Name: Spreading the Feast Gathering
Start: 2025-07-11T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-07-12T23:59:59-05:00
Location: LaGrange, KY

Tagged: athletics, length of school days, scheduling

This topic has 12 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 4 months ago by cherylramirez.

Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

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January 11, 2014 at 3:19 am
cherylramirez
Participant
If so, do you feel as if you are constantly “behind” because of shorter days. How do you compensatae for it? Do you just not worry about it? Do tell!
January 11, 2014 at 3:35 am
missceegee
Participant
Well, my ds9 is young yet, but he is quite an athlete. He plays both baseball and golf and excels in both. DD12 and dd6 both ride horses and dd12 hopes to someday work with horses in some capacity. Right now, we limit their activity to once per week for the most part, but I can see the day when we may rethink that. DD12 would like to lease or own a horse and work a minimum of 3-4 days a week on her horsemanship and riding skills. Honestly, I’m just not sure what we’ll do. I know that is zero help to you, but perhaps it helps a wee bit to know you aren’t the only one trying to think it through.
January 11, 2014 at 4:00 am
cherylramirez
Participant
The advantage of homeschooling is that we can give them the freedom to pursue their passion and that is a blessing. The flipside is that it completely changes your lifestyle! She works on her sport 6 days a week and we are totally supportive of her efforts…I am just wondering how other parents work out their school schedules. I cannot image how you will do it with more than one child!
January 11, 2014 at 4:15 am
missceegee
Participant
This is just thinking out loud, but I think I will seriously evaluate what the future holds with regards to each sport and each kid.
DD12 has a high liklihood of doing something with horses or animals in her future. I can see devoting a lot of time to it in the future while putting other things on a back burner. Perhaps we lessen the literature and history load formally and give her more books to read as free reads. Maybe some advanced math is unnessary.
DS9 is unlikely to be a professional baseball player or golfer. He could possibly earn a college scholarship with either sport. My preference would be golf to avoid some of the negatives of HS team sports. I also prefer golf because it’s something that he can enjoy his entire life on his own. Baseball, not so much. What might that mean for his academics? Well, he will (hopefully) have a family to provide for some day and that weighs heavily, too. Being a realist, my son as good as he is in sports is not likely to make playing a sport his career. He will need to spend adequate time with academics to ensure that he has the necessary knowledge to make the right decisions for his future. If that’s plumbing, great. Medicine, fine. Sports journalism, eh. Computer engineering, fine. Car mechanic, a-ok. Whatever, so long as he can support himself and enjoy the work he does.
I am not a college pusher. I want my kids to go if their future career dictates it. I will prepare them for college, definitely, but whether they go depends upon so many things. How much time we allow sports to take is dependent on what it does for their futures (in our family).
Anywho, that’s more than my 2 cents. If your daughter is very committed and serious in her sport already and you’re in agreement with it for her future goals, then you may need to adjust your expectations in other areas to allow for time for that.
Blessings on the journey,
Christie
PS – With 4 kids, I’ve no idea how we will navigate even when the little guy wants to try little league or something. That’s why we limit it at the younger ages!
January 11, 2014 at 2:21 pm
Kayla
Participant
I am not here yet, being that my kids are almost 5, almost 3, and 1m. But, I was a serious athlete, and I played college softball on a scholarship.
During the school year we had tournaments about 2 weekends a month, and practiced once a week, this is when I was younger, like 12-14. I also wentto the field nightly with my dad to pitch and hit, proably an hour a night.
Once I was 16-18 I was playing with a team out of Tampa, 2.5 hours away. We did not practice with the team and we had tournaments every single weekend over the summers. And when i say tournaments I think that maybe 2 were in State and we flew to the rest of them. I am in Florida and in one summer we played in: Buffalo, CA 2x, Colorado, Illinios, GA, and 2x in Talahassee which is 5hrs from me. I did not go to church growing up becasue i was gone every weekend. My parents did not make it a priority.
I went to public school. During softball season for high school we didnt have any tournaments, but the rest of the year we did. It was obviously a huge time commitment, on top of 7hrs of school a day, and i was still going to the field every day to hit and pitch with my dad, and I stayed late after our hig school practices to hit and pitch.
I did recieve a college scholarship. i went to an out of state private school, and my scholarship paid for 2/3 of my classes, not room and board. My parents estimate they spent for all the traveling and stuff about when i recieved in scholarships.
I dont know what your daughter plays but the time commitment in college is even more. We had running at 6am, then class, then practice, then class, then weights 2x a week. We were gone 1/2 the weekends. It is a full time job.
