October - November 2002 Edition 

Scheduling After-School Activities   by Mrs. Ann Lustgarten, Fifth Grade Teacher at the Radburn School   Every parent wants his or her child to grow into a well-rounded human being. We want our youngsters to have an opportunity to explore a variety of skills, sports and arts. In our effort to expose our children to this we often over-program them.    It’s not unusual to hear that a student cannot complete a homework assignment because they had a religious class as well as soccer (football, baseball, track, basketball, etc.) practice. By the time this youngster comes home from all of this, they are exhausted. Even if they try to attempt their assignments, they are really too tired to do the work effectively.    We live in a community that offers our children an incredible variety of activities. There are athletics, both through our own expansive recreation department and ‘select’ teams as well. There are Boy and Girl Scout troops throughout the town. We have religious classes for many different religions. There are cultural classes in dance and language. There are music lessons, karate, Tae Kwan Do, ballet and tap. Did I leave out Kumon and other tutoring type programs?  Should you eliminate these opportunities from your child’s access? NO! NO! NO!  Keep pouring it on. Give your children every opportunity to learn and explore, to take advantage of all that our community offers, and decide which talents they possess. They should find these and run with them. But don’t OVERDO it. Encourage them to learn more about their religious and cultural background. Let them investigate. Let them savor what they see. Let them change their minds once in a while, twice in a while, three times in a while, but try to schedule them better.  Plan to have CCD on Tuesday and Thursday, and dance on Wednesday. Hebrew School on Monday and Wednesday and piano lessons on Thursday. You can do it. Doesn’t it drive you crazy all that carpooling? Kids need some downtime, too. Its not so awful to hang out with a friend, vegetate in front of the TV, or, good heavens, read a comic book.  It’s all about balance – for them and for you. They will still get into college if they haven’t mastered the trampoline or their times-table before they are four. They will still get into college if they never make the girls select basketball team. Good luck!  I’d appreciate any comments or ideas for future articles.  Just send an e- mail to me at teacher@fairlawnnews.com   Next issue: Gift Giving   See Mrs. Lustgarten's Previous Columns Back To School  (August 2002) Summer With the Kids  (June 2002) PTA/PTO Involvement  (April 2002) Telling The Teacher  (February 2002)