THE AGE Newspaper article of Monday May 16th 2005.

Question:  My child is in grade 3 and attends swimming, gym class and piano lessons each week. His school teacher says he is disrupting other children in class, and he appears more tired and irritable at home. I want him to have the chance to try new experiences, and he seems keen to do them, but I wonder if he is doing too much.

Answer:

HOW to balance the learning experiences and the types of opportunities we provide for children is an important issue.

Sometimes, introducing a child to a particular sport, musical instrument or project helps to broaden a child's choices as they grow older. It may help them to then consider other interests even if they don't particular engage with the one we originally chose for them.

One of the trends in recent years is to believe that unless children are engaged in three or four extracurricular activities each week, they are missing out. We want children to view their experiences as interesting, relevant and enjoyable. But for this to occur, we also need to consider how many activities are appropriate and how their week is balanced in relation to school, home life, extracurricular activities and just having time to relax.

Successful learning involves being able to self-initiate, solve problems, make some decisions, respond appropriately, communicate effectively and have the time and energy to think through particular issues. It is a potential danger that if children spend their entire week moving from school to an extracurricular activity each night (and weekends) some will become disengaged or simply exhausted.

Sometimes a handy indication is if the parent feels tired and frantic from ferrying children to and from numerous activities, then it is probably too many for the child. All children need time to play and explore at home, and to have chats with family members. They need time to just be, rather than to be busily rushing from one activity to another on top of school.

For a child in grade 3 who is irritable at home and at school, it may well be an indication that life is too busy. We want children to have the mental, emotional and physical energy to be able to participate fully and to gain as much as possible from whatever activities they are involved in. Being tired, irritable and disruptive will impede the ability of a child to be involved and focused, in the classroom or anywhere else.
There isrit a magic number of activities we should be enrolling our children in during their early years, but a suggestion would be to consider the following.

• What is the schedule of the whole family?
• When does the day begin and end? Is it a long day?
• Are we in a rush for the child to be introduced to a range of activities all at the same time?
• What seems to be the main interest and aim of one activity?
• Does that seem to fit with providing time at home too?
• Do we feel all we do is rush from one thing to another?

Generally, children in their preschool years and the first year of school only require one additional activity on top of their early childhood program or school, and children in grades 1-3 perhaps two. The main indication that children are doing too many activities or are not coping with the current lifestyle is when they become withdrawn, disruptive or simply tired.

Learning and the acquisition of specific skills is not a race to be won, it is a process. Participating in different things at a pace that suits each child and family is more likely to help children reach their potential.

Copyright © Kathy Walker 2005

Kathy Walker is an educational consultant specialising in early childhood and primary years, and a former lecturer at RMIT University.