Preschoolers and sports

[mjg2043]

My 4yo has hockey class (learning to skate