My DD made the increase in hours gradually. From 1 a week in the rec class to 4 a week in her old "Elite" class in Sept of 06 (m-w from 5:30 to 7:30), up to 6 hours a week at the new gym in Sept of 07 (w-f from 5-8), and now up to 9 hours a week in March 08 (m-w-f from 5-8). She will go 10 hours a week this summer because one of the days that she will go will be with the level 5/6 due to the fact I plan to work every Tues and Fri to bargain to get Mon, Wed and Thurs off for her practices which move to daytime in the summer. ( M-w from 10-1, and Th 7:30 to 11:30)
She has done very well with the increase in hours. Typically the girls get a 15-20 minute snack break at practice with the exception of Monday night now as the older girls that she goes with on Mon lost snack priviledge so now they have to condition mid practice, DD did OK with that tonight. I wanted to increase her hours in March so that next year when she is in 2nd grade 3 nights a week is not a big shock to her. So far so good.
Barb