Parents Always late to practice

[peginer]

My son started at 3 two days a week. I arranged for him to leave at 2:30 (school ends at 2:40), so I was first out of the carpool lane and he arrived 10-15 minutes early as we are 12-15 minutes from the gym. That have him time to change, eat snack along the way and be ready to go for 3. Any chance you can pull out of school 10-15 minutes early? Lots of the gym kids do that here. But we also don't have schools that go until 4! That seems very late. We go 8:40-2:40.

 

[sce]

We had this issue and I contacted the principal about an "alternate dismissal procedure" for my daughter and we were granted this. Her school (elementary) normally sends kids to the gym for dismissal at 3:30, bus kids get on the bus at about 3:45, and car riders come out at about 3:55. We were always rushing to gym since we have quite the commute and practice is at 5. So I now sign her (and her gymmie sister) out of the office at 3:20 on practice days. They only miss 10 minutes of learning time, and a lot of that is packing up anyway. I was surprised when the principal responded so positively and in support of their gymnastics. I am a little worried that it won't be enough time when the snow starts, but we'll just have to see how it goes. It's working for now and while some days we get to the gym barely on time (on time is 20 minutes early at their gym), some days we are there early enough for them to get some homework in.

Glad the school is working with you. Sounds like they waste a lot of time at the end of the day. Why is 20 minutes early considered on time? What do they do for 20 minutes?

 

[3LittleGymmies]

They want them stretched out before warm-ups. And if you miss warm-ups, you don't practice. Period.

 

[COz]

Wow. Harsh.

Edit: Yes, I know. Safety. But ours manage to give late kids stuff to do to warm up before joining the others...

 

[sce]

They want them stretched out before warm-ups. And if you miss warm-ups, you don't practice. Period.

I can see this as they don't want lateness to be a habit. But, I hope when the weather is bad that they are more lenient.

 

[Muddlethru]

It certainly does not seem fair. My daughter was an hour late when we switched gyms. Our school schedule is the opposite. High school girls get off the earliest, then junior high and elementary gets off the latest. She was in elementary and everyone was in high school. Schedule was fine in the beginning of the season. Then coach moved up practices by an hour to give the girls more practice time but he did not consider my daughter's schedule; worse, my daughter was already a Level 9 andcould certainly use those extra hours. But since we were new, I did not say anything. This year, he talked again about moving up the schedule. I texted him and reminded him my daughter missed 5 hours of practice every week last year which I explained put her at a disadvantage and requested he at least give my daughter the same number of practice hours he is offering everyone else in the team.

 

[mpkbt]

In my dd's 12 years of school she only attended 1st grade for a full day. She was an optional in 2nd grade so she practiced with the older girls. She excelled at school and managed a 4.0 until her Jr. year, then it was a 3.9(darn calculus!) Leaving school early did not reflect in her education but it definitely would have been reflected in her gymnastics. The schools that she attended were in 3 different states and all were very willing to work with us. The way I looked at her education was that if she was doing what she loves it would encourage her to do well in school. She also mastered the art of changing in the car without ever taking off her seat belt! In elementary school she usually just left 15 to 30 minutes early and finished the work at home. In Jr. high, she missed 1 elective and left the last period of the day. In high school (A and B Days) she missed 2 periods (1 each day) and took those classes on line. In high school she received elective credit for gymnastics through the school. Over the course of 3 years she earned 3 elective credit for gymnastics. They do not tell you they will do this, you have to ask. She was much happier with those elective credits than ballroom dance or yoga!