s/o How do kids on travel teams get everything done

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread makes me so sad for kids these days. No wonder suicide is the third leading cause of death in middle school kids. So much pressure.

My goodness, there is a lot of sadness on this thread! Curious about whether you have any personal experience with a child in travel sports? You seem to be imagining that it's some form of torture or drudgery for the child. Is that right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work 7:30-4. My H does morning routine, drive to school 30 minutes. I work 15 minutes from their school.

My kids get out of school at 3, they chill until 3:30.

3:30-4:15ish: Homework in a classroom or library.
4:30: Pickup
5:00: arrive at practice location, we eat... picnic type food, fruit, salad, sub, yogurt, etcetc
5:30-7: practice
7:30-8: home eat dinner
8:00:

Homework is done: 30 minute drive in morning, 1 hour after class, 30 minute drive to practice, 30 minute drive home from practice, 30 minutes before practice, 8-10pm at night

That is 5 possible hours that my child could do homework. Normally he uses the 1 hour after school, either 30 minute drive to practice or home (not both) and at most 1 hour at night. That is 2.5 hours of homework. About once every other week he has 3 hours of homework.

Travel sports is 12 weeks in Fall, 12 weeks in Spring. That is 24 weeks out of 52 that leaves 20+ weeks of "just hanging out". He plays in winter/summer but it is less intense, less practice and no school.

We rarely had sports on a Friday. So he would hang out with friends on a Friday/Sunday. We are in 8 tournaments a year, 4 are "travel overnight" the rest are travel <1.5 hours from out house.

I'm a pp who was admiring of people who make travel sports schedules work while still maintaining a strong commitment to academics. Your schedule sounds very organized and I'm really glad it works for your family. Maybe I am reading into your post, but it seems there is a vibe of "there is plenty of time in the day for all of this," yet only because yours is a highly regimented schedule, which isn't for all kids (or adults!). My kids would say they have no time to relax on that schedule (for them, relaxing is at home with a book or listening to music or whatever, not hanging in the hallways at school for 30 min once the end of day bell sounds) - maybe your kids don't need that time, or you as a family don't value it, but different people flourish in different ways. Also, a bulk of the time you describe as available for your kids' HW is broken into small chunks in the car - for my kids, that kind of time isn't conducive to quality writing and reading work, it would be most useful for say flashcard review time, which isn't the bulk of their HW esp in high school. I also don't think my family could get dinner on the table and eat it in the 30 min window on your schedule. The challenge most of us face with travel is during the school year, not summers - so the 24 weeks of travel comprise 2/3rds or more of the school year and that is when there are most time constraints.

I agree each child is different. This is a middle school schedule.

Sports in HS are different. He plays his HS sport which means he stays after school, practices until 6 and is home at 7. During season he has games twice a week and is home around 8 or 9. There is no transportation to practice, just home and we carpool. He has 1 study hall. He does homework at night like most HS students.

There is plenty of time for "homework". He is organized, he knows large reading assignments with quality writing are done in the library after school. He has always been a kid that did 30 minutes of homework and then needed a break so it does work for him.

Relaxing for him is playing guitar, going fishing, taking the dog for a walk and playing basketball with friends. He learned guitar from YouTube so no lessons. He is dyslexic so reading has never brought him anything but anxiety so no relaxing and reading.

I do a crockpot on Monday, my H does Tuesday (he is home at 5-6), I work at home on Wednesday so I cook dinner before I leave to pick him up because I can start work earlier than 8:30, Thursdays is leftover night.

I agree that most of the travel is during the school year. So it is very structured for 12 weeks (Aug-Oct), then lots of time for 15 weeks (Nov-Feb), then 12 weeks of structure(March-May), then summer (June-July).

I don't think I would do it if it was not a passion for him. I would not ask a child to do this schedule, but I am willing to accommodate it. I usually run during his practices or read... and I happy not to be home trying to avoid eating something I shouldn't

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS is on the crew team and practices are 4 days per week plus Sat. mornings. My mom is retired so she can drop him off at practice and I pick him up. He does HW when he first gets to the boathouse since he arrives 30ish minutes early. On the way home, he studies vocab on Quizlet on my phone, eats dinner and then does the bulk of his HW. If he didn't do any after school activities, he would finish his HW and then want to spend the rest of his night playing video games. He has made a lot of good friends on crew outside of school and he enjoys going to regattas and spending the day with his teammates. I am thankful he has made such good friends and he is wasting his free time playing video games.

There is such a thing as travel crew?!?!

