How do you balance all the various activities?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We already have had conflicts with soccer and baseball for our 4.5yr old! We told the kids they can each have 1 sport each season. The older kid can have a sport + cub scouts.

Swim lessons are between sports seasons and I schedule private lessons so they can go the same day.

Even with those limitations, I rely on my parents to cover 1 day a week.

Seriously...choose sports with consistent schedules. It is life changing.

I get it, but when the kids love one of the sports with an inconsistent schedule, are we supposed to tell them it’s dance or nothing?

Dance, swim, gymnastics, figure skating, karate, music lessons, really any non- field, or court sport. Kids only know what you tell/show them, so show them activities that make family life easier. You drop the skin cancer risk significantly too.

LOL, they only know what you show/tell them in early elementary. That stage doesn’t exactly last forever.

[Anonymous]

Car pools + grandparents

(Two kids in stuff 5-6 days a week depending on the time of year)

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We already have had conflicts with soccer and baseball for our 4.5yr old! We told the kids they can each have 1 sport each season. The older kid can have a sport + cub scouts.

Swim lessons are between sports seasons and I schedule private lessons so they can go the same day.

Even with those limitations, I rely on my parents to cover 1 day a week.

Seriously...choose sports with consistent schedules. It is life changing.

I get it, but when the kids love one of the sports with an inconsistent schedule, are we supposed to tell them it’s dance or nothing?

Dance, swim, gymnastics, figure skating, karate, music lessons, really any non- field, or court sport. Kids only know what you tell/show them, so show them activities that make family life easier. You drop the skin cancer risk significantly too.

LOL, they only know what you show/tell them in early elementary. That stage doesn’t exactly last forever.

Mine are teen/tween. They know what we tell them regarding activities. It's not like they can sign up and pay for themselves. You set the limits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dance dance dance and dance. Did I mention how much I love dance for scheduling ease? I can count on classes being roughly the same day and time for years. No weather issues except for the rare ice storm. No rescheduled games. No sitting in a gnat infested field. I can go pick up groceries or get something done. I don't have to sit there just in case of a storm or something. Dance is my favorite. Swim is almost as good for the same reasons. Swim loses points for summer swim meet weather issues.

I can schedule with ease when the activity is consistent. Soccer and baseball are the worst for this stuff.

Music lessons are good schedule wise but not exercise based.

Ugh. Did one year of dance at ages 4/6 with my girls and that was more than an enough. Dance “competitions” are only one step removed from there children’s pageant circuit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dance dance dance and dance. Did I mention how much I love dance for scheduling ease? I can count on classes being roughly the same day and time for years. No weather issues except for the rare ice storm. No rescheduled games. No sitting in a gnat infested field. I can go pick up groceries or get something done. I don't have to sit there just in case of a storm or something. Dance is my favorite. Swim is almost as good for the same reasons. Swim loses points for summer swim meet weather issues.

I can schedule with ease when the activity is consistent. Soccer and baseball are the worst for this stuff.

Music lessons are good schedule wise but not exercise based.

Ugh. Did one year of dance at ages 4/6 with my girls and that was more than an enough. Dance “competitions” are only one step removed from there children’s pageant circuit.

Why go to a competition studio? There are so many non-competitive studios around. I agree that competition schools are gross and do not offer the scheduling ease that is being discussed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Following. My DS wants to focus on basketball but he is a great soccer player too. But a kid cannot do 2 travel/select sports in the same season without having to skip games or practices, and yes travel coaches expect your loyalty to that sport, mandatory practices. And many sports are becoming almost year round (certainly basketball).

Can you recommend a year round basketball program in NOVA please? preferably close to 22043. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

I have a sporty kid. We let him play travel for his favorite sport (baseball) and then he play rec league basketball and does school running club in the fall. So he plays three sports technically, but only one of them "seriously" and that one has an off season. I think we'd have a problem if my son wanted to do baseball and lacrosse, or baseball and Ultimate or something. One thing at a time.

DS is now going into high school and we have to figure it out again, since if he wants to play basketball and baseball in high school he is going to have to figure out because both have preseason work. But he's old enough now that he'll have to figure it out, and we'll just drive him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Following. My DS wants to focus on basketball but he is a great soccer player too. But a kid cannot do 2 travel/select sports in the same season without having to skip games or practices, and yes travel coaches expect your loyalty to that sport, mandatory practices. And many sports are becoming almost year round (certainly basketball).

Can you recommend a year round basketball program in NOVA please? preferably close to 22043. Thank you.

There are a few pay-to-play type AAU/travel training programs in NoVA (i.e. sign annual contract, pay monthly, train with paid coaches, etc.) but I'm not familiar with them and they can be scams (your kid may end up as a bench or practice player). Best to get your DC onto a Fairfax (FCYBL) travel team for your zip code and hopefully members from that team stick together in off season to play tournaments.

Some larger, well known NoVA AAU teams (Fairfax Stars, NoVA94) practice and participate in leagues or tournaments year round but others do not, or only in older age groups.

Or, if your DC is really into basketball like mine is, you will find a team in DC or PG county and schlep across the bridge for twice weekly practices (what we do).

Google to find the local basketball tournaments and leagues and then identify teams playing in those leagues. Try to track down contacts (twitter, Instagram, FaceBook, or a website if you're lucky). Contact coaches. Many year round leagues host Fall tryouts for open spots but traditionally the NoVA AAU tryouts happen late winter-early spring. But, you can always contact coaches to express interest.