Parents Missing school for training

[Elc0924]

My daughter is 7 1/2 yearss old, she has been doing gymnastics since she was five and was asked to join the competitive team 2 years ago. Her coach really wants her to join her national stream group next fall, which would require missing 2 afternoons a week of school. Her coach thinks she had what it takes to go far in the sport. My husband and I are really struggling with idea. We want to support this, she loves it and can't get enough, but we also don't want to downplay the importance of school. Any advice from parents about either why they did or didn't let their daughter do this. We could use some advice.

 

[2G1B]

this isn't something that we are at all facing; but if we were I'm not sure I'd do it. What does the gym propose? That you home school? Is there a private school in your area that would work with the gym? In our state, the public schools would NOT be OK with this as a regular set up. It would disrupt the entire class. How would the teacher keep your daughter up on things that they work on while your daughter is out of the class.

I guess if it were me, I'd only consider it if I were willing to home school or if there were some sort of private school that could work with the schedule.

For us, school comes first; but my kid aren't as good as it sounds like your daughter is. I'm willing to have my kids miss school occasionally for an out of town competition; but that is about it for us. If one of my kids was good enough to maybe go to the Olympics one day I would consider home schooling.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

bad idea...................

 

[KimmeeA13]

Maybe I'm naïve, but it surprises me that the gym would ask you to take your daughter out of school two afternoons a week for practice. What are they expecting you to do about her education? Like the poster above, we will take our daughter out early for the occasional out of town competition, but our gym's team practices are scheduled during after school hours. If my daughter was to progress in gymnastics to the point where she actually had a shot at the Olympics (and let's face it, statistically her chances are slim at best), then we would look at other schooling options, like home school, in order to work around her gymnastics. But right now at the age of 8, school is definitely the priority.

 

[wallinbl]

I can't see how a 7 year old is in the gym so many hours that it's not possible to schedule around school. I know of level 10's that have done well at nationals that don't miss any school for practice, and they train more hours than any 7 year old should.

Your coach should develop a better schedule.

 

[Elc0924]

She isn't in the gym so many hours, it is about being in the gym at times when the national kids don't have to constantly have to share the equipment with large groups of rec kids. I hear what everyone is saying, but she would miss roughly 3 hours a week of school total. Not ideal, but could be manageable, certainly I think grades would have to come first, but from what I've read kids in these highly competitive sports, are really good students because they learn to time manage well. This would not happen for another year. We certainly haven't made up our minds. It has been interesting reading the posts of the gymnasts that are doing this. Just interested in other people's experiences.

 

[krisnkids]

When I here stories like this I think of Shawn Johnson who attended a normal high school yet has a 'few' Olympic medals. I recently read some articles that were saying that the studies showed that the elites who don't train the excessive hours that elites from years ago trained are just as successful if not more because of the least strain on their bodies.

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[Canadiangym]

I think if your daughter has good grades missing 3 hrs a week is not going to affect her grades. My daughter at 8 missed one afternoon a week. It was never a problem with the school and her teachers, they we're very accommodating. Her grades never suffered from missing the afternoon. She's now 10 and in a special program for athletes that are training higher hours, she only goes to school for 4 hrs per day and then goes to gym. It is really nice having her home at night rather than her being at the gym most nights. You may want to see if this is an option where you live.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Well at 7 the kids around here don't do too much school work in the afternoons anyway they mainly just attend assemblies, get stories read to them, make draft things and draw pictures. The school day is set up to the major literacy and numeracy work is done in the morning when they are at their freshest. Then other academic type subjects are done in the middle of the day like science, history, geography and so on and the afternoon is the laid back time.

i think it would help to visit the teacher and get a feel for how the school would react to this, also what types of things she would be missing. It will help you come to a desicion.

 

[Gymmommy71]

Gosh, that sounds extremely unnecessary to me - can't believe they'd ask you to do that to a kid who is only 7YO? What level is she and/or what kinds of skills is she working?

