Wwyd sports and religious school

[Anonymous]

Ds loves his competitive swim team. He was asked to move onto a select team but one of the required practices conflicts with religious school. Sport is not flexible and neither is religious school. We are not religious but the religious school is important to us. We could switch him to a new team with different practice times but that of course means new coaches and teammates. He is 8 so still pretty young. Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

For me religious school would be 100% required.

Frankly this is a big reason why we are considering Jewish day school. More availability for evening/weekend activities.

[Anonymous]

Pretty simple- which one is more important to you?

[Anonymous]

Would it be easier to switch religious schools? i.e., is there a neighboring parish or congregation (or whatever denominational unit you attend) where he could do his religious ed, at least for this year or season? We're Catholic and if I had an RE/CCD conflict, I'd just call another parish and see if we could attend as guests for the year.

[Anonymous]

Let him do the sport

[Anonymous]

If he was a teen, I would go with what *he* preferred to do, in the sense that picking ones battles with a teen is of the utmost importance.

But he's so young, that you could make the choice for him - what do *you* want? Is there a whole social climate at this religious school that is important for your whole family? Or do you and he have ties with the whole swim team? Because I assume you could find another swim team, and another religious school - but that socially it's tricky.

Anyway, good luck. I've been in your shoes.

[Anonymous]

My friend was able to homeschool for CCD from her Catholic church. Is that an option?

[Anonymous]

For our family, we have a saying "God trumps (insert whatever activity)"

At eight, I would put the religious school at a priority over the sport. I would do this through wahtever year the big religious milestone is completed (confirmation, bar mitzvah, etc).

Assuming religious school is just one time a week, and an advanced sports team is multiple times per week, can you work out a make up practice with a different team in the system for that day or arrange to arrive late once per week?

[Anonymous]

We might have this situation with our 9yo and soccer. I'm going to do Hebrew home-schooling if need be, I guess.

[Anonymous]

He's only 8. Change swim teams.

[Anonymous]

Normally, I'd say swap swim teams (or decline the invitation to change practices - explaining why). But ... you say that you're not religious but religious school is important? That doesn't make much sense to me. If you aren't religious, why would religious school be so important?

[Anonymous]

Op here. Religious school is more important to me. Sport more important for ds.

[Anonymous]

We want are not religIous but being associated with our religion and learning the holidays and traditions is important

[Anonymous]

Talk to the head of the religious school. Ime, they are much more accomodating than religious school of my youth, and eill work with you on a solution - whether it be switching to a different class, doing tutoring from home during the season of the conflict, etc. Your kid isn't the first or last to have this issue, I guaranty they have had to address it before now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Religious school is more important to me. Sport more important for ds.

OP, if you're not religious, why is the religion school important to you? Are there other ways of helping him learn the same teachings?