Parents Young Kids, Full Day Camp?

[lilmisssunshine]

Hi all,
This is my first post. My son is 6yo and is just finishing up his first 8-week session of gymnastics. For the next session, he'll be taking two hour-long rec classes at the gym. He loves it and seems to be picking things up quickly. He's seen some of the team kids at the gym and wants to get there.
I talked to the coach about team, explaining that I knew that my son had only had a few lessons so far, but that I wanted to know about the process for getting on team, assuming that the interest stays up. To my surprise, the coach said that he's doing well and could possibly join the level 4 team in the fall if he's able to go to at least half of the full-day summer camps and continues to do as well as he's been doing.
I'm wondering if any of you have had your children go to full-day camp at this age. On one hand, I'm thinking, "Wow...40 hours. How awesome for him to be able to do something he loves for that many hours and I'd imagine his skills would improve like crazy." On the other hand, I'm thinking "Wow...40 hours is a lot for such a young kid." To put it into perspective a little more, we homeschool and he's not used to being away from me for so long (though he did it when he was younger and in preschool and after-care).
It's a big investment for us (We're not rich.), but I'd also just love to be able to let him run with it. I worry, though, that he'd not be able to handle the long hours.
I'd love to hear others' experiences.

I'm also wondering if there's some sort of primer out there for newbie parents? I can't seem to find a definitive list of ages and skill sets for team levels, particularly boys.

 

[Seeker]

I guess my first question would be -- what does the day look like? Gymnastics all day? Or are there diff activities in the afternoon? Could he do half days? That is a very long day for a child that young and it is way too many hours to be doing gymnastics, so I'd ask some follow up questions to see what you can work out.

 

[Amusibus]

I think it really all depends on the kid's personality and comfort level with that degree of independence. My son had just turned four when he did a full week of all day gym camp (9-4). He did fine and loved it. Neither of my girls could have done this at that age. Talk to him about it. Try having a long period of away time, like leave with a friends to babysit him for all day, see how he does. Only you know your kid well enough.

 

[skschlag]

FIrst off, welcome Boys and gymnastics is such a fun journey.

I agree with the question, what is the format of the camp? my ds is training level 8, and 40 hours a week woudl be too much for him. That is not really healthy for them either. He will do a week of booty camp that involves a lot of cross training, a week of college camp, with 6 hours a day of training, and a clinic at the ym that is 5 hours a day. All of this is with rock climbing, swimming, running, nerf gun wars, etc.

If the camp is balanced, and you can do it, then give it a try. But I would make sure it isn't just gymnastics. boys need more to do

 

[samsmama]

Welcome, that's great that your son is doing so well! I agree that you should find out what the camp entails exactly. Also, I'd clarify what the coach means about joining the team in the fall. At many gyms, a new level 4 coming on in the fall probably wouldn't be ready to start competing that season (in our area, the boys' season runs late fall through March). I know our coach is inviting boys to join level 4 now so they have enough time to train before the season starts.

If the coach doesn't intend for him to compete in the fall, then it might not be a big deal to skip the camps this summer and have him start training with the team this year to compete the following season.

Come hang out with us on the MAG forum, we can point you in the right direction for learning more about levels, skills, etc.!

 

[lilmisssunshine]

Great points. I'll have to find out more of what they do. My understanding is that it's the rec camp, and that kids can go mornings, afternoons or both. So I'm not really picturing something super hard-core where it's like go-go-go all the time. During his regular class, though, when they have free time, he always goes for the "real" things rather than the "fun" things (e.g. mushroom and rings rather than trampoline or tarzan swing), so if given a lot of free choice in the matter, I'm not sure what he'd pick...

I should also ask about the times and whether a full summer of half-day camps would be just as good (or better/worse) than half of the full-day camps. We definitely can't afford a full summer of full-day (and I don't think I'd want him to do that.).

