being late

Robyn Kozierok wrote in :

In article ,
chiam margalit wrote:
One thing I do is, never schedule any activity on the same day as the
other kid's activity.

Actually, I usually try to do just the opposite so I'm not running for
activities every day. If I can work out the drop-off and pick-up times
so both kids are at an activity at the same time, I'm one happy mommy.
But I wouldn't knowingly schedule activities that caused a conflict.
(I say knowingly because they never tell us the exact soccer practice
schedules or locations when we sign up. I think Ryan and Matt will
be practicing at the same time this year, but in almost the same place
so that the scheduling conflict will be minimized.)

Thats my feeling too: I'd prefer to have one or two really busy days,
and then nothing on the other days.

FWIW, while I've had a pre-school child, I haven't wanted to organise
much in the way of after-school activities (which incidently suited
the personality of my eldest). But now they are all at school all day,
I'm starting to feel that I could organise more for each of them.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three

(Robyn Kozierok) wrote in message ...
In article ,
chiam margalit wrote:
One thing I do is, never schedule any activity on the same day as the
other kid's activity.

Actually, I usually try to do just the opposite so I'm not running for
activities every day. If I can work out the drop-off and pick-up times
so both kids are at an activity at the same time, I'm one happy mommy.
But I wouldn't knowingly schedule activities that caused a conflict.
(I say knowingly because they never tell us the exact soccer practice
schedules or locations when we sign up. I think Ryan and Matt will
be practicing at the same time this year, but in almost the same place
so that the scheduling conflict will be minimized.)


Would you still do this if transportation was provided (the late bus)
for your kids, and/or if you didn't have to drive all over tarnation
to get them to and from activities?

I know when my kids were in a different school and I had to drive a
long distance to get them, my take on activities was a lot different
than it is now where everything is in extremely close proximity.

I want to be able to attend the activities when appropriate (games,
meetings, etc.) and if all the activities coincide, I can't do that.

Having both my kids gone at the same time isn't a reward for me
because we're apart most of the day anyhow, and when we're not,
they're involved with their rather extensive social lives (I've got 5
12-13 yo boys downstairs right now!) and I'm chopped liver. So, when
we DO have some alone time with mom, that's a severe treat for them
and for me.

Marjorie

--Robyn

(chiam margalit) wrote:

(Robyn Kozierok) wrote in message ...
In article ,
chiam margalit wrote:
One thing I do is, never schedule any activity on the same day as the
other kid's activity.

Actually, I usually try to do just the opposite so I'm not running for
activities every day. If I can work out the drop-off and pick-up times
so both kids are at an activity at the same time, I'm one happy mommy.
But I wouldn't knowingly schedule activities that caused a conflict.
(I say knowingly because they never tell us the exact soccer practice
schedules or locations when we sign up. I think Ryan and Matt will
be practicing at the same time this year, but in almost the same place
so that the scheduling conflict will be minimized.)


Would you still do this if transportation was provided (the late bus)
for your kids, and/or if you didn't have to drive all over tarnation
to get them to and from activities?

I'm not sure what you are asking here - but I have to say - just
because Robyn finds this works for her, it's OK for it not to work for
you. Both your method and her method can be good - it's not an either
or situation.

I know when my kids were in a different school and I had to drive a
long distance to get them, my take on activities was a lot different
than it is now where everything is in extremely close proximity.

I want to be able to attend the activities when appropriate (games,
meetings, etc.) and if all the activities coincide, I can't do that.

Having both my kids gone at the same time isn't a reward for me
because we're apart most of the day anyhow, and when we're not,
they're involved with their rather extensive social lives (I've got 5
12-13 yo boys downstairs right now!) and I'm chopped liver. So, when
we DO have some alone time with mom, that's a severe treat for them
and for me.



grandma Rosalie

On Fri, 29 Aug 2003 17:53:49 EDT, (chiam margalit)
wrote:

(Robyn Kozierok) wrote in message ...
In article ,
chiam margalit wrote:
One thing I do is, never schedule any activity on the same day as the
other kid's activity.

