Parents What other activities do your children participate in?

[jcs]

Other than gym, what else do they do? Dance, sports, etc? How much time is "scheduled"? I want to make sure we have a good balance of activities so DD gets to experience different things, but don't want to be running all over and all of us be exhausted.

 

[cher062]

My DD does Girl Scouts, Ventur Scouts (Boy scout co-ed program), Piano and time with friends for fun activities, at school she was part of the chorus and the school play. In the summer she will do various things during the day. with paractice at night. She will be at archery day camp at the local school for a week, she will be going to gym camp for a week and to Boy Scout Camp for a week of all type of activites. If money permits she will do Karate classes in the day during the off seasons.

 

[mom2mini]

I will say first: we have 4 kids and my gymnast is the youngest so that plays into the picture. My oldest DS (marching band & soccer), 2nd DS (baseball, football), 3rd DD (volleyball, softball, Girl Scouts) and finally my youngest DD (gymnastics, Girl Scouts). Now, if we had fewer children she may be able to participate in more activities but that is the reality of a busy family. She is young and really likes have time to just play w/ her friends in the neighborhood.

P.S. does Black Ops count as an activity??? My oldest DS spends a lot of time playing. LOL

 

[emorymom]

Swimming and dance mostly. They do other things but they are home schooled.

 

[jen1957]

My DD does gymnastics and Girl Scouts. She played soccer until last fall when she decided she wanted to quit after 3 years. She tried a ballet/tap/acro class for a little while when she was younger, but she only liked the acro part of it. She's 8 now and switched from rec classes to preteam (level 3) back in January. My husband and I have always encouraged her to try different things, but she has found what she loves and isn't interested in doing anything else.

 

[AlexsGymmyMom]

Alex also does girl scouts. She is going into middle school this fall and wants to add Cheerleading, Drama, and Afterschool Choir on top of her already crazy gym schedule! YIKES! Hopefully there will be no conflicts and she will still have time for homework!! My youngest DS (7) just started gym this and he goes on a different day than my DD. My oldest DS (20) is in musical theater and is going to audition for American Idol next week!! (they are having auditions here is St Louis). Wish him luck!!!

 

[jcs]

Alex also does girl scouts. She is going into middle school this fall and wants to add Cheerleading, Drama, and Afterschool Choir on top of her already crazy gym schedule! YIKES! Hopefully there will be no conflicts and she will still have time for homework!! My youngest DS (7) just started gym this and he goes on a different day than my DD. My oldest DS (20) is in musical theater and is going to audition for American Idol next week!! (they are having auditions here is St Louis). Wish him luck!!!

Good luck to your son! Hope he makes it to Hollywood

 

[MyBoysFlip]

My little guy wrestles, plays piano, and stands on the baseball field looking bored out of his mind!! He doesn"t understand why there has to be so much waiting around. He actually got to do a forward roll running to home plate last night after he tripped; just rolled, got up, and kept running - even beat out the kid chasing him with the ball. Talk about a dirty, muddy uniform to clean!

 

[MdGymMom01]

My dd does ballet (3 days a week) in addition to gymnastics. Luckily the dance studio is about 4 minutes down the road. She participates in the two shows a year that they do and she LOVES it (almost more than gymnastics but she doesn't want to give up either yet). She still has time during the week to do homework, chill out and veg and hang with school friends.

My ds loves video games and Legos. He isn't too into sports but LOVES running around the yard with a stick doing boy things .

 

[Dezi]

During the school year we do gymnastics only and church activities. My dd likes her down time to play(she is only 8) and she likes on non-gym days coming home and goofing off. In the summer she takes dance. I think it is good to know what works for your child, mine would not be happy going to an activity every day during school but other children thrive on it. Also mine is not interested in anything but gymnastics she tried other sports before gym but her whole life is gym

 

[clrmom]

My dd used to do girl scouts but quit back in October. She also did a play this year at our local community theater (after she quit girl scouts) and did the chorus at school (which is just twice a week before school). She is planning on doing basketball in the fall although that isn't official yet. She likes being busy. Our rule has typically been two activities during the school year at a time (dd is our youngest).

 

[NGL780309]

My DD just does dance 1 day a week in addition to 3 days of gymnastics. Man, I'm tired reading some of those schedules. I honestly don't think DD would have time for anything else. She has also done tball and figure skating, but quit both. I sometimes dream of her quitting gymnastics so she could do lots of things, but if she's happy, I'm happy.

How do some of you have time for your kids to do all those things? She goes straight to gym and gets out at 8:30pm. It doesn't leave time for anything else on gym days.

 

[lhmom]

DD played soccer this past spring (AYSO, low key, one practice a week, one game a week). She also plays chess in her school's chess club during the school year. Since she missed playing basketball this past winter, she'll go to a weeklong b-ball day camp next month. She just told me that she wants to do dance in the fall. Have not committed to that yet, LOL.

