Parents Do your kids miss school for gymnastics?

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sevenhudsons

Hi everyone,

Do any of your gymmies attend school on a modified schedule (allowed to come late, leave early, or both) so they can make their practice commitments? We're looking at that for DD next year - she'll be going into 6th grade, doing 2-a-days, and hopefully L8 by then. There's no way she can attend a 6 or 7-hour school day. My husband and I have a lot of questions, and we'd appreciate the chance to talk to other parents who've done this.

Also, how many school days do your kids miss each year because of travel and competitions? We may be looking at quite a few of those.

Thanks in advance, and thanks to those who responded when I asked about this in my Introduction!

Alex (mom of DS1 swimmer, DS2 wrestler, DD1 gymnast, DD2 equestrian, DS3 hasn't found a sport yet)
 
My dd is only going into level 6 so she only has 1 practice per day. In Level 5 she had 3 school day practices that started at 4:00. So, I would take her out of school at about 3:00, which is only 1/2 hour early. So, it was no biggy. Next school year she'll be in a different school for 3rd grade. She'll be getting out earlier and bussed to our daycare where I can pick her up and get her to practice on time.

Even at her level she's had to miss at least one school day a year. I'm sure that will change as she moves up. As long as her work was done and she made up anything she missed they were fine with it.

I think you just need to make sure that your school is okay with it. Do they have any kind of policy? Sixth grade is tough from what I hear. If she's a good student, which most gymnasts seem to be, then I'm sure she won't have a problem. But, the school might have to have your request cleared by the school district.

Good luck!
 
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DD has had to miss days either for travel or because the meet had Friday sessions and our school district is very strict about unexcused absence. However they have what is called an ALE (Alternative Learning Experience) and meets qualify so these days are excused. Also, in years where she has study hall last period she can be excused early for practice.

It sounds like you might need to look at home schooling to give your dd time to practice.
 
I have been known to pull dd for private practices and such. I have to say I don't have problems with DD missing a day or so for a meet and such. I am very flexiable with the kids attendance with school. As long as their grades are solid they get those extra's. At least once a 9 weeks they get a mental health day or get to go in late if they have had a late night with a sport.
 
My dd is L7 and she goes to gym after school. There have been a couple of meets that she's had to miss school for but not many.
 
I try to keep DD's school absences to a BARE MINIMUM. It definitely makes a difference depending on what grade you're talking about. I didn't mind her missing when she was in elementary school or even 6th grade. She's now finishing up 8th grade which includes 2 high school courses. Next year I'll find it more difficult to justify pulling her out early or missing a day due to gymnastics. Education HAS to come first . . .
 
My girls practice from 5:30- to 8:30 pm, so it's not an issue having to leave school early. If that were the case, we would have looked for another gym. I really don't know of any gyms in our area that start before 4 or 4:30. My oldest DD is in 6th grade this yr and competed Level 8. She has only had to miss a half day per year so far. Next year, we are already looking at a meet involving a Friday, and a travel meet where she will miss Thurs-Fri. My little one is going into 4th grade and will be Level 6. She had to miss one half day in the past 3 years. They both have excellent attendance records so missing a handful of days is not an issue for us.
 
In our case, DD is currently finishing grade 6 and has been missing one afternoon/week for training for the past 2 years and will continue to do so next year. It hasn't been much of a problem to this point (though her current school doesn't seem to be as accomodating as the junior public was in Gr 5).

She could attend the "sport academy" program which exists for this purpose within our school board but has stated she'd quit gym before changing schools...
 
My DD was in middle school this year(8th grade) & she's L7. She HATES to miss school for any reason. She prefers to attend her classes, rather then miss the teacher actually teaching new info. For 2 meets I did take her out of school a little early(she even hated doing that!). She skipped the far away travel meet b/c it was right around mid-term exams. Her practices are all in the evenings 1x per night. School is our #1 priority & her gym coach is fine with that. She did manage it all surprisingly well! Just got her final report card...all A's ( honors classes). She was also state vault & floor champ & she ran track for school(during gymnastics season). Gymmies are amazing people!!! You'll be surprised what your DD can accomplish! But if your DD will have 2 practices/day(I think that's what you said), I think you will need to check out other schooling options. 1st talk to your school & see what they could work out for you. But you may need to look into home schooling/on-line schooling. Good luck to her!
 
