Parents Newbie with question about tired 5 year old.

[Mrs Tiggy Winkle]

Hi all,

I'm new here, lurked for a few months but have now signed up!
I have a 5 and half year old who has been in a development group for a year. They have slowly been increasing their hours from 1x2 hour session to 3x2 hour sessions recently.
She is one of the younger ones in the group with the eldest age 7. Now recently she has been getting very tired and her behaviour has deteriorated in general. She is in Year 1 (UK) and getting her to read to me and do her weekly homework is proving a real battle. Although she enjoys gym and never has any objections to going, I'm not sure she loves it but wants to be able to do what the older squad girls do. I am unsure whether she has the drive and passion needed, but what 5 year old knows what they want yet?
Anyway I had a word with her School teacher who said they had noticed that she was more tired and although working hard had lost a little of her sparkle.
So my question is, is this normal? should I be worried or is it that she just needs to get used to the extra hours. Dropping a session doesn't seem to be an option as another Mum had asked and it is basically you do the required sessions or go back to the rec class. They are looking at entering them next year for the 1st comp (grades)
Obviously I'm worried she could fall behind at School but don't want to stop her doing gym at this early stage.
Does anyone have any tips on dealing with tiredness and getting the little ones to do their homework please. I'm hoping its just an adjustment period. The only other activity she does is 30 mins swimming lessons which I think is vital.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Committed]

Is it necessary for her to go all 3 lessons each week? It may be better if she only goes 2x a week. Perhaps during summer break, she can resume the 3 lessons.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

hmm, she can't actually do grades till she is competing 8, as she is only "competing 6" this year she wont be able to compete grades until 2016. 6 hours at 5 1/2 is a lot but how late is she to bed ?

Mine did 12 hours at 7 but she was home by 8 at the latest - as for homework, mine gets it set on Friday for handing in on Tuesday. I have sometimes written in her book that she was unable to get her homework done ( say we have been away at a comp on the Sunday with training Friday night, Saturday and Monday evening) and her teachers have been okay with that. I do believe that they cannot oblige primary age children to do homework anyway.

Mine goes straight to bed from gym, she has her hot chocolate in the car on the way home and it works for us. Hope she feels better soon.

 

[Mrs Tiggy Winkle]

Thanks,

She is normally in bed 7:30/8pm so not too late but is up around 630 even though she doesn't need to get up until around 715. I'm hoping its just an adjustment period and she will be fine.
As for competing unless I have it completely wrong there have been a few girls at the club which have competed level 14 the year they turned 7? Is this not the norm then Iwannabemargo? Sorry I'm new to all this. If she has another 2 years then great although I worry she will get bored of all the conditioning they are doing, they don't seem to do hardly any fun stuff anymore.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

nope they need to be 8 by the 31st of December. My daughter is a late November birthday so even though she is just 10 she competes 11, its age at the 31st December.

She picked the one sport that doesn't follow the academic year lol, my poor son who is late August has always suffered with that.


We had a discussion recently, apparently some clubs enter them a year early for experience, but their scores don't count, not something we do here though.

hth

'Margo

 

[Faith]

She's 5. 3 x 2 hours a week is a lot for that age. What I usually do with mine is ask them if they still want to do it, if they say yes we give it to the next half term. If they haven't adjusted by then we'll make a change.

It depends on your region as to what age they start competing, in ours you can't compete at all until you're 6, and then only F+V until the year you turn 8.

Honestly, waiting a year until she's older won't do her gymnastics career any harm at all, so I wouldn't feel guilty about at least asking the coaches to cut down to twice a week. Even if it means taking grades off the table next year, maybe doing some F+V, and working towards grades the year after. Unless they have a very good reason as to why she can't (and I can't think of one)- it's their choice to insist or risk burning her out, and IMO a good coach wouldn't insist.

P.S My DD is the same age as yours, and only doing 1 hr a week. She'll compete F+V this year and next, and her gym can't offer high hours, which suits me fine. She does dance, trampolining, swimming, as well, to a total of 6 hours a week, but it's spread over 4 days and she finishes on weekdays at 6. Should she want to take gymnastics more seriously, and shows talent, I'll look for a higher hours club next year.

Margo, nearly every sport I've ever done goes by birth year not academic. Is it maybe school sports like rugby and football that go by academic year?

 

[Iwannabemargo]

I think its boys team sport Faith - poor Big Boy is also small for his age and at least a foot smaller than anyone else on the rugby team, rugby, football, cricket all go from the 1st September

 

[gothgymmom]

Also, to add, Lots of fruit for snacks...I have noticed with my DD that fruit helps alot, as well as eggs. My DD is on L2 comp team and she goes 2 times a week for a total of 6 hours. School nights she comes home and finishes her homework while eating a little something and then goes to bed. She has never really complained about being tired at all, but she isnt one to sleep in on weekends either lol..I can usually tell when shes tired though and ill make her rest up a bit till shes back to being the energizer bunny. lol.

 

[Committed]

Also, to add, Lots of fruit for snacks...I have noticed with my DD that fruit helps alot, as well as eggs. My DD is on L2 comp team and she goes 2 times a week for a total of 6 hours. School nights she comes home and finishes her homework while eating a little something and then goes to bed. She has never really complained about being tired at all, but she isnt one to sleep in on weekends either lol..I can usually tell when shes tired though and ill make her rest up a bit till shes back to being the energizer bunny. lol.

I can only tell when DD is tired when she gets really dark purple circles under her eyes, and she starts picking on little brother!

 

[floppycat]

She will get used to it. Can you do the reading book before the gym sessions start? Other than reading can you leave the rest of the homework until the weekend, which is what we can do. I would try to put her to bed a little earlier and see if that helps. My DD did grade 14 when she was 6, so the year she turned 7. Grades don't "count" anyway i.e. You don't have to do grade 14 to do grade 13 etc... My experience is that all primary school teachers are alarmed when you tell them how many hours your gymnast is doing, best not to tell them!

 

[GYM0M]

If they just recently added the extra practices, she just needs an adjustment period. When the schedules change, DD always needs about 3-4 weeks to get adjusted and I wonder the same things every time. The first week is ok, but the 2nd-3rd are terrible! Whining, crying, irritable! She wants to go to gym, she just doesn't want to do anything else. We also get weekly homework packets. We only study spelling and vocabulary words during the week & turn in packets on Monday.

 

[Committed]

Wow, you guys are lucky with the packets! My 1st grader gets them on Monday to turn in on Friday!

 

[AmandaLynn]

You say that she is up at 6:30 and doesn't need to wake up until 7:15. Is this because she is a morning person, and not a night owl? If so, maybe try the reading and homework in the mornings if you think that she is alert enough to handle it. It may just have to do with the fact that the time you are trying to get her to do homework is not a time of the day that she is naturally alert. Ya know?

 

[GYM0M]

Wow, you guys are lucky with the packets! My 1st grader gets them on Monday to turn in on Friday!

Yes we are very lucky! DD practices 5 nights a week from 3:30-8:00ish. She's in 2nd grade. At the very beginning of the year, I spoke with her teacher and explained that she simply does not have the time. While I agree that school work comes first, experience from my other children (who entered 3rd & 4th grade this year) told me that these packets were strictly for parental participation and curriculum enhancement, not for a grade. The teacher agreed to allow her to turn her packets in on Monday provided that she keep up with her other school work. So far so good, not a grade less than a 98 on her report card!

 

[Mrs Tiggy Winkle]

Thanks everyone, Some great tips there.

Fingers crossed she will get used to it.