Search results

You probably know this already, but it'll be fine. For us, we picked a date at the end of the month to be done, and then I didn't pay the next month's tuition. D1 went to every practice, though, and stayed for the entire practice up until that last day, even though we'd put in "notice" at the...

Hey, now that the girls are "retired," I pop in only occasionally, and forgive me if I forgot about how old your daughter is. See, a lot of the answer depends on the age of the child. The younger the child, the more likely I am to say let her miss a bunch of practice to try new things, and if...

If she can't get the tampons figured out, make an appointment with the nurse practicioner. My dd1 was 12, very small, and had a lot of trouble. It was a co-pay very well spent.

Let me weigh in with a persepective I've haven't seen in the answers -- that of the mom who's done. My girls both trained into the optional levels. Dd1 stopped when she hit the limits of what her body could do. Dd2 just decided one day that she was "ready to be done and have a life". Just...

Great thread. So many perspectives. I'm looking back on this from the other side. We've been done with gym now for 14 months. I think I can honestly say I regret ever taking my oldest to the gym. I won't go into the whole medical saga except to say that all our doctors concur: darn...

Dd1 dives. Dd2 wouldn't dream of it. She hates being cold in general and cold water in particular. As for the transition . . . not as easy as one might think. Dd1 says it's way scarier than gymnastics (and this was a kid who lived on the beam). She says she'd rather fall on the floor than...

Great to see she reached a decision! I hear you on the pangs watching the WAG girls practice. I used to have to take dd1 to/from work at the gym (she started work within weeks of leaving the team). I'd get there a little early sometimes just to watch and chat with my gym mom buddies! Dd1...

Hey Flippy! I've been an infrequent visitor to the chalk bucket since my dds "retired" as well. Yes, there is life without gym, and I'd say it's a pretty decent life, too. My only beef is that now, instead of taking both kids to the gym, I have to run them in opposite directions! Glad...

Yes. I feel I should have pulled my dd1 instead of allowing her to continue into the optional levels. She competed through level 8, age 14. Hind sight is 20/20, but I should not have been concerned about how mad she would've been or how much she would've missed the gym. When she started...

Tell me about it. The girls have been done about a year now (1 yr for dd1, 8 months for dd2), but the "kid's activity" line in my checkbook is still in the red. It wasn't the tuition. The travel expenses associated with 2 optionals was just wicked (longer distances, longer stays since they...

The institution where I work gives 4 full ride academic scholarships per year. Now, there are a pretty fair number of kids who can put together need based and academic money to cover all their tution, but full freight, purely academic scholarships just aren't that common. If that's the kind of...

We found that gymnastics is not easy to leave, even when the time has clearly come. My dd1 had an awful time pulling the trigger. She should've stopped after level 7 (before she went into high school), but she just couldn't. I feel like she stayed in because she'd been at it for so long she...

What's the best level to repeat? Any of them. Not to be glib, but a young 4 might repeat because she's not mature enough for the extra practice time in 5. You might have a kid repeat a level because you simply can't afford the extra tuition or a more extensive travel schedule (esp. if...

Advice from the end of the rainbow. Why do I say that? Because post-gym, there's a lot more money left in the pot! Mine stayed in long enough to compete at the optional levels. During the season, because we were now traveling throughout the region, meet travel expenses could equal the tuition...

Would you expect anyone who frequents this site to say it isn't worth it, at least in terms of dollars? I don't regret the money I spent. I do suspect the "lessons" of gymnastics could've been learned in other, less expensive, activities, but that doesn't mean gymnastics wasn't worth it...

A big low moved through yesterday. Dd1's knees bothered her terribly, making her other activities very uncomfortable. She's all of 15. The pounding gets worse with each level. If you dd leaves after lvl 6, she might not get to experience the joy of knowing when it will rain (and I hope she...

I throw everything in the wash. Right now, my washer has a handwash cycle. Turn the garment inside out and throw it in. Before I had handwash, I used the delicate cycle, still no problems. Don't dry in the dryer, though, as the heat damages elasticity. Like Linsul, I put all the leos on...

Noboy's chased me away yet, and I no longer have anybody on team! For a middle schooler, the reduction in practice time (giving her, you know, a life) is can be a life-saver. 6-8 hours is still plenty of activity per week, and even though she's still doing tumbling, she'll obviously have far...

Wish I would've done the same. When dd1 had the fall the damaged her knees, it was during the eval period for moving to optionals. She really wanted to be an optional, so when the doctor told us everything would heal on it's own, we let her go. I SHOULD have listened to my gut and made her...

Oh, absolutely. Just like Flippy, I've never seen it done another way. How would a gym know who is team material without a chance to observe a girl in rec classes (unless, as Flippy said, they come from another gym). My little dd was in rec for about 4 months before being pulled into team...