My dd starting leaving at lunch one day a week in Grade 2, and in Grade 4 starting leaving early two days a week - she is going into Grade 6 next year and will still leave at lunch two days a week. She has always kept up her grades (B+ average) and it has never been a problem with her teachers.

When she enters Grade 8 (high school) she will go to a gymnastics academy that will allow her to go to school til 1pm each day and then train for 4 hours.
 
Beth doesn't need to miss practice. She's also going into 6th grade in the fall and is a level 8 now, but school ends at 2:30 and practice runs 4-8 most days. Even our level 10s don't practice longer than 4.5 hrs a day (just more days a week).

She does miss school for meets though! We typically have 2 travel meets a year and misses anywhere from 1-5 days of school for each meet.
 
Dd doesn't miss school for practice. School ends at 3pm, practice is 3:30-7:30pm. (GMM, we start a little before 4, but there is also a group that starts at 4:30, but the higher levels come early and get out early for homework reasons and such. Only mention because we are the same State. ;))

She has missed days for meets though, this past season I think she missed 2 days and went into school late one morning because we came home the night before from a travel meet, so I let her sleep in and miss her P.E. class (not that she doesn't have her share of P.E. outside of school.)

She competed level 8 and she is just finishing 7th grade - honor roll, the same as many PPs have said about their dd's too.
 
Hi everyone,

Do any of your gymmies attend school on a modified schedule (allowed to come late, leave early, or both) so they can make their practice commitments? We're looking at that for DD next year - she'll be going into 6th grade, doing 2-a-days, and hopefully L8 by then. There's no way she can attend a 6 or 7-hour school day. My husband and I have a lot of questions, and we'd appreciate the chance to talk to other parents who've done this.

Also, how many school days do your kids miss each year because of travel and competitions? We may be looking at quite a few of those.

Thanks in advance, and thanks to those who responded when I asked about this in my Introduction!

Alex (mom of DS1 swimmer, DS2 wrestler, DD1 gymnast, DD2 equestrian, DS3 hasn't found a sport yet)

My DD gets on the School bus at 8am and arrives home at 3:30 pm. We leave as soon as she gets off the bus so she can make practice which is either at 4 - 8 pm or 4:30 - 8:30pm depending on the day x3 a week and on Saturdays from 12:00 - 4pm (unless there is a meet or gym function going on like the rec class recitals)

she has learned to do home work in school any time there is free time at the lunch periods - we talked to her teachers on this so if there is 5 or 10 min at the end of any subject she is allowed to work on homework. She also does home work on the bus ride home - she gets on the bus at 2:40 and doesn't get off until 3:30 (its only 7 miles away but we are one of the last stops) If she still has homework when she gets home which isn't too often then she brings it with her to gym and works on it during break time. She is a straight A High Honors Student.

The only time I take her out of school early for gym is if she has a private lesson which usually starts at 3:00pm but that might only be 5 or 6 times in a school year.

I don't take out early for meets as our meets are always on a Sat or Sunday and if we leave after school on Friday we usually can get to where we are going in plenty of time. Hubby does take off from work early on those days if he is coming with us (he gets 35 days vacation time he has to use or loose each year - yes thats' 7 weeks.)

For us we have made it very clear to the gym School stuff comes before any other activity even Gym. Education for us is the most important thing our kids do. So for example when she was a L4 they start at 3:30 well she wasn't even off the bus at that time so we always arrived at 4:00pm and told the gym sorry but this will be the earliest she will be there. Several other kids had the same issue so now no team practices start before 4:00 unless its a pre-team class with nothing but kids ages 3 - 5 in them (yes that is how old they are in the 3 leves of our pre team - some are older but by 7yo the are on L4).

If I had to be at a practice during school hours I would most likely find another gym with hours that met our families schedule better or if I felt brave- home school if I really had to be at that gym.
 
I don't belieive I have ever missed school for gym. My parents are both teachers so education comes before sports. I don't think many people at our gym ever miss school for practice. I know a few people's parents will bring them to an open gym just before state or something, but not usually.
 
