@cinnamon1212 something you said in another thread about your son being focused on getting the best grades he could junior year made me think about this and I was wondering if you can share your experience of this. I’m particularly focused on junior year because that is the year/season most kids need to be seen by college coaches and that is an academically intense year (many kids are taking 3-4 APs).
I think there are others here as well who played an outside sport while at prep school - if your child’s outside sport was super intense DURING a school semester can you share your “how we made it through” experience?
(if your child was able to only play their outside sport in the summer please don’t relay that experience, sadly it doesn’t help my kid at all because his sport is all spring and super intense)
My kid played HS soccer and track as well as club soccer which is year round. Even though we knew she would be very busy with school we felt that playing sports is an outlet for her which she really enjoys. Our thinking was that the time spent away from studying would actually help her focus more. This approach seemed to work out for us because she had her strongest semester in the spring (straight A, not even an A-). Of course every kid is different.
I expect my son had an easier time on the club sports front b/c his club team was made up entirely of prep school kids. Also, I live near the school so was available if driving was needed.
It does really all come down to good time management (in addition of course to making the logistics work). I’ve written before of my 2 older sons who had terrible time management skills, and who could never have juggled club sports + boarding school. On the other hand, my youngest juggled two boarding school sports equivalents (sports + school play), club sports, top grades and a girlfriend during junior year, so I’ve really seen the spectrum of what kids are able to do – and it all comes down to the individual kid. Some will struggle under the same circumstances and others will sail through.
So I guess this isn’t terribly helpful with specifics as to how to make it work!
@one1ofeach you got me a little excited. I know from past posts that your son is a junior, so does this mean that the school will be allowing them to do club now?
@TonyGrace my kid wishes! Goes to same school as @one1ofeach and they weren’t allowing club play even for day students. Hoping her post might mean she knows something and they are opening up.
Certainly time management is a big part of it. The other thing I’ve found is to make sure they know that it’s OK to skip practice if they have to much school work. My S23 is in a year round club sport and I always find we are always trying to strike a balance to make sure he doesn’t;t get burnt out.
Nope😞 kids still have to go virtual to do any outside activity.
This is really a struggle for us. I know that seems so privileged but school is tearing my kids heart out right now. He will go virtual in a bit and is terrified he won’t do well in school. The school has NOTHING set up to support virtual kids. For all the good it’s done getting kids into the classroom, flinging the virtual kids to the wind is kind of sad.
@one1ofeach Yup although, lucky to have summer too for main sport. She’s frustrated that she continues to miss training and most peers will have had over 6 months more by then. From OP, doesn’t sound like summer is possible for your son?
If your son’s a junior already, are you asking how to balance zoom classes and club? I’m curious if our school also requires remote kids to do some kind of virtual after school activity. I witnessed mine doing a virtual club over break and was shocked how much time it took up, but it is a passion, so her choice. It doesn’t seem right, though, for the school to make a kid zoom for another 2 hours doing some virtual activity that they might have no interest in.
Our close family friend goes to a similar prep school and decided to go remote this term for basketball. Says it was best decision because now has more time to study, so anticipates a GPA bump in addition to getting to play the sport.
Mine has gone back and forth all year about choosing in person, and as much as we believe everything happens for a reason, there will always be the what ifs.
That is so interesting about a bump in grades while virtual. Mine does not anticipate that AT ALL. And that suspicion was confirmed by a Dean. Two classes require a lot of peer cooperation and during winter term when we were all virtual it was incredibly difficult. I also don’t see how class participation can work - mine has told me that kids in his classes who are virtual basically do not participate and he knows they are talkers because he knew them before. He expects to barely scrape by while virtual.
No, afternoon activities are not required so extra time might help, but as I said, it didn’t help over winter term . Also, you loose so much time at tournaments on the weekend I think he will actually have less time all in all while away from school.
Summer yes but cannot wait till summer. Coach will not accept him back if he misses that much.
although, lucky to have summer too for main sport. She’s frustrated that she continues to miss training and most peers will have had over 6 months more by then. From OP, doesn’t sound like summer is possible for your son?
. Also, you loose so much time at tournaments on the weekend I think he will actually have less time all in all while away from school.