If your elementary schooler or preteen’s calendar is littered with soccer practices, music lessons, or art classes (or option D, all of the above), consider now the time to start culling those appointments.
Trimming your child’s calendar can pay off down the road as he or she approaches the teen years, and chances are they’ll appreciate it immediately. Kidshealth.org polled almost 900 9- to 13-year-old boys and girls a few years ago. They found that 61 percent of those children wished they had more free time, and 39 percent were involved in three or more extracurricular activities.
Another telling stat? Four out of 10 of the children polled said they felt stressed most or all of the time because they had too much to do.