Dd doesn't miss school for practice. School ends at 3pm, practice is 3:30-7:30pm. (GMM, we start a little before 4, but there is also a group that starts at 4:30, but the higher levels come early and get out early for homework reasons and such. Only mention because we are the same State. ;))

I meant the ones in the north :D but your schedule would work much better for me, I'd love to be able to get my girls home earlier for dinner, HW and bed at a more reasonable hour! Luckily they can sleep till 7-7:30 am and still be at school on time.
 
Wow, dd gets up at 6:30 and leaves for school at around 7-7:10am. School starts at 8, but ds goes to the public school which starts the same time as her's and he catches the bus (ds is too young to stay home by himself). Dd does not have a school bus (school is in a different town) so my brother usually picks her up and takes her and her cousin to the before school program. That was very long winded! :rolleyes:

Today was her last day. She was supposed to be done at 10:30, but called me from home at 9:30. They had 8:45 Mass and I guess if your ride was there you could leave afterwards. She called to tell me she got straight "As" again. I'm so proud of her! :D

I meant the ones in the north :D but your schedule would work much better for me, I'd love to be able to get my girls home earlier for dinner, HW and bed at a more reasonable hour! Luckily they can sleep till 7-7:30 am and still be at school on time.
 
Today was her last day. She was supposed to be done at 10:30, but called me from home at 9:30. They had 8:45 Mass and I guess if your ride was there you could leave afterwards. She called to tell me she got straight "As" again. I'm so proud of her! :D

Congrats on your K's straight A's! Both of my girls get straight A's, I swear it's all the gymnastics discipline! My K has her honors assembly on Monday (last day Tuesday). Little Monkey had hers today and she was only one of seven kids in the entire 3rd grade (110-120) kids who made first honors!! I was shocked by the small percentage!

Our schools start at 8:20am but this yr Little Monkey volunteered to be a door monitor so she had to be there for 7:50am. I've already told her that there will be no more of that next year! My K does not get the bus for middle school, even though the building is on the same block as the twins' elementary school, where they could be bussed! So i drive everyone and go to work afterwards. They get out at 2:40 which is great, because it gives them 2.5 hrs of HW time till practice!
 
I was kind of surprised when my daughter got her report card how many days she missed a total of 10. Only 2 were related to gymnastics 1 after her State meet she actually was sick and the other was after the meet our gym ran(we were there all weekend and daughter was just to exhausted to go the next day). Most of the other times she was actually sick. Some of the older girls missed a day here or there for traveling and competing at meets. Her gym has rules that nobody can stay home from school the day after a meet and if you miss school for illness you stay home from gym that day. I do not think anybody listens to these rules I know my daughter has broken both of them. My daughter did well on her report card but when she brought it in to show her coaches I said hide the attendence I was embarrassed by how many days of school she missed. I think it probally is alright to miss a day here or there for meets but I would not agree to miss for privates or classes.
 
I would not agree to miss for privates or classes.

DD only misses the last 10 or 15 min of the day for her privates which is back in home room for announcements and getting ready to go home anyway. I don't have any issue with that short of time for a private. Unfortunatly she usually needs a private for her floor tumbling and the only time they do those is from 3 - 4pm when there are no classes in the gym so they have the whole floor to themselves.
 
My gymmie's school day ends at 2:50 and then either dh or I pick her up and she heads off to practice. They do have 2 start times for practice--3:30 or 4:00 so it does accommodate different release times for schools. The girls coming in at 3:30, do their conditioning from 3:30 to 4 and then are done at 7:30.

Gymmie like many others on here does homework when there is "down time" in a class or when she gets home. She learned very quickly to work ahead when she doesn't have much homework or on weekends. This past year she did miss several Fridays for travel to out of state meets and she ended up cometing at 2 Friday afternoon sessions for some in state invitationals.

Like many on here, she is an overachiever in school---straight As in 6/7th grade, so principal's honor role each quarter, National Jr. Honor Society, has completed 1 yr. of high school math(Algebra l) and will take high school geometry in 8th grade and was 2nd chair flute in 1 of the 2 7th grade bands(it is a class). Her middle school has an incredible music program and has so many kids in band they have 2 bands for 7th and 8th grade.

Education is 1st and foremost with us. I don't mind her missing an occasional Friday for a meet and so far most teachers understand, but being pulled out on a regular basis for practice is not a plan.
 

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