Once Janet and her family have assessed the amount of time needed for schoolwork and other commitments, it's time to lay the activities out on the table. Janet's family begins with the activities she finds most rewarding. As you move through this process with your child, write the chosen activities down on a piece of paper and ask your child to number them by importance, number one being most important and number four the least. Then label each activity with approximate commitment times. For example, if Janet chooses dance as her most rewarding choice, she will need to label the amount of time that this activity will require.
Most activities provide a schedule for the duration of the season.
If you don't have one, ask the instructor or coach. Let's say that dance requires two practices per week after school at one hour each and a recital every other Saturday for one hour. For each one hour session she will need to arrive 15 minutes early for warm ups and it takes 15 minutes to get there and 15 minutes to get home. So each one hour session is in reality up to two hours of committed time. Don't get too detailed, keep it fairly simple and round up instead of down on your times.