On Over- and Under-Scheduling
Mar. 15th, 2016 01:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sakon76Squiddle actually has a pretty busy social calendar for someone who can't even tie his own shoes yet. He has classes at the community college down the street twice a week (Kindergym/Developmental Movement on Tuesday mornings, and Joyful Parenting on Friday mornings), his toddler playgroup Wednesday mornings, my Stroller Striders group (which is basically a mommies' exercise group but he gets to play some with the other kids) Thursday mornings, and Toddler Tumbling on Saturday mornings. Daddy gets to take him to that last one. All of them are ending for the term this week, which is good timing relative to our trip.
The Kindergym class is actually quite popular. I went to sign up for next term 48 hours after the registration window opened. It was already full, and the waitlist was full as well! But this morning Ms. Lori gave some of us long-term students add slips, which I hadn't asked for or expected. So, hooray, Squiddle gets to keep his class schedule next term!
For a while I wondered if I was over-scheduling him, but each group has different activities and playmates in it, and getting him out of the house for an hour or two five days a week doesn't seem that bad. So I don't think I'm pushing him too hard.
Particularly not in light of what Wonderful Husband reported about a couple of the parents at the Tumbling class this last weekend. They were asking the instructor if he offered private lessons.
Private gymnastics lessons. For two-year-olds.
There could be innocuous reasons for this, of course. The next age group up for that class meets earlier in the morning, which might not work with the families' schedules. But somehow the reason which comes more immediately to mind is something more like parents pushing their children to succeed....
I don't care if my child is a professional athlete or admitted to Yale at age 16 or any of that crap. (In fact, we have a list of sports we will actively dissuade him from. Most of them have heightened potential for brain damage or other crippling injury.) I just care that he's happy, healthy, a good person, and getting decent grades.
The Kindergym class is actually quite popular. I went to sign up for next term 48 hours after the registration window opened. It was already full, and the waitlist was full as well! But this morning Ms. Lori gave some of us long-term students add slips, which I hadn't asked for or expected. So, hooray, Squiddle gets to keep his class schedule next term!
For a while I wondered if I was over-scheduling him, but each group has different activities and playmates in it, and getting him out of the house for an hour or two five days a week doesn't seem that bad. So I don't think I'm pushing him too hard.
Particularly not in light of what Wonderful Husband reported about a couple of the parents at the Tumbling class this last weekend. They were asking the instructor if he offered private lessons.
Private gymnastics lessons. For two-year-olds.
There could be innocuous reasons for this, of course. The next age group up for that class meets earlier in the morning, which might not work with the families' schedules. But somehow the reason which comes more immediately to mind is something more like parents pushing their children to succeed....
I don't care if my child is a professional athlete or admitted to Yale at age 16 or any of that crap. (In fact, we have a list of sports we will actively dissuade him from. Most of them have heightened potential for brain damage or other crippling injury.) I just care that he's happy, healthy, a good person, and getting decent grades.
