage crew, three different choirs (they meet at alternate times of the year and/or day so there is no conflicts),and the student historic preservation team.
He knows what he can and can't handle.
stacy
Pages