honestly, I am a stay at home mom, with a $120.000 BFA in Fashion design. Did i need to go to college, no, do I wish i had majored in home econamics or art history, yes.
My advice is down the road for you, but if she decided to play in college, pick a school for the school and degree. not for the team. Go to a school where she will play, not a D1 school where she will sit the bench. Use the sport as a means to get the degree you desire, dont choose a school and then have to settle for a degree becasue the school doesnt actually offer what you want to do.
Not sure if that was any help, I just thought i would give some insight from somebody who has been there.
January 11, 2014 at 4:07 pm
Benita
Participant
We are living this right now.We have four children. All do somethings, but only one has an intense schedule. Our 14 year old daughter is a ballerina. She began at age 3 because she talked of it constantly and wanted to live in a leotard and tights!. We pulled her out at age 10 after she had been en pointe for a season. That was the most difficult thing we have ever done. It was devastating for her and we surely second guessed ourselves over and over.
She was having a terrible time managing the stress at age 10 and we didn’t think she was mature enough to handle so much time away from us in the evenings.
Here is the bright side to this story. She was out for 3 years and really wanted to go back. We felt she could handle the stress better, was more mature and we had the finances to fund it – it’s not a cheap endeavor! So we put her back into the program she had left. She was placed right back into the level she was when she had left 3 years ago! She had to wait 3 months to go back en pointe so as to build up knee and core stength again. What a pleasant surpise. She was given many great parts in the Nutcracker in Dec.!
As difficult as that decision was and as hard as those 3 years were, one thing was made clear. God does honor us when we are trying to obey and live out his call. We felt clearly He was calling us to pull her out. You should have heard the criticism that we took from just about every adult we know. They pretty much figured we were ruining her life! But, God had another plan. Our daughter has learned that God honors those who honor Him. I have also become more confident in not feeling the pressure the world puts on us thaat our children must be trained in something from birth or they won’t get into a good school or be successful.
She is excelling, but at a pace we have some control over. It can be done.
For reference, she dances 3 evenings a week for 3 hours each and one evening for 1.5 hours. She also dances Saturdays for 3 hours. If there is an upcoming perfomance she may dance 6 days a week in rehearsals. In order to have the strength for pointe work, the must dance a lot and strengthen. She has a few girls at her level that go to school. They are up till 11 at night trying to get homework done because of their dance schedules. We could never pull this off if she went to school. Homeschooling does make this easier for her.
January 11, 2014 at 9:32 pm
cherylramirez
Participant
@Benita: what does her school schedule look like? Do you scale back her schedule because her schedule is so intense? I find that she can complete her math, Latin and 2 other subject each day before the archery range opens at 2. She wants to be there when the range opens. There are fewer people there at that time of day. There is no possiblity of picking up work again after shooting because she is mentally drained and as I said previously she shoots 6 days a week.
We are not college pushers as missceegee said so I feel as though we can relax a little with her schedule. I am curious to know how much work your dd does each day.
@Kayla: That is helpfull. We are saving money for the whirlwind of competition season. She will go to her first “official” competiton next month from Feb. 28 – March 2. It is local, at Texas A & M, which is about an hour and a half from our home. I asked my husband to start a separate saving account we can use for her because, as we both know, this will only get more expensive!
@missceegee: Yes, History, Lit. and advanced math are not in our future either. Funny you should choose those three subjects! She is a voracious reader so I have given her an American Lit antholoy book to read and will do the same for British Lit if I can find one!
January 12, 2014 at 8:19 pm
Benita
Participant
I don’t really have to scale back much as her classes never begin before 5pm during the week. I do make sure she doesn’t have evening work and during rehearsal weeks I give her less work as she is physically very tired.
We are not college pushers either. We want them to be equipped for whatever God may call them to. Our state has a “seed program” and they can go to local 2yr. tech college for free! So they may do that carrying at least 12 credits. They could probably do it in 1 1/2 years as hopefully they can CLEP out of a few credits here and there. That way they have a least 2 years done. If they want to go on to school further- fine, but if not they have only gained usable skills during that time.
Our daughter has considered going professional if she is able and taking college credits here and there. That would be fine with us. She would like to teach ballet at some point. She does not need a 4 yr. degree for that.
We try to put the money aside as well. It is difficult. A grandparent has offered to help us with pointe shoes as they are about $100 a pair and the more she dances the faster she goes through them.