 

[my4buffaloes]

My dd is 10 and does gym 12 hours a week. Factor in drive time and it is 15 hours devoted to gym on top of school. She doesn't really do much else, it always conflicts with gym. We try to fit in other things periodically as she expresses an interest, but we rarely can. We always offer the option of stopping or cutting back gym so that she can do other things, but she always chooses gymnastics. She did win a summer camp scholarship this year and took a theater camp already and will do a dance camp next week. She is missing some gym to do these, but I wasn't going to say no. Her teacher recommended her and it was a really big deal, so I couldn't say no. We will see if trying these things changes any of her desires or not.

Plus we have 4 kids, so they are all fairly limited in what they can do just because of the logistics of getting everyone everywhere. She takes swimming and violin at school, so I don't feel that she is deprived in her options.

 

[vagymmomma]

DD's non-gymnastics activities are mostly school related. She's in band and she's done Girls on the Run the last 2 years (I really recommend the GOTR program). She also takes an extra hour-long tumbling class to practice higher level skills (layout, full, etc.). It's hard to stay on top of homework with the gym schedule. I'm amazed at what some girls (and parents) able to balance.

 

[thefellowsmom]

During the school year we just do gym and piano and we try to participate in special school nights and such. I also teach her piano and we work at her pace so some weeks we make lots of progress and some little. With homework, I can't imagine doing any more than that.

In the summer we do a lot of swimming and a couple day camps here or there.

We have done many things in the hope of exposing her to other things - soccer, t-ball, basketball, dance etc. But she always just asks when she can go back to the gym so for now we are going with that.

My kids are young and so I know that I have a lot to learn and that this opinion might change in the future, but my general opinion is one sport/active activity and one creative outlet. With school and friends and such I just think this is enough, especially if the sport is gymnastics.

 

[exgymnastmomx3]

How do some of you have time for your kids to do all those things? She goes straight to gym and gets out at 8:30pm. It doesn't leave time for anything else on gym days

I was wondering the same thing! Since level 5 (which is first level my girls competed) they had gym 4 days a week for 3 hours. School out at around 3, drive to gym. Gym starts between 4 and 5 and ends between 7 or 8. Drive home, shower, eat, homework, etc. One day off to chill. Meets on week-ends during meet season. Schedule only gets crazier-more and more days. Level 7 and up 5 days X 4 hours. I hear of people doing other things, but I just don't get it. I have 4 kids and just with 2 gymnasts (down from 3) 1 dancer and a runner, that's more than enough for us.

 

[sportsmom22]

My youngest dd is 9 and does gymnastics, musical theater, hip hop (off for the summer) and destination imagination--an after school, but school related competition that involves problem solving, team work, and creativity. Her team actually made it to the global competition this year. She will be in the school choir in the fall, but they meet before school. My oldest dd is involved in softball (she played on 2 teams this spring), volleyball--she just made the school team , and basketball. She also does DI, during the school year and is in the band. They are also both involved in our church activities. My mom lives near by and she helps me with driving the girls to their activities. The little one likes down time, but the oldest is constantly on the go.

 

[gym_mom]

My dd does Girl Scouts and will be starting violin this fall. She used to do ballet, but once she got to be in the Nutcracker, she didn't want to do it anymore. Thank goodness, because she was getting to the age when gymnastics and ballet were starting to become intense and I don't think she would have been able to fully do both.

She doesn't play any other sports, but she did want to join a x-country club at her school. There was a conflict (practices were on gym days) but the woman who ran the club said that my dd could join a club at another school where there was no conflict. She really wanted to do it, but her dad and I finally said no because it would mean she was getting all the family resources devoted to shuttling her around every single weekday (she already gets 3/5 days due to gym).

I feel so very conflicted. On the one hand, I want to support my dd in all that she aspires to - whether it's gymnastics, or x-country club, or both - but on the other hand, I want to make sure she's not overdoing it and I want to make sure I have time enough to support her sister. Her sister doesn't play any sports, and the only activity she had was computer club at school, but she had to quit because dd's gym schedule changed and I couldn't be two places at once. It's really not fair, but I don't know how else to manage it.

Sorry, that got off on a little rant there.

 

[Granny Smith]

All my dd does now is gymnastics. When she was younger and in the lower levels she did do a lot of other things besides gymnastics. She was on a travel soccer team through her L7 competition season, then was told by the gym coach that she had to choose, either soccer or gym. Prior to L7, dd was involved in brownies (wasn't really her interest.) She was involved in dance and also did horseback riding. I tried to expose her to as much as I could, so when she was older I'd never hear that "my parents didn't let me do anything!!!"