Are our kids too busy?

My wife and I have been having an ongoing discussion about dance and gymnastics. Our oldest girl is ten, and a very fine dancer. She seems to have a natural talent for it. Our youngest is six, and has a talent for gymnastics. They both are involved in each, but the ten year old has been invited to participate in a competitive dance group, and the six year old has been invited to participate in a competitive gymnastics team.

The problem is this: each of these groups require a tremendous amount of time. We declined to put our six year old in competitive gymnastics because it would require between seven and twelve hours of gym time each week. For a kid in kindergarten! Likewise, dance became an issue this week as our ten year old was invited to a more advanced dance company. This requires at least five to six hours per week. We negotiated with the school, and she will be going for one hour per week during the summer. We decided that she needs time to play with other children in the neighborhood - you know, time to be a kid.

Dance and gymnastics have been great for the girls. They enjoy the activities, the recitals, the exercise. But sometimes a kid needs unstructured, undirected, random chaos... I mean, fun; the type that can only be provided by fifteen or twenty screaming kids of varying ages.

Perhaps coincidentally, the very morning we are dealing with this, I read an article in National Review about the same topic. We are fortunate in our neighborhood. Seldom are the children here indoors (except when studying).