All our boys (5, 3, 3) have swimming on a Saturday morning. Our eldest (who is in school) had a term of extra-curricular football, and we were going to give him Judo lessons but the timing didn't end up working appropriately.

I think it really depends on the child's nature and their age - I remember being somewhat over-committed when I was a teenager, but not a lot before then. I think it's worth offering whatever activities you can, but not pushing too hard.

We did quite a lot of "music and movement" type activities when the boys were younger, but that's fallen by the wayside for the moment... although Tom (the eldest) was in the kids' Christmas musical for church last year. I wouldn't be surprised if all of them enjoy drama and music as they get a bit older, although probably in different ways.

I'm the oldest of twelve children ranging in age from 3 to 24 years. Our gaps are 11 months to about 4 years.

Because there are so many of us, my parents limited most of us to 2 major activities. Almost all of my brothers are on the swim team over the summer and boy scouts year-round. My sisters and I were girl scouts and took piano lessons, but I'm the only one who stuck with piano for very long. One of my sisters wanted to take drama lessons, so Mom made her give up piano at that point. In high school and college, I pretty much managed my own activities, so I could over-commit all I wanted provided that I took care of the details.

I'm pretty happy with how my parents handled activities, and I intend to take a similar approach.

Emi makes a very good point about leaving time for children to daydream and relax. I spent much of my childhood reading books quite happily or playing make-believe in the backyard, and I wouldn't trade that for ballet or karate or art lessons.

So, I would keep kids at 2 activities (maybe 3 if they don't overlap much) until the child can take responsibility for them on their own.

Edit: How to make productive use of free time

I would recommend enforcing rules about how much time can be spent in front of the TV, video game console, or computer. The idea of holding on to free time is to let the child imagine and play. I think children need a certain amount of time to let their brains work in more creative ways. Small activities with loose rules might be a good way to go. For example, "Paint a picture of an alien!" Very basic guidelines give them somewhere to go but open it up for them to get very creative.

I'm beginning to worry myself about the number of activities my kids are involved in my 6 year old does piano, swimming, ballet and has taken up drama and in September guitar lessons. She is very active and wants to do everything but we have had to drop violin and French classes as those were offered in her old school but not in her new school Must say though that at the end of the week I am extremely tired and wonder how she copes my guilt is also not helped by people around me as they seem to always pity the kids as if I am punishing them,but honestly I see them being grateful in the future my 3year old also does ballet and starting string time at the junior Trinity in September . She's already showing interest in the other activities her Big sis is doing and hopefully my 1year old son will start music session at one of the music school as well

My seven year old does piano, swimming, gymnastics, choir, violin, Brownies and ballet.
My five year old does piano, swimming, musical theatre and ballet.
My two year old doesn't have a curriculum, so I don't suppose he counts.

They are busy, and I would like them to have more free time sometimes, on the other hand, I think all the things they do are worthwhile in various ways. We have got to the point now where I won't let them take on anything new without dropping something else.

As Jon Skeet says, they don't always use their free time in ways which I would like - the school holidays, when everything else stops can be filled with squabbling if I don't think creatively enough to keep them busy or apart.

I'm a sibling of three and my sister and brother both have extra curricular activities: boxing and the gym. I have just came across the idea of doing an extra curricular activity. I'm 13 and have always been interested in modeling and dressing up so I was thinking about doing that, but I'm not sure of what other things that I could do.