It sounds to me more like they are tying to squeeze some extra bucks out of the parents who think that their kid is the next shawn johnson by running a class during a time that the gym is usually idle (because all the other kids in the world are in school!).

And even if they aren't trying to charge you extra money for it, they are still trying to shaft her class into a time slot when the equipment is essentially "free" (i.e. there is no opportunity cost for lost rec tuition when using it)...but instead you'd be paying for it w/ your DDs missed education ...something that is priceless.

Sorry if I sound harsh, but I sometimes think these overly intense gyms take advantage of parents of talented young kids (like they get them to do some pretty crazy stuff all for the sake of "the Olympic dream" ;().

If your kid is really the next Olympic gold medalist, you should be calling the shots, not them - tell them to move around or cancel a few of those lucrative rec classes so the future national team kids can train after school is over ...

 

[JessLW]

Things are a little different in Canada, are they not, where kids are chosen for a certain stream at a young age and there isn't much movement back and forth?

I think in other countries it isn't so unusual for kids to get intense about the sport at a very young age because the system is basically set up so that from the age of 7 or so you're either on the elite path or you're not. Australia is like this, correct? And the UK?

I'd hesitate to pass judgement on the gym and their motives from a USAnian gymnastics perspective. That said, OP, I'd talk to your DD's school and find out what she'd be missing and how accommodating they'd be. I'd also talk with the gym and find out what their philosophy is re: school for the long term. Chances are if they're wanting her to miss two afternoons a week at age 7, that is only going to increase as she gets older. Do they expect you to eventually homeschool? I don't think there's any point in doing it now if their expectations are unrealistic for your family in the long run.

 

[leotardmakermum]

My child is in Australia, and is an IDP gymnast (elite path). She will soon be 9. Next year because of the IDP level that she will then be at, the gym will expect her to miss school two afternoons per week. There are girls at her gym who have been doing this since they were 7, due to the fact that they reached the appropriate IDP levels at an earlier age.

I believe that my daughter will also start late on a couple of days per week because of early morning training sessions. The gym organises training in this way so that the elite girls have uninterrupted access to the equipment, rather than having to fight the national level and recreational gymnasts for time on the equipment.

I think our gym works it so that there are three early afternoon training sessions, and you choose the two that will be least disruptive to your child's schooling. They encourage the child to be at gym for early afternoon training on the afternoon that the school has sport (within school hours), if sport is timetabled that way at the school that your child attends.

This is the norm here for IDP gymnasts who reach a certain level. I've already flagged it with our school Principal that this will happen. The Principal was extremely supportive (actually she was a little star-struck!), and said that they will organise for the correct Leave of Absence provisions for her when the time comes. In the same way that children who are in the entertainment industry can get Leave of Absence, so can children doing elite sports.

So while it doesn't seem to be usual in the US, it is quite common here in Australia for gymnasts who are on the track towards the Olympics. High performance gyms often work hand in hand with partner schools, which the girls are encouraged to attend.

You just have to make the best of it that you can. I completely understand the gym's reasoning for it. Sure, I'd prefer that my daughter was in school for all the school hours, but that's not the way it works here.

The word is that girls who have represented Australia in gymnastics tend to be highly intelligent, good students, who go on to excellent university courses (requiring high marks) once they have finished school. If they were missing too much school and their school education was faltering, their continuing education at such a high level would not be possible. The fact that they are managing it seems to indicate that it is possible.

Good luck with your decision making.

 

[GymnastCentralMom]

My DD currently leaves 1 1/2 hours early one day a week. The teacher wasn't crazy about the idea initially, but since has come around, and the situation is working well. Our deal with our daughter is that she can continue to do it as long as she maintains her school work as if she weren't missing anything. In doing so, we made it clear that her first priority is school.

 

[Flossyduck]

JessLW you are right - different countries have a different set up and yes in the UK (Australia and Canada?) you are streamed for elite early. The attitude here is that you need to commit to the programme or not. Anyone who took the attitude that if you think you are the next olympian they should be working around you would be out pretty quickly.

