I have always been adamant that I don't want my family to get into the too busy, too scheduled, meet yourself coming and going kind of hectic life that I see so often in our culture. I wanted to be the family who kept our kids to one activity per season. The family that had a few nights during the week set aside for family time. The kids that would have plenty of time to do what they wanted after school instead of being bustled here and there for activities. Now, as I sit here looking at our refrigerator calendar with activities at least 4 nights out of the week, I realize how hard that actually is to do.
My girls LOVE Stage Kids. Love it! And so that is on the schedule for 45 minutes once a week. And in order to give the girls a boost in the music department to help them with their love of acting and performing, Staley and Adelie take singing lessons after school on Stage Kids days. (Thankfully at our house with a full lesson for Staley and a half lesson for Adelie.) And since Staley also loves to dance, she stays after Stage Kids to take Broadway dance. 3 activities for Staley plus 2 for Adelie.
I think learning to read music is important, so Staley takes piano lessons once a week after school. 4 activities for Staley plus 2 for Adelie.
Christian development and church participation are high priorities for our family. Therefore, all 3 kids go to our Wednesday night church program...that I am now in charge of. 5 activities for Staley plus 3 for Adelie plus 1 for Briggs.
Over the summer, both girls started a tumbling class in a nearby town. They really enjoyed it and learned a lot. I think tumbling is a good foundational activity to build body awareness, strength, and flexibility that can translate to other activities they want to do. The girls wanted to continue, so now they both go to tumbling for 40 minutes one day each week after school. 6 activities for Staley plus 4 for Adelie plus 1 for Briggs.
Briggs happily attends all his sisters activities and games. In a moment of weakness, I asked if he wanted to play soccer this fall now that he is old enough. He did. And because our life isn't busy enough, I offered to help coach. 6 activities for Staley plus 4 for Adelie plus 2 for Briggs.
For those of you doing the math, my initial plan of one activity per season per kid would equal 3 activities for our household. We are currently at 12. Remember in school when you would do those greater than/less than activities during math class.
12 > 3. Twelve is greater than three. Much, much greater! I look at our list and I see how this happened. I feel like all these activities are beneficial. My kids enjoy them all. I want to give my kids opportunities to try new things as well as opportunities to stick with something long enough to excel at it. But when all that happens, you end up with 12 instead of 3. Too much!