Actually, I usually try to do just the opposite so I'm not running for
activities every day. If I can work out the drop-off and pick-up times
so both kids are at an activity at the same time, I'm one happy mommy.
But I wouldn't knowingly schedule activities that caused a conflict.
(I say knowingly because they never tell us the exact soccer practice
schedules or locations when we sign up. I think Ryan and Matt will
be practicing at the same time this year, but in almost the same place
so that the scheduling conflict will be minimized.)


This is what I am trying to do as well. Dance class was supposed to be
from 10 to 11--which was perfect with preschool from 9:00 to 11:30.
Well, dance class got moved to 9:00 to 10:00, over which I have no
control and it is better for the class. So, I decided that I would
appreciate getting everybody going in the morning instead of trying to
find something to do for 45 minutes after we drop D#1 off.

My solution so far is to drop D#1 off at a friend's house near preschool
at 10 till 9:00. Friend's mom will drop her off while I take D#2 to
dance class. I found a back-up for that as well. I solve the problem
in two ways: nobody is late and I have from 10:00 to 11:30 with the
younger two on that particular day. Each of the girls only get one
activity, which we start at 3 years old. The dance teacher is really
good and D#2 interacts very well with her class, so I don't want to
lose that situation for her if I can help it. Of course a year from now
it will be a different story when D#2 starts preschool and has to change
to another class. Alas there is no perfect solution.

Karen

In ,
Robyn Kozierok wrote:

*In article ,
*chiam margalit wrote:
*One thing I do is, never schedule any activity on the same day as the
*other kid's activity.
*
*Actually, I usually try to do just the opposite so I'm not running for
*activities every day. If I can work out the drop-off and pick-up times
*so both kids are at an activity at the same time, I'm one happy mommy.

Me too! This upcoming semester, I have my daughter doing Gymboree one
morning during my son's preschool, and swimming class another morning
during his preschool. It would be hard to avoid having her do stuff the
same day though, given he has preschool five days a week .

h.
--
hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net
"uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est."
not-so-newly minted veterinarian-at-large

On Sat, 30 Aug 2003 18:04:00 EDT, (chiam margalit)
wrote:

I'll ask this question again, since I didn't get an answer last time.
If you weren't responsible for the drop off and pickup of your kids,
if your transportation wasn't part of the formula, would you still
choose to bunch all the activities together or would you prefer to
spread them out so they're only doing one thing at a time?

Marjorie

I do like to schedule things at the same time. Sending my kids in
different directions at the same time gives them some constructive time
away from each other and away from the house. They miss each other
quite a bit when they do things alone at home without the other, but
that may be unique to my kids, who are not quite 15 months apart. This
year I vaguely purposely/purposely scheduled activities for my middle
girl on Wednesdays (that's the dance class) and every other Friday when
the oldest is at preschool.

Karen

In article ,
chiam margalit wrote:

I'll ask this question again, since I didn't get an answer last time.
If you weren't responsible for the drop off and pickup of your kids,
if your transportation wasn't part of the formula, would you still
choose to bunch all the activities together or would you prefer to
spread them out so they're only doing one thing at a time?

I did answer on the other subthread, but I'll answer again because
I may not have answered the question you were trying to ask.

For starters, I think you, Karen G and I are all talking about
different kinds of activities, and I think the differences impact the
answers.

Karen G has preschool-age kids (and a baby) and she is talking about
activities during the "school" day.

My kids' activities (tae kwon do, soccer, music lessons) tend to be things
that are separate from school and at least around here tend to run later
in the afternoon or into the evening.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from your reference to the "late bus" on
the other subthread where you asked this, I *think* you're talking about
activities that are directly after school and located at the school, with
transportation home being available afterwards.

