The podcast actually tackled school and extracurricular activities in two separate posts but both due to attention span issues and number of things to talk about/crossover, I’m talking about them together.
What we say NO to
- We say no to a whole lot of extra work … both during and outside of the school year. The kids have enough to do for school and we have enough to do outside of school that it just can’t be a priority so you won’t find us doing much in the way of flash cards or workbooks to keep our kids “ahead of the curve.”
- We say no to basically any activity that requires a ton of weekend commitment, or really just too much time commitment period. We don’t really do organized sports because of this.We want to be in control of our weekends, not sitting on the sidelines.
- We say no keeping an activity that’s run its course due to guilt.
- We say no to worrying too much about how a travel-related absence will effect the kids’ schooling.
What we say YES to
- We say yes to reading outside of school.
- We say yes to initial time commitments – for example when Tabby wanted to take up the violin, we told her it had to be at least a 2 year commitment if we were going to buy the instrument, not only for the capital outlay but also to really develop some proficiency in it and see if she likes it.
- We say yes to “forcing” some activities because they’re important. Swimming is the one I’m thinking of here, but there might be others.
- We say YES to finding activities that are low impact on us. A piano teacher who comes to us was about the top criteria for choosing our piano teacher. Fortunately, she’s also awesome.
- We say yes to activities that aren’t necessarily our thing but that the kids adore.
- We say yes to limiting activities in favor of family time.