If he's in after care at school or going to a wildlife or farm camp during the summer, he's running around outdoors, exploring, doing creative play and having deep, face-to-face conversations with other kids--the kinds of activities that were the default mode for kids two decades ago.
So, I often feel like his "scheduled" time is some of his best unstructured time. Like I am now paying for him to have the "boring" but incredibly important experiences that used to come for free.
This is true for my DS as well. DS17 is busy all summer but a whole month of that "busy" is wilderness camp, with no electronics, no homework. He gets to hang with his friends, in nature and relax.
Problem with their unstructured time being camp with other kids. Is I think kids do need some time to themselves, particularly introverted ones. And think it's healthy for kids to be bored and learn to work through how to solve that themselves.