So, to answer the question I think you're trying to ask, if my kids were
participating in after-school activities at school that lasted two hours
or less and they had transportation home then I don't think I'd care one way
or the other whether they had their activities on the same days or not.
I'd be inclined, I think, to let them choose whichever days' activities
interested them the most (assuming I had no other objections to the
particular activities). Unless I expected to be needed/invited to watch
or participate in both activities on a regular enough basis to expect
conflicts, I can't think why I'd restrict them from doing things on the
same days, but I wouldn't prefer it as strongly as I do now either.

--Robyn (mommy to Ryan 9/93 and Matthew 6/96 and Evan 3/01)

Karen G wrote in :

On Sat, 30 Aug 2003 18:04:00 EDT, (chiam margalit)
wrote:

I'll ask this question again, since I didn't get an answer last time.
If you weren't responsible for the drop off and pickup of your kids,
if your transportation wasn't part of the formula, would you still
choose to bunch all the activities together or would you prefer to
spread them out so they're only doing one thing at a time?

I do like to schedule things at the same time. Sending my kids in
different directions at the same time gives them some constructive time
away from each other and away from the house. They miss each other
quite a bit when they do things alone at home without the other, but
that may be unique to my kids, who are not quite 15 months apart. This
year I vaguely purposely/purposely scheduled activities for my middle
girl on Wednesdays (that's the dance class) and every other Friday when
the oldest is at preschool.

My girls are the same: they miss each other when one of them is not
around and there is a 26 month gap.

The other issue I had, when I had younger kids, was that most of the
activities were to far from home to drop a child off, go home and then
collect them. So any activity for kid A, meant entertaining Kid B
and C at the same location, and usually it was not really geared up
for such entertainment. So activities invlved hassle getting there, and
hassle during it as well.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three

Rosalie B. wrote in :

But after they were in school, I did it another way. Everyone did all
the activities together. The older girls both had piano lessons
together (one and then the other), the whole family including me ice
skated together, they both went to 4H, or after school activities like
gymnastics together, the both rode horses at the same time, they both
had swim team at the same time, etc.

I've never had much luck doing things like that. For instance, with
swimming lessons, you were told which days were available, and if you
didn't take it then you were not offered another slot. You might be
able to change the day the kid had swimming lessons, but only if they
were already doing them.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three

Penny Gaines wrote:

Rosalie B. wrote in :

But after they were in school, I did it another way. Everyone did all
the activities together. The older girls both had piano lessons
together (one and then the other), the whole family including me ice
skated together, they both went to 4H, or after school activities like
gymnastics together, the both rode horses at the same time, they both
had swim team at the same time, etc.

I've never had much luck doing things like that. For instance, with
swimming lessons, you were told which days were available, and if you
didn't take it then you were not offered another slot. You might be
able to change the day the kid had swimming lessons, but only if they
were already doing them.

Yes but I'm not talking about swimming lessons but about swim team
which is a horse of a different color. Everybody practices at the
same time and they are just (or ours were) divided into different
groups based on speed rather than age.

In the first team I had anything to do with, it was a summer team, and
all you had to be able to do to be on the team was swim 25 yards.
There were swim classes at the pool all summer (I taught some of them)
but they were between 9 and 12 each day and they had beginner classes
at each session IIRC. Swim team practice was in the evening.

The second team had a 'fast team' for which to qualify you had to be
able to swim a 200 freestyle in less than 3 minutes. I ended up
coaching the 'slow team'.

When I was the head coach, I put them into different lanes according
to speed depending on who was there for the practice. I sometimes had
someone to assist who would do stroke instruction for the really
beginning swimmers who could just barely do the length of the pool in
one lane (the one along the side of the pool). I could comfortably
handle 40 or 50 swimmers that way.

Addressing other sports - my two oldest were VERY close in size and
the 2nd one was very competitive so I never had the least trouble
putting them into the same slots for most sports.


grandma Rosalie