I am secretly glad her two younger sisters are not interested in ballet! We would never be able to swing this for 3! Our other children participate in things that are less expensive- Girls on the Run, although the extra 5K’s she wants to do are adding up! Homeschool gymnastics is affordable for our youngest(6). We said no to team for her as it is too out of our price range and they travel all over on Sundays for meets. Our son does TeenPact which is not cheap but it is only once a year. He also runs and that is very affordable. They all take music lessons and we have been blessed to have a teacher that has given us a great rate for 4 students and comes to our home.
I really see where God has provided when what they are doing is in His will for them. Otherwise, I could never explain how we have been able to give our four children opportunities such as they have had on one income. The key, I think, is to seek what is His will for them, where are they truly gifted and then to trust that He will make a way.
January 12, 2014 at 11:02 pm
cherylramirez
Participant
I appreciate you all for taking the time to answer! @Benita: My dd eventually wants to teach also. She will be certified for Level 1 in January so she will be able to teach absolute beginners. She eventually wants to own a range of her own after she is done travelling. We will see where God leads her! Thank you again!
January 13, 2014 at 5:34 am
blue j
Participant
Hi Cheryl. I’m chiming in a bit late in the thread, but I have 5 kids (ds & 4 dd’s) from age 23 (almost 24, yikes!) down to my youngest who will be 13 on Wednesday. We require the kids to do at least one sport as that more than sufficiently covers PE since we add in swimming as well. At any rate, my oldest 3 are graduates of our hs, and we were able to keep all of the kids on the same day for the soccer program in our area.
The youngest 3, and now my youngest 2, participate in swim team. Again, they were all able to practice at the same time, so it’s not a big deal and this sport, for us, only occurs in the summer. DD #3 is very adept at sports. She can potentially get a scholarship for her swimming or soccer – either of which are fairly easy to obtain in our area for some reason. This dd also has decided to obtain a degree in photography as she is extremely gifted in that as well. I really don’t make huge curricular allowances as the practices and games do not interfere with our schedule much if at all. However, we have chosen to loosely school year round – rather more of a modified approach which works for us. Truth be told, her work as a photographer is becoming more of an issue than the sports has ever been.
DD #4 is a violinist. She has decided that she would like to play professionally. Right now she is taking individual lessons 1 day/ week and has a group lesson 1 day/ week. I have been told that we will need to get her into one of the youth symphonies in the near future which has the potential to throw our schedule somewhat off depending upon how we go about this. We’ve actually been told that participating in both symphonies in our general area is a good idea for her. However, we’ve also been told by the family who helped us get started with violin that if A wants to go professional, she really needs to think about participating in the Chicago Youth Symphony which is a MAJOR time commitment. At this point, since DD #3 will be Senior next year, we will likely look more seriously into Chicago and the Peoria YS’s for DD #4 during her first year of high school. We will be changing her lessons to either a 45 minute or 60 minute lesson after she completes the book she is in now, so that will change our schedule a bit as well since round trip is 1.5 not including the lesson.
As far as school goes, I won’t push the higher sciences (chemistry and physics) unless A would like to pursue them. However, I will require her to be well grounded in her history, math, and literature. Our days will just be more part and parcel than I am used to, so will require me to move out of my comfort zone. 🙂 I am working on that now, whether I want to or not, as I am a duckies in a row, routine is important kind of person.
Not sure if that helped at all or not.
Pax,
~jacqleene

January 13, 2014 at 6:11 am
cherylramirez
Participant
@jacqleene: how many years of science does your state require for graduation, and what type of sciene did the older children do? getting out of my comfort zone has been a change for me (which i why i started this thread!)
January 13, 2014 at 12:58 pm
missceegee
Participant
“As far as school goes, I won’t push the higher sciences (chemistry and physics) unless A would like to pursue them. However, I will require her to be well grounded in her history, math, and literature.” This sums up my thoughts. My dd12 will definitely be well grounded in these subjects. I simply meant that it may (we aren’t there yet) require us to move a couple of cooks from the scheduled/write narrations list to the free read list. It’s a bit too early for us to decide these things, so all of my thoughts are theoretical at this point anyway. I appreciate those sharing from experience.
January 13, 2014 at 4:57 pm
cherylramirez
Participant
@missceegee I will ask you the same type of question: what will you do for sciencw instead of the “higher science” to fulfull your state requirement. we are required to have 4 years. she has done apologia general, physical, biology and she is in the middle of marine biology now. it may be too early for you to know and i will understand if you can’t answer right away!