Overscheduled kids ~ where do we draw the line?

Do you ever wonder how many activities are "too many" for your child? As a society, our kids are more overscheduled than ever. Between soccer practice, gymnastics, church events and play dates, do they really have time to just enjoy being a kid? As a teacher, I see the effects every day in school of kids who are shuffled from one activity to the next during school nights, yet can't seem to get their homework done or keep their eyes open during class. Or maybe they are boucing off the walls from lack of sleep. Regardless of how it manifests itself, being overscheduled has been shown to create havoc on on children's ability to learn, concentrate, and maintin a healthy and balanced mind and body. What happened to just playing in the backyard and enjoying some downtime with neighborhood friends friends and family? In our haste and desire to give our children all the opportunities to try new things, are we overstimulating them to the point of fatigue?? (Which is highly correlated to ADD and ADHD, both which have risen sharply in the last decade.) You decide... I have found several interesting articles showing the detrimental effects of overschuled, busy kids. They also cite several examples each to support the theory that fewer activites and more downtime may actually stimulate higher order thinking skills while encouraging natural creativity. The first article is from an educational point of view. The second link is one posted from momsblog.com from a moms point of view. The third one I simply found interesting. Just food for thought... http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr237.shtml http://themomblog.ocregister.com/2010/10/05/are-your-kids-in-too-many-activities/67948/ http://hubpages.com/hub/How-much-is-too-much-activity-for-children