Love the way this thread is going. I know I responded as a teacher, but as a parent, i pretty much agree with what irulan said.. my kids were allowed to do one extra curricular activity plus go to religious school (twice a week, then three times a week before their Bar Mitzvah). They tried baseball, soccer, art lessons, archery, skiing, running, etc. My older son started taking music lessons in 5th grade and kept at it until he graduated. He actually took lessons for 2 instruments. But, what they remember is that they played in the woods. The built forts. They jumped off the back deck into the snow... Thye went to an Audubon camp for 4 years where they slept in a tent for 6 weeks and did water sports and environmental activities. There was no TV in the bedroom, but they did use the family computer a lot. No Disney here. I think it's the evil empire! In fact, they only went to amusement parks on school trips. When they got to high school, they did whatever activities they wanted, as long as they could get there. My older son was in the band, edited the creative writing magazine, and was a class officer. The younger one was in a community service club and a religious fraternity, but spent most of high school racing his bike. Oh yes, they complained that we never went to theme parks or took them out of school for vacations, but they survived and are decent adults....