The start of the school year is the time when we plan what sports and other extracurricular activities our kids will participate in during the fall. The challenge is to piece together a schedule that works for the kids but is not too busy, allowing enough time for homework and other activities and does not conflict with other commitments.

There is no one best way to do this, but I'll share what we do, which works for us. We start by talking to our kids about what they'd like to do, focusing first on sports/activites they've done in the past. In our case, that includes gymnastics, golf, soccer and scouting. The result: both kids want to continue gymnastics and scouting, one wants to stay with golf and neither want to play soccer. 

After determining their interest level in those, we talk about other possibilities -- things they want to do or things we'd like them to try. The result: our daughter wants to do ballet, which we can work into our schedule.

Before finalizing our plans, we meet with the kids again to review what we've discussed, and what this would mean schedule wise. We've learned from past experience that this step is essential, as they may want to do a bunch of things, but they need to know how this translates on a day-to-day basis. 

There is still no guarantee that everything will go smoothly -- as anyone with kids knows -- but involving the kids as much as we do in the decision-making process helps ensure their buyin and makes it harder for them to complain or ask to drop an activity. 

It will be fun to see how it all works out.