Parents What to do with DS

[MaryA]

Our local dance studio offers Acrobatics. I'm not sure what age they start, but pretty young, I think. Something to think about for the future after he ages out of the preschool class at least. It would have the tumbling like big sissy does, but in more of a group environment. My daughter has taken it since she was 5. Ironically, we put her in it because her twin sister, Tory, was taking dance and, at the time, Kathy was just in the Saturday AM rec gym class at the Y. Tory got to have dance recitals and Kathy didn't, so we put her in acro so she'd get to be in a recital too. Little did we know that a year later her poor sister would be sitting through a million and one gymnastics meets! The coach has expressed concern that she'll learn bad form in Acro, but it's only one hour a week, and I figure she's not going to learn any worse form than all the girls on the team tumbling on their home trampolines. And, most importantly, she loves it!

 

[clrmom]

I had the same problem when my ds was little. His passion was basketball and all our local leagues wouldn't let you play until you were 7. He was so excited when he turned 7 and was able to play. I did put him in gymnastics (and he ended up competing and was competing by the time he was able to play b-ball) At 9 he quit gymnastics and began focussing on b-ball alone. I really think the early background in gymnastics has really helped him. As he has reached middle school, he added football and track to the table. Gymnastics helped with both strength and flexibility in all these sports and I also feel he has a better work ethic than a lot of the other kids on the teams. Keeping him in a gym class until he is 5 and telling him it will build his strength so he can be a good football player may be just the ticket.

 

[mariposa]

I just wanted to add that reality is, life isn't always fair. So many opportunities in life to teach our kids that and to teach them to celebrate what they DO have and not focus on what they DON'T (even at the age of 4!). We struggle financially and my kids definitely have a lot less and do a lot less than most of their friends. BUT, they also have SO much more than so many kids in this world (a safe home, parents that love them, food on the table, etc) and I want them to understand that. Sure, it might not seem fair to my gymmie that all her teammates go out together and celebrate at restaurants after almost every meet, but it is her reality. So I make sure she really appreciates that she even gets to DO gymnastics because there are plenty of kids with talent or love for some activity that DON'T get to. Your DS seems to be pretty mature for his age so I am sure if you talk to him about it and explain to him that he has to be 5 to play the sports he wants to play and that he has so many other great things, he will be able to understand.

Keeping him in a gym class until he is 5 and telling him it will build his strength so he can be a good football player may be just the ticket.

I had typed up something that was along these lines, but clrmom summed it up nicely.