I am at a point of looking at choices for DD6, since some sport require more commitment at 7 already, and looking at my own history. I was a highly competitive figure skater and spent my summers in Colorado Springs, waking up at 4 to be on the ice at 4:50 (this was my 6 days a week summer schedule).
I am going to interject a positive I just heard yesterday, then get back to my opinion. Heard of a really smart girl, perfect scores on the SAT, now at Harvard, went through regular public schools in NJ. The difference for Harvard was the fact that she was a strong fencer and she is co-captain of their fencing team. No athletic scholarship but fencing put her over the top for college admission.
Anyway, if your child gets to the Olympic team level, there is little room for other extracurriculars. I remember holding on to piano and ballet for a little while but by 14 there wasn't anything but skating. I had skipped a couple of grades by then and school was still easy so keeping up at school was not a problem and I missed about 1/4 of the school year to go skate during the day.
If your child really wants to pursue a sport, I think they are going to really push. I am hoping DD doesn't and can participate in a range of things.
Even travel gets cut-off when you have to commit to a sport. If DD went to preteam on gymnastics next year, she would have to go 4:30-7 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We cannot even make that commitment because her science class at the museum is only on one night and the age group meets on that particular night, no option, and we are not going to cut science for gymnastics.
Ren