So yes my daughter misses a session of school a week at the moment (she's 8). She is flying at school - working with children a year older than her, so I can't see that it's doing her any harm at all. She is very fit and healthy, enthusiastic, never has time off ill and has completely understood the value of hard work. The school are very supportive of her efforts and achievements and we communicate well, so if either party became concerned that the gymnastics was affecting her schooling we would take action.

The session in the gym in the daytime has a totally different atmosphere. It is so peaceful and focused and they have freedom to move around the equipment as needed for the skills they are working on. We don't pay any more for the session - all the elite track fees are the same, whether you do 15 hours or 32.

Over the next couple of years she will be expected to miss more school. There isn't a child on the elite path at our gym who doesn't. We are not a bunch of irresponsible parents, we care about our children's future as much as any other parent, and most of the seniors go on to university. So if this is set up properly and the school are on board, you are prepared to give extra support and put up with the judgemental comments and your daughter feels ok about it I can reassure you that it can work out just fine.

 

[Flossyduck]

As a post script, we have a couple of children in our school who's parents took them travelling through Africa for a year. Now they are back and there is no academic difference in their results or ability level. We also have a little girl who missed her first two years of school from illness. She is one of the most able students. Ours is a high achieving school with higher than national average results, so the bar is not set low.

There are many ways to support a child's learning...

 

[Sparky]

My dd has been missing school for training for the past 7 years - at first it was one afternoon a week, then two and now (she is in high school) she leaves school at 1:15 four days out of five. This is actually our most favorite schedule, as she is home by 7:00 at the latest every single training day. Much much better than getting home around 9pm. She has time to do schoolwork, have a social life, and still get enough sleep! She gets much more school work done when she is working on her own than when she is in a noisy, distracted classroom.

The reasons for it include those already mentioned - a quieter, more productive time to train, typically a more focused training group, and the simple fact that if a competitive coach wants to actually earn a living by working full time hours, they (and the kids) are not going to want to be at the gym til midnite trying to do that. If the first group athletes don't show up til 4, and they coach more than one group (which ours do), well, do the math.......

I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that day training has not harmed my dd scholastically in any way - IMHO, there is a whole lot of wasted time in a typical public school day.

 

[Aussie_coach]

As leotardmakermum has said, in Australia pretty much all kids on the elite track miss a lot of school for training. But what she hasn't mentioned is that those kids are usually still straight A students.

kids who reach this level of gymnastics are usually very academically able and tend to get excellent results, even if they miss a good deal of school every day. Gymnastics switches on the brain in a way that few other things do and the kids learn very easily.

 

[Fliptwisttumble]

A lot of gyms around us expect girls to miss some school for Gym. My daughter started at age 7, but it usually happens in our gym at age 8' that they miss a half day. Very few parents/kids report having problems with their schools. I isn't limited to national stream at our gym - everyone in Provincial/National levels does it to get in the hours. it usually starts when they get to 16 or higher hours.

myself and other parents agree to this on the basis that the girls get their work done, maintain good grades, etc. it makes my daughter very organized with her time, which is a side benefit.

I'd talk it over with your daughter's teacher. You may find they will work with you.

 

[srsjbs]

This has been a very interesting thread! We are part of a very small gym and the only girl that trains during daytime hours is homeschooled and she is our sole Level 8. I've often wondered that if my 6 year old DD (Level 4) continues with gymnastics and makes it into higher levels if I would have to homeschool her in order to get the amount of training in that the coach seems to want. For now all of our competitive team (L4 and up) practices 4 days a week from directly after school for 3 hours (except the level 8 who is there during the day 3 days a week as well). It's nice to hear that some schools out there are willing to work with people....

 

[cbifoja]

I could never pull this off. My daughter's principal won't even extend her an excused absence when she has to miss for an out of state competition. *sigh*