I think he'd be fine going off on his own. He's done some 4-hour class things (non-gymnastics) without a problem, and I think he'd be super-psyched to be around sporty, co-ordinated kids all the time. I just know that he was a little surprised when I said that if he went full day, I wasn't going to sit around waiting for him (with little sis in tow...). But I also don't want to pay big money and have him want to back out. Probably should also ask if there's a partial refund if he cancels or something.

I should also probably ask the coach again about team. I'd been lurking here for awhile, so I was expecting something more along the lines of "After a year, he could join the pre-team, and then...", so when I asked and the coach said that he'd only be competing at meets in-state, about 2 hours away, and blah blah, I was sort of just smiling and nodding my head as I calculated costs in my head. It was sort of unexpected.

I also don't want to be overbearing gym parent, though. I mean, I fully recognize that my kid's only had 8 lessons.

 

[gymdog]

Is this the only gym in the area? I'm wondering before you sign up to sure a big and probably expensive commitment, if you should look at some other options within a half hour drive and maybe get an evaluation at those places. I don't know how camp or team is run at your gym and every gym is different. But I have to say this sounds like a pretty different method of getting on team. I'm not sure why he wouldn't be moved to a preteam if he is almost ready for team. Usually a rec gymnastics camp is only some gymnastics and I'm not sure if they'll have enough to split it by level for kids who are preparing for team? It's possible they do so I could be off base and that is indeed their preteam for summer. I'm just thinking you might want to compare now rather than commit and then do it down the road after he joins team. It will be harder to switch then.

 

[trampolinemom]

When my DS was 7 year old he did fine in a camp which did 2 gymnastics sessions of 3 hours a day (9-12 and 15-18) . One in the morning and one in the afternoon. Lunch, rest and games in between and some activity (like swimming) early evening. He was pretty tired after camp but really happy.

 

[lilmisssunshine]

Good points. A much closer gym does have an open house coming up, and I know that there's another gym with a good reputation. But I will say that I just really really like this gym. When we took a trial lesson, there was an older boy practicing pommel horse, and he was really good, with his legs flying all over the place. When the regular kids had their 10 minutes of free time, I watched my son walk up to one of the coaches, state that he wanted to be like that big kid, and then have the coaches respond in a positive manner, setting him up with a mushroom and a bucket so he could try it out. I just loved how they said, "Yeah, sure, go for it" rather than saying, "No, that's something you have to wait to do until you're older."
The boys' team coach is also the 2014 state coach of the year, and there's a plaque inside saying that this isn't the first year. Maybe that's not as big of an honor as it seems to be, but it has my attention.

 

[gymdog]

It does sound like a good gym. Does the camp usually fill up? Maybe you could sign up for session 1 and then after that, decide whether to sign up for additional sessions.

 

[Anna's_Mom]

My kids did full day camps of various sorts from the time they were five until they no longer needed supervision while I was at work, so it is definitely possible for many kids this age to handle a full day at camp. Of course, your child may not be there, depending on his level of maturity and independence. But definitely find out the details before coming to any conclusions. At our gym "full day" camp runs from 9:30 - 4 -- completely and totally unhelpful for us two-working-parent families. They do rotations between gymnastics, crafts, snacks and games -- I don't there there is more than 2 (maybe 3 for older kids) hours of actual gymnastics over that time. At the same time though, my DD went to a gymnastics camp that was part day camp and part sleep-away last summer where they did gymnastics, conditioning and dance training for about 6 hours out of the day. So ask lots of questions about the format before deciding. And if you have the option, sign up a week at a time so that if it doesn't work you can do something else instead.

 

[lilmisssunshine]

Well, I'm pretty excited. The gym sent an email today that mentioned summer sessions, so I responded with some questions I had after speaking with you guys. Turns out that there is a special pre-team camp that's only 3 hours a day and significantly less expensive than the full-day rec camp. So it's totally doable for us and I'm so happy for my son. Still need to talk to the coach next time we go in, but I think all is good. Thanks for your help.