July Sports?

[dglvrk2]

I don't see a thread about this yet.
How is everyone balancing summer commitments - vacations, guests etc- and sports obligations?

[mommyatty]

Can I ask a maybe stupid question? How does Scouts work? Like can you join and leave for a while and then rejoin? I think DS would enjoy Boy Scouts, but DH isn’t a fan of anything that’s a year-round commitment. But DS needs to do things that encourage him to build and exercise his social skills. That’s literally his only autism deficit.

[waverly]

mommyatty , Scouts runs with the school calendar year. We typically had an orientation meeting in late August/ early September. Everything wrapped up in May. The intense part for our group was from September- February. Once we had the Blue and Gold banquet in February, then it was lighter then. There was a spring camp out and the raingatta (which I don't remember ever attending) and nothing as mandatory since he had already done his belt buckles or whatever they are called. We intensely disliked the campouts because it was always cold like 40 degrees, but maybe better in your climate. Anyway, we didn't have to do popcorn sales the first year but after that I just usually signed up for a booth sale and other than that the only other major thing was the Pinewood Derby car which are huge PITA, IMO.  The meetings were fine, and a parent had to stay until 5th grade.  

You can't leave and rejoin unless it were for the entire school calendar year. Our experience were that the boys were very squirrely, kind of made me feel like hey DS was "normal". There are many boys with special needs. DS had good social skills at that age, so I don't know that it really improved it, but it was a social club. His social skills have declined since the pandemic, but they were good at that time. Our problem was that our age group was divided into 2 dens, and his den was the unsocial one. They were nice in person, but no additional invites. And the other den was far more social.

Anyway, Cub Scouts (it's not Boy Scouts until grade 6), wasn't my favorite thing ever, but I would recommend trying it for a school year and seeing how you like it. Definitely worth a try.

[waverly]

dglvrk2 , at the moment, I don't feel like I am balancing camps that well. I am a glorified chauffer, and some of the sleep away camps are very long distances. Our worst drive is still yet to come which is 8 hours round trip twice. Ugh.

But, there aren't a ton of sports practices in the evening, and DS is loving horseback riding which I am so excited for him, and it is very relaxing in the barn, so I don't mind going to that one.

Our vacation went fine. We haven't had any guests that stayed with us, so that has been good as well. I took a friend of DS's out for a soccer field trip and a friend of DD's to the pool, so we did that instead of sleepovers etc. DH's parents said that they can't travel because of FIL's health. I saw my mom in June when she had the kids for Grandma camp. She might come stay in August.

[186momx]

mommyatty, the kids I know who are in scouts here love it and have a very active troop. They do things year-round but it is up to the family to pick what events the kids attend. I'm pretty sure not all troops are as active so maybe you can ask a lot of questions before joining any one troop. The family I'm thinking about dad has really gotten into it and goes with on a lot of the campouts and adventures. This dad is 100% the dungeon and dragons kind of guy and it has been pretty awesome seeing him snow camping and rock climbing.

[dglvrk2]

mommyatty, I'm not very familiar with Boy Scouts, except I know it's a year-round commitment. Joining, dropping then rejoining could be challenging because troops often cap their numbers, so there may not be room if/when a scout wants to rejoin. Also, a big part of troops -at least girl scout troops in a perfect world - is building a community of scouts, so kids coming and going multiple times could disrupt this.
DS2's girl scout troop does very little during the summer and families can generally pick wich activities they do throughout the school year. As 186momx suggested, ask questions, including those so you're aware of the expected level of commitment before joining.

[186momx]

waverly, I also find being out at the barn to be relaxing.

Took DD to get air on Friday and she spent the entire hour there working on doing a back tuck into the foam pit (her gym doesn't have foam pits). She did lots of stops and starts but did not 1 but multiple standing back tucks and was so stinking proud of herself. She had practice and waited 15 minutes after practice to show her coach (they were in a coaches pow wow) the video I took and he said "oh nice" and DD was so pissed afterwards. Luckily we had gotten some text messages back from her old coach that were the jumping up and down happy/excitement that she needed. This was the 1st time she had done this without a spot or someone standing there. Her coaches also know it takes so much mental work for her to get to a spot where she can say you may step away so not the response she was hoping for or needed. The coach that does the 1 on 1s with DD hasn't been able to fit her in since school got out. He is also going to school and the group he coaches is going during the morning and times just aren't meshing. DD told him she was okay with coming in at 8am before his group started if that made it easier for him.

