I try to keep M busy, especially on weekends and especially through autumn and winter. We easily fall into a rut of spending too much time at home one-on-one, and while I’m sure it’s sometimes a nice change of pace from busy preschool for her, it can make for long, exhausting days on the parental side of things.
This is the first year, really, that we’ve been able to consider signing her up for more intensive scheduled activities. There’s a bit of a gap in programming, in our town, for kids older than babies but younger than age three. While she isn’t actually three until the end of November, most of the program leaders have been willing to fudge it for fall activities given that she’s so close to the age range, fairly tall and dextrous for her age, and enthusiastic about the things she’s doing.
We went to our town’s fall/winter activity sign-up with M in tow. She has wanted to skate since she saw an ice show last year, so that was our first stop — we picked the least intensive option so she’s doing beginner skating every Monday night until spring. I also signed her up for a once-a-week hula hooping class, which is basically scheduled six weeks at a time, giving us flexibility. It’s inexpensive so if we miss a session I don’t mind, and so far she’s loved it — it’s on a Sunday, so it’s a good way to knock out an hour on the weekend. Next up was gymnastics, once a week on Saturdays, with a lot of her friends already signed up. She was interested, but Mac Daddy was reluctant to overschedule her (and us). We decided to take the information home and think about it. In the meantime, an indoor soccer program sign-up form came our way, but it required a parent to play too, and a) I’m too pregnant and b) Mac Daddy was again worried about too much on our plates.
So, us adults had a deeper conversation about scheduling activities. It turns out that I grew up in a household where we juggled a few activities at a time, as kids — nothing athletic but we were in Girl Guides and other more artsy programs, usually more than one each week. Mac Daddy, on the other hand, didn’t do very many scheduled activities at all as a kid. While I’ve always assumed childhood kind of looked like running around from one thing to another, just the thought of having to be at a specific place at a specific time, with money and equipment on the line, makes him anxious. He’d rather leave some time free for the random things that crop up, and be able to head out to sporadic activities, while I worry about M getting too bored without guaranteed things to do.
In the end we decided that because this is our first year really delving into scheduled rec, we’d leave it at skating as the big activity, and bolster it with smaller activities that require less of a commitment, like the hula hoop class. As she gets older we’ll talk to her about what she wants to do, and try to accommodate it, and I think it’ll all get easier once she hits an age where she doesn’t need a parent supervisor to stay for each class.
How do you schedule activities for your child?
blogger / apricot / 275 posts
I struggle with the same! Our oldest son will be 3 1/2 in January, so we are also newly eligible for a bunch of activities. This year we decided on (1) swim lessons (with his 18 mo old little brother); (2) indoor soccer; and (3) a few non-recurring classes/ activities (some holiday ones & a few at our science center). It’s so hard to find the right balance. We also considered gymnastics & music class.
grapefruit / 4085 posts
We try to do 1-2 activities at a time. It used to be gym and music classes. We’ve moved on to dance and cooking. Plus school 3 days a week. I like to have at least one day free to just relax and not run around to scheduled things.
pomelo / 5866 posts
We do 1-2 activities at a time, usually revolving around the seasons and we took 2 seasons off of ‘nothingness’. Also our activities are only once a week. If it were multiple times a week, I would only do one. Childhood is fun when there is breathing room!
blogger / persimmon / 1225 posts
I probably lean towards the over scheduled side but since Crumb isn’t in daycare, I like to give him lots of opportunity to socialize and be out and about.
We do music almost year round. Swim lessons in the summer, gymnastics in the winter, and currently he’s in a two year old separating class and a one day a week church pre preschool program.
apricot / 343 posts
I grew up with parents who were elementary school teachers and I only did one activity at a time, nothing before age four. I truly believe that boredom is a gift for kids–it makes them create their own fun! My dad instilled in me that there’s the “fine art of doing nothing.” When I was a kid I had some friends who did lots of activities and it bummed me out that they rarely had time to just get together and play. All of that coupled with the fact that I have twins, so everything is twice as expensive…we don’t do many activities. Occasional play groups, library story time, swim lessons in summer are plenty for us! We’ve tried a few scheduled things and they didn’t seem to love them so we’re waiting until they’re 4-5.
blogger / clementine / 985 posts
@Mrs. Peas: swim lessons would totally be something we’d sign up for, here! they shut down the pool a few years ago, though.
@fancyfunction: one to two seems like a good balance! We started our skating sessions and I’m glad we didn’t go for two days a week on that one.
@808love: there’s often not much going on, scheduled, in summer around here — people just want to be free to enjoy the good weather! so I’m looking forward to that with M, next year.
@Mrs. Cookie: yeah, if M wasn’t in preschool I’d definitely be doing more scheduled things!
@Eminthevalley: I think that’s a good age to start doing things — then they understand the commitment a bit more. M is still pretty fickle with actually wanting to go to the things we’ve signed up for.