Are we overscheduling our kids?

I went to Spencer's parent teacher conference today. While we were talking, it came up that she leaves her classroom open during lunchtime for kids to work on homework and projects. She eats lunch in there and helps the kids that need help. She mentioned that she does this because parents these days micromanage every aspect of their kids lives which doesn't often leave room for the kid to even choose to do the work they are assigned. The kid can have the best of intentions but by the time they get home from school (4 PM or later) if they have extracurricular activities they don't have time for homework. She says that a large majority of the kids eat lunch in the room and work on homework. Spencer often eats in there, not to do homework, but to help another kid with payroll for their class. He LOVES doing the math.

I am happy that she makes this option available but sad that in 5th grade kids are skipping lunch to get homework done. I remember doing that in high school, not elementary.

We live in a highly competitive area. It is not unusual to have your kids involved in something every day of the week. We have tried to limit Spencer's extracurricular activities to 3. He does a sport, Odyssey of the Mind, and scouts. We usually have been able to fit homework in but there are mornings where he is doing it before school. Thank goodness Spencer is an insanely early riser and has a good three hours before school even starts. Spencer has not even had a very heavy workload when it comes to homework. I don't know what we would do if he did.

So I realize that not everyone lives in uber-competitive Fairfax county. I'm curious, is this a problem where you live?