DD's dental appointment with starting ortho are the only craziness to our schedule.

[dglvrk2]

I was wondering how parents are navigating summer sports because I feel I'm struggling with this. I told myself -and even posted to the June sports thread- that I would not get my Huggies in a bunch of my kids missed a practice or two...yet here I am doing just that.

Both are on mountain biking teams and they seem really relaxed. Eg. Come if you can, but no big deal if you don't.

DD1's gymnastics team is more rigid. She was invited to practice a level up in May, but they won't make official decisions about who is competing at which level until the end of August. She had a great season this spring. However, she's missed a lot of these higher level practices since then. Missed practices have been due to other obligations: school events, mountain biking and one family trip. This week she's at music camp, thus not going to practice. She was also ill with a fever for one week. Valid reasons, but I worry she's not progressing sufficiently to make the team she's practicing with cone August. Going back to the level she was at this year would crush her....but our other obligations have made going to every practice since May impossible. Ugghhhh....

[186momx]

dglvrk2, can she make up practices with a different group when there are conflicts? Does she want to do that? Do you have open gym time where she can go in and work on her own? The day DD got her braces put on the gym let her practice with the level 7-10 girls in the am before her ortho appointment. She has to have teeth pulled tomorrow and I'm going to ask if she can make up her practice tomorrow with that group later in the week as she won't be in any shape to practice tomorrow night.

One of DD's friends just moved to level 7 in May and dropped gymnastics in June because she was going to be missing so many practices due to vacations. She is really missing it but felt so overwhelmed with the end of school and the intense optional level practice schedule. Our gym says the girls are supposed to take vacations, go to camp, and to just let them know when we will be gone but then go an grumble when too many kids are out. I feel like it is we say take time off but we really mean take as little as possible off.

[erbear]

My kid (14, going to high school) decided she needed to get ready for preseason starting today (6 weeks until the first day). Great, I thought. Did not realize that meant I too would be running shuttle sprints in 95* heat on a turf field 😬

[mae0111]

DD1 does not play any summer sports due to 4 weeks of sleepaway camp. Several of her friends play in 1-2 basketball leagues over the summer, and several tried out for summer softball. There's only 1 team for every 2 years of kids (U10, U12, U14, U16, U18) and about 35-40 kids try out for each, so obviously not everyone makes it. I always encourage her to practice for whatever sport is upcoming in the fall, but she never does. Last year was the first time she was actually cut.

DD2 has already made her club soccer team for the fall, and practices were supposed to start tonight. We're getting torrential downpours so they actually canceled the training. She will probably start next week. Their first game will be some time in Sept.

[sandandsea]

July is our down time as we only have 1 race this month and it is (was) break time for soccer. However, ds1’s club soccer starts this week and of course conflicts with his futsal times so I get to start piecing it together already as ds2 is in the same futsal classes and will still go. Ds2s club soccer starts the last week of the month.

[cjcouple]

We don't have guests.

As for vacations, we always purposely plan it to be the least impact. It happens to work out that the go the 3rd week of July which works well because its before football starts but after basketball ends. My youngest has karate but I just tell them we are away for the week. XC starts much later in August.

[waverly]

dglvrk2, DD's soccer practices are all elective in the summer because it is between seasons. DS's soccer club hasn't started practices (will start in August). All the other teams had finished, but one team went on to nationals so they were continuing until late June.

We got kind of the worst time for horseback riding, but it has actually worked out really well. It's Friday nights at 8:30pm, but it is still light out for it. We don't travel on Friday nights because traffic is too bad, and DS has only missed one lesson so far. When we were on vacation I decided to come home rather than visit DH's parents. He was having issues with them and it would add 6 hours to our drive. So we skipped it and made it to horseback riding lessons. He missed one for sleepaway camp. The other sleepaway camp we pick up Friday morning, and it is a 4 hour drive, so I am hoping we make it back in time for the lessons that week.

Girl Scouts is also on a hiatus.

