Extra-curricular activities in Prep

[Jennifer13]

DD1 was only doing swimming outside of school when she started kinder. We dropped dancing for the year. We picked up piano in term 2 (but that's at home, the teacher comes to us). She started jazz in the last term of K, also after school one day a week. We then added after-school French in Yr 1. She was tired in K, but I found she was adjusted by about the middle of the year. Is there any harm seeing how she goes and starting in the second term if it seems she's okay? You're still starting when she starts school, just not immediately.

With DD2 arriving in Yr 1, we did get busier. Now DD2 has swimming as well, and given that DD1 (in Yr 2) is doing swimming at school, we've dropped her extra-curricular swimming lesson (she's a good swimmer, but not interested in squads).

Next year, we'll have another DD and DD1 will be doing piano (class at home after school once a week), cubs (down the road, one evening a week), French (after school, once a week) and probably a sport (but before or after school - at school). It sounds like a lot of activities, but they're deliberately scheduled so that they involve no real running around by myself or DP.

The other thing to consider is in K they tend to get a lot of birthday party invitations and for at least a while, a parent is probably expected to stay. That makes for very busy weekends! I found weekend activities were more hassle than weekday ones.