All of their regattas except one are out of town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is very smart and it doesn't take him long to do homework as he doesn't put forth much effort. Math takes him a few minutes, writing takes 30 minutes at most, he never studies for tests. Since he won't spend more time on his homework, travel sports fill the time that he would normally bury himself in videos.

Let me go way out on a limb and suggest that he is either 1) in about the third grade; or 2) in a public school.

Off on both counts. I'm not saying he shouldn't put forth more effort. But he doesn't. Luckily he gets 100% on tests without studying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is very smart and it doesn't take him long to do homework as he doesn't put forth much effort. Math takes him a few minutes, writing takes 30 minutes at most, he never studies for tests. Since he won't spend more time on his homework, travel sports fill the time that he would normally bury himself in videos.

Let me go way out on a limb and suggest that he is either 1) in about the third grade; or 2) in a public school.

Off on both counts. I'm not saying he shouldn't put forth more effort. But he doesn't. Luckily he gets 100% on tests without studying.

And the public school comment is very snobbish!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread makes me so sad for kids these days. No wonder suicide is the third leading cause of death in middle school kids. So much pressure.

My goodness, there is a lot of sadness on this thread! Curious about whether you have any personal experience with a child in travel sports? You seem to be imagining that it's some form of torture or drudgery for the child. Is that right?

New poster here. I have two children who play travel soccer. Practices are 2x week and games are every weekend. One child also plays an instrument, but the other has (and desires) no other extracurricular activity. Both children are passionate about soccer. This didn't come from their parents-- heck, I never played a team sport at any point during my childhood!-- it's just what they love to do. Instead of watching TV shows, my younger player (5th grade) chooses to watch old soccer games on YouTube and knows every player on the national team and gives insightful commentary as she watches.

She is a straight-A student, but soccer is the thing that makes her eyes light up. (Well, that and math.) It's not "pressure"-- it's what gives her joy. And I would've had a hard time believing that before I had a child who was an athlete, because it's the complete opposite of my own experience as a child and because it's impossible to envision your toddler, when all you have is a toddler, spending so much time on a sport. But there it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread makes me so sad for kids these days. No wonder suicide is the third leading cause of death in middle school kids. So much pressure.

My goodness, there is a lot of sadness on this thread! Curious about whether you have any personal experience with a child in travel sports? You seem to be imagining that it's some form of torture or drudgery for the child. Is that right?

New poster here. I have two children who play travel soccer. Practices are 2x week and games are every weekend. One child also plays an instrument, but the other has (and desires) no other extracurricular activity. Both children are passionate about soccer. This didn't come from their parents-- heck, I never played a team sport at any point during my childhood!-- it's just what they love to do. Instead of watching TV shows, my younger player (5th grade) chooses to watch old soccer games on YouTube and knows every player on the national team and gives insightful commentary as she watches.

She is a straight-A student, but soccer is the thing that makes her eyes light up. (Well, that and math.) It's not "pressure"-- it's what gives her joy. And I would've had a hard time believing that before I had a child who was an athlete, because it's the complete opposite of my own experience as a child and because it's impossible to envision your toddler, when all you have is a toddler, spending so much time on a sport. But there it is.

Not to mention that athletes playing team sports have a lower suicide rate than non-athletes (perhaps excepting football). Sports absolutely help relieve the academic pressures of high school and college, and they help with kids feel confident in their social lives as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread makes me so sad for kids these days. No wonder suicide is the third leading cause of death in middle school kids. So much pressure.

But what you fail to see is that soccer = what makes my kid happy.

Good grades is what he must maintain in order to do what makes him happiest.

Although the schedule he maintains may look crazy to an outsider, it's what he chooses to do in order to maintain his grades and get to do what he loves, which is play soccer.

And the days when he has no practice or on a random weekend when there's no tournament, you know what he's still out doing with friends? Playing soccer.

Our travel club makes the players turn in their report cards and you can't play with any D's or F's. If you have too many C's, you're put on probation and must improve or face sitting out games and practice. I know there are many clubs where this isn't done. I'm glad we chose one that puts a big emphasis on academics as well as athletics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our travel team is not a big deal, practice two - three evenings a week and a game on Sundays. plus it is exercise!

Do you work or leave work early? Is your kid in aftercare?

This is what our travel teams are proposing and it seems like a lot. We just spent a year of getting home at or after 8pm 2 weeknights/week and it truly sucked for our elementary aged child's ability to have family dinners/eat/do homework.

I carpooled with a SAHM. She hated driving home because it interrupted dinner prep and time with the other kids. I hated driving there because I was at work. Comparative advantage!

If you can't handle two practices a week, then travel isn't for your family. However, even without the travel sports, your kid is likely to get involved in something that involves a commitment, so six of one, half dozen of the other.