[dglvrk2]

Jul 10, 2023 15:49:30 GMT -5 186momx said:

dglvrk2, can she make up practices with a different group when there are conflicts? Does she want to do that? Do you have open gym time where she can go in and work on her own? The day DD got her braces put on the gym let her practice with the level 7-10 girls in the am before her ortho appointment. She has to have teeth pulled tomorrow and I'm going to ask if she can make up her practice tomorrow with that group later in the week as she won't be in any shape to practice tomorrow night.

One of DD's friends just moved to level 7 in May and dropped gymnastics in June because she was going to be missing so many practices due to vacations. She is really missing it but felt so overwhelmed with the end of school and the intense optional level practice schedule. Our gym says the girls are supposed to take vacations, go to camp, and to just let them know when we will be gone but then go an grumble when too many kids are out. I feel like it is we say take time off but we really mean take as little as possible off.

186momx, we've been able to do a private lesson once as a makeup this summer. She practices with the highest level of gymnasts at her gym. Any other lessons with would be with lower levels and she's not up for this. They also don't have open gym time, unfortunately.
At the end of her private lesson, the coach commented on how few gymnasts are at any given practice this summer... So I know we're not the only ones in our situation. On the bright side, I think she's going to get more individual attention at practices when she does go, so this can be making up for some of our lost time, hopefully.

[k3am]

Last year, I told DD she could miss one practice due to field trips.. (Camp does field trips the same day as her sync practice). It worked out fine - she only had one day that she needed to miss. This year I just... forgot about it. And it seems like this year, the bus gets back at 4pm, which is also when sync starts, so there's just no chance. This will be her third week in a row that she'll miss. One other girl on her team is in the same camp, one is traveling abroad for the summer, and I'm sure other girls are missing here and there, so... it is what it is.

[rere]

I just have to post that Dds softball team won the league championship. It was an exciting tournament, that drug on for days due to weather. I'm glad it's over, and I hope she doesn't play next year because there was a lot of favorites with coaches kids and just some shady stuff, but she had fun and was happy.

[k3am]

I found out yesterday that for fall soccer, DS gets cut off from his friends on his team… most of them have fall birthdays, he has a spring birthday. So I registered him for U8, but everyone he knows is moving to U10. He really only plays because he wants to be with his friends. Not to mention that with DH back in the office more, the chances of us needing help getting him to practice go up a lot. Soooo.. we switched him to U10, which was easy, but hopefully works out for my 7 year old. He’s taller than a few of the boys, holds his own playing with them, and futsal is 7-12 year olds and that doesn’t seem to stop him, so fingers crossed.

[erbear]

Jul 12, 2023 9:30:55 GMT -5 k3am said:

I found out yesterday that for fall soccer, DS gets cut off from his friends on his team… most of them have fall birthdays, he has a spring birthday. So I registered him for U8, but everyone he knows is moving to U10. He really only plays because he wants to be with his friends. Not to mention that with DH back in the office more, the chances of us needing help getting him to practice go up a lot. Soooo.. we switched him to U10, which was easy, but hopefully works out for my 7 year old. He’s taller than a few of the boys, holds his own playing with them, and futsal is 7-12 year olds and that doesn’t seem to stop him, so fingers crossed.

Is that because USA Soccer moved to birth years? The same thing happened to my DD when she was younger -- we kept her in the right division (she's tiny) and she made new friends quickly who she's still playing with. 

[k3am]

erbear, honestly, no idea? My guess is it's because they do it based on age you are during the season? For spring, he was with all his buddies, but for fall, he'd be on his own.

I'm honestly not super concerned with him being on his own, the bigger issue is transportation. Practices can start as early as 4:30, and it takes me 20-50 minutes to get to school from work, and DH can't be relied on to help with any of it before 5:15, when his bus gets back. DD has skating I need to get her to also.. so basically, I'm already pretty sure that I'll need to rely on other parents (and offering to do the same for their kids) to get them where they need to go. I just saw the team assignments and he'll be with 5 kids from school and 3 of them are in his afterschool program, so that alone should make logistics easier. And there's another kid with a 2016 birthday, so he won't be the only one playing up.

[dglvrk2]

k3am, DD2 is also playing in a lower soccer division than most of her friends this fall because her birthday is in January while most of them have fall birthdays. We live in a small community and - I was told - we could have put her in the older division if we wanted, but she opted to stay in her correct division. We'll have to find new carpool arrangements this fall. Like you, I think this will be quick and easy. DD2 isn't the most skilled soccer player, so I'm glad she opted to hang back. I think she'll get more time to play and develop skills this way

[sandandsea]

Comp soccer is based on calendar birth year (as they play for the whole year) while rec is often the age you are at the start or end of that season (usually less than 3 months). Ds1 has a December bday and he’s always the youngest on his comp teams. It splits up the school years too as 11 members of his team just finished 6th grade and 5 will be starting 6th this fall but they were all born in 2011. The whole birthday Sports impact is a really interesting part of Malcolm Gladwells book Outliers as he talked about the impact to hockey in Canada and what percentage of junior and professionals have birthdays in the first quarter of the calendar.

ETA. I found an article about it if you’re curious. This takes up way too much free rent in my head!!

www.arcticicehockey.com/platform/amp/2008/12/malcolm-gladwells-outliers-and-making.html

[madringal]

DD1 is at her senior state meet as we speak. She qualified for a relay for the Futures meet, but opted out. It's a long way to travel to swim one leg of a relay. So after today, her swim season is done until after labor day!

DD2 still has another month of so of diving. She did great and placed 1st in her age group at their intermural meet. She has her first actual meet in a few weeks.

DD3 is still living her best life doing 1 rec day of gymnastics a month.

[waverly]

I need to transition out of horseback riding lessons and back into tutoring. If school starts in 4 weeks, when should I make the transition? The first week, I don't think he would need a tutor. So in 5 weeks?

DH was zero help on this. I also floated the idea of doing both, but I think it is too expensive plus he is adding in club soccer.

[186momx]

waverly, I would do 4 more weeks of riding. Take a week off an then start up tutoring. Could he switch riding to once a month? I know you said he really liked riding so maybe you could keep at seat in the saddle during the school year by going less often.

[waverly]

Jul 19, 2023 16:18:01 GMT -5 186momx said:

waverly , I would do 4 more weeks of riding. Take a week off an then start up tutoring. Could he switch riding to once a month? I know you said he really liked riding so maybe you could keep at seat in the saddle during the school year by going less often.

I think if I give up my weekly spot then I no longer have a spot.  I don't think they do monthly, but I can register for last minute cancellations.  I'll email them and see.

That being said, my spot is 8:30pm and that won't work when it starts getting dark and cold anyway.    I think they send out a seasonal email for spots anyway, but the way I read it initially is that I can keep this spot all year, but I know I won't want to be going at 8:30pm in the winter with ice and snow. 

[librarychica]

I’m having a sport dilema.

DD2 takes ukulele once a week and enjoys it. Now she may also want to sign up for softball with her friend, a 3 day commitment for 10 weeks. But she is also a cheerful joiner of a kid — if I don’t sign her up for softball she’ll find something else at school to sign up for.

Pro: this is her last chance to play on a developmental team before she would age up. She’s never tried a seasonal team sport. I enjoyed softball as a kid. Her best friend and friend’s brothers all play.

Cons: 2 games and 1 practice a week. Of course I have no way to know if she’d be on friend’s team so we couldn’t necessarily coordinate carpool. Practices and games could be anywhere between 5 and 7, and games could be as far away at 45 minutes. We’d likely have to move the time of music lessons. Plus past behavior indicates that she would chafe at having too many commitments.

I wish I could gauge how much she actually wants to do this.

[mae0111]

librarychica, do you think you could request that your DD be placed with her friend? Depending on the size of the league, they may be happy to do this. It sounds like a big commitment, but maybe she will like it?

[k3am]

DD Aislin having her first private lesson… and I can already tell it’s very helpful. Her coach is just starting to build her coaching group, so we get a discounted rate, but she swears she’d have picked this coach anyways because she explains concepts in a way she understands. We’re not sure if she’ll be ready for a solo competition at their next event in September, but fingers crossed.

[186momx]

DD attempted a backhandspring on the floor beam during her private Friday morning. Do you remember when we struggled with doing this skill on the floor?
She is getting so much closer on her kip for bar and everything else seems to be clicking.