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I have a 5 year old and a 6 year old and neither have ever been in any sort of scheduled activity with the exception of swim lessons in the summer. For me, I don't want to devote massive amounts of time and money to extra-curricular activities when our time as a family is as short as it is. Our little family- myself, DH and our 2 kiddos- like to spend our weekends together, doing household projects, swimming, camping, day trips, etc. My husband works a lot so his free time is more limited and we want to spend as much of it as possible together as a family.
This is us now and we like it, but I feel like everyone is sending their kid to some activity and dont want him to feel left out. I will see how school goes first and if he wants to, Ill sign him up for a weekday activity after school so weekends are free - thank you for reminding me - that would be such a hassle to giv eup on our weekend fun due to driving him to this or that activity!
In Kindergarten, my daughter did Piano lessons, gymnastics, school cheer/flag, Bricks4Kidz, and Singapore Math.
My son, who is in Pre-K, does Piano lessons, Tae Kwon Do, soccer (during the day at daycare), and Singapore Math.
My kids are actually rather under-scheduled for the area - most folks in our area have their kids in 3 different sports with evening practices and weekend games as soon as they can throw a ball. It's crazy. We at least get home by 6:30 every night and have our weekends for family time.
When my daughter started kindergarten, we put her in soccer (recreational, 1 hour per week in the fall and spring). I wasn't sure how she'd do with the transition to full-day school, since she had only done part-time preschool prior to that. I didn't want to overload her schedule.
She adjusted very well and wanted to do a bunch more activities. Over the year, we also added ice skating lessons and Spanish, both 1 hour a week on the weekend; and girl scouts - 1 hour every 2 weeks. This year (1st grade) she wants to continue all of the above, plus dance. I'm still mulling that over.
In some cases, it can be the parents who are pushing. In our case, we're holding the line. She would gladly add 5 more activities if we let her
Your schedules and the logistics matter also. Everything except ice skating is within 10 minutes of our home, and we have somewhat flexible schedules and very short commutes. Her younger brother is too young for most activities, so we don't have to worry about his schedule yet, either.
When I ask, he is interested in racing and running......
My area has a Track and Field Club for K-12 that's loosely affiliated with the local high school (name, mascot, colors) Maybe your area has something like that? My 4 year old is looking forward to doing it next year in Kindergarten. ("Ooh! I want you to sign me up for racing!" )
At that age, 1 or 2 activities seems good to me: a sport and an afterschool "club" perhaps? Like chess club or drama club. Each would meet probably once a week, with the sport typically having a weekend event (game, meet, etc) At that age my kids have liked t-ball, soccer, dance, basketball, swimming, tennis...
It really depends on your kids and family. I did far less with my older son when he was in K than I'm doing with my current K kid because he wants to do as much as big brother. Thanks to the Olympics my K son started gymnastics on Saturday mornings. My husband takes him. Next month he will start a once a week Lego engineering class after school at school. Twice a week both boys take swimming lessons. They both used to swim once a week but when my older son was promoted to the twice a week precompetitive class my younger son didn't want to sit on the side of the pool once a week and watch. Instead of Scouts they also participate in a father/child program at the YMCA. It's much less time and labor intensive for us than Boy Scouts would have been.
my 5 year old kindergarten would want to do something every day, if we let him! but we're holding the line, as it is a big transition this year from last year as a PreK student. Then, the school schedule was much shorter from 9am to 2:15pm and had 25 mins nap/rest time after lunch. This year, as a kindy student, his day starts earlier at 8:15am, dismissal at 2:45pm, no nap/rest time.
we're only doing soccer saturday mornings for an hour that runs for 10 weeks; it'll start mid September, which will give my son a chance to settle in school a bit. Also will take 30 min swim lesson every thursday after school, and that is it as far activities go. The only thing that will be year round contionousely is swim lessons 1x weekly with a break for xmas holidays, and spring will probably sign him up for Lacrosse.
My son has been taking violin lesson since 5 years old. A 30 minutes lesson each week but need daily practice for 30 minutes as well he just turned 9. He took swim lessons since 3 and swim at our neighborhood swim team.
I started my oldest in soccer, but he said it was too much "standing around" and not fun for him. Then we tried scouts, but the leader turned out to be a drunk and got arrested! So actually we just did LOTS of family activities with our boys when they were small--camping, fishing, swimming, various pets, learning to use tools, and especially traveling. They played basketball in HS.
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