WAG School work

[Jard.the.gymnast]

So school is starting again soon (or for some it has already started). I'll have a demanding schedule next year with 16 hours of outside activities. I'm going into 11th grade, so the results are getting more important in that they count towards graduation.

I know a lot of the kids are high achievers and straight A students. So how do you manage it? Is sleep sacrificed? Occasionally skipping practice?

Very curious

 

[MILgymFAM]

My DD is going into senior year. It’s easy to say that she balances it all because she’s homeschooled, but she’s been a full time college student plus a full-time high school student for almost two years now. I think the greatest benefit is the wider flexibility in college scheduling. What she has sacrificed over the years is tv/phone/lazy time, and time with her friends. She’s sleeps and eats better than most teens I know, and has perfect grades. She’s always working on something though.

 

[gymisforeveryone]

For my girls, it varies. Some do it just fine and some struggle occasionally. For upper secondary school and high school, we have two schools that offer one kind of sports academy for the kids who do competitive sports and have goals set high. The schools give them a lot of credit for morning practices starting in high school. In upper secondary school they don't get credit but they have "empty space" in their school schedule two days in a week in the mornings to have morning practice. These schools are very flexible about missing practice to go to camps, meets and other sport related events. At camps, we have a teacher who is available to help them with school work during "study hours".

The ones who struggle the most are in high school and have some kind of learning difficulties like dyslexia. They take days off to study for the more important tests and if they have more homework to do. When one of my girls had finals last year, she chose to skip one competition to be able to orientate her mind to the test.

But in general, schools don't give that much home work and the girls are able to do some of the homework at school during recess time. And they finish it after or before practice.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Organisation. In a lot of cases, the kids who are really busy with activities outside school are far more efficient with their studies, because they have to be. Interestingly when you have an hour to do something it will often take and our, and when you have five hours it will take five hours.

 

[gymmutti]

Yes - sleep is sacrificed for my kid - probably more than needs to be but she's a perfectionist and isn't satisfied with 'good enough'. I'm not sure how she's going to handle this year with 5 AP and 2 dual enrollment classes while trying to keep all of the other balls in the air. We've already talked and worse case, she'll talk with her coaches about reducing hours and potentially moving to an event specialist (she does not want to retire). She's hoping it won't come to that. Good news for her - she has no really late practice nights this year AND she can drive to school which means she can wake up later in the morning.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Good luck to you. I am sure you manage it all.

My kid is not there yet. She will be starting middle school this year along with accelerated math so I know things are going to step up. We get her schedule next week, I am hoping there is a study hall to help with homework. And if her teachers follow district policy (which doesn't always happen) homework, projects etc.... should be sent out with enough time to manage it. We'll see.

Along with that she now needs to be on the bus 40 mins earlier then she is used to getting up (and her natural body clock), combined with her soon to be teen body wanting to stay up later/sleep later.

I'm pretty sure sleep will be an issue, even if she wasn't doing gym.

I'm expecting a rough few weeks as she settles into whatever this new normal will be.

 

[profmom]

11th grade was tough for both of my offspring who've survived it, including one of my gymnasts. They were both late developers, so they had the additional challenge of enduring significant growth spurts while trying to manage the school workload and extracurriculars. What worked for us was making sure healthy food was always available and for them, not being afraid to get the extra sleep when they needed it. My daughter in particular is a champion napper, but even she occasionally had to take a day off gym here or there because she was just too exhausted. I think those days off probably prevented injuries. Both also did a really good job of getting on top of big projects early so they rarely found themselves in crises requiring heroic efforts. When it happened, it tended to happen in relation to group projects. The other piece of advice I have is to make sure that you are really clear with other group members what your time constraints are if you have to do major projects with other students.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

My oldest (jr in HSand also doing college classes) is not a gymnast but a serious dancer (similar commitment and schedule). Sleep and social life are the sacrifices.

 

[esor]

My DD is a freshman this year and her homework load seems insane. She gets up at 5:45 am and on the bus at 6:30. School until 2:25, practice from 3 until 7, home at 7:30 . Eats dinner while doing her homework, and has consistently finishes up at around 10:30 or 11 every night for her first 2 weeks of HS. It is crazy. She credits eating healthier (a major focus this school year) as the reason she is able to handle it.

She doesn't consider it a miss for social life, as she has great teammates she practices with and they are close friends. Weekends she spends more time with her school friends and with her phone .

 

[bookworm]

The school my girls went to had all their books on an IPad and they made good use of their time in the car (2 hours at least, each way) by doing homework. Like Aussie Coach said, organization was key....they were highly organized and used any bit of free time to do their schoolwork.

They tended to do a lot on the weekends to get ahead for the week as well. I really can't remember them skipping a practice for homework because they always seemed to be on top of it from the get go.

 

[Texasmomof3]

My dd leaves practice early when she has to. They practice 5 hours per day, so I don't mind having her leave after 4 hours when she has a heavy homework load. She is in high school with 6 classes (4 APs). She warns up on heavy homework nights that she will need to leave early. She also works ahead on weekends and on nights when she has light homework. She uses free time at school to do homework, time in the car to do homework or nap, weekends to catch up on homework.

The good news is that her gym varies the practice schedule, so when she leaves early, she doesn't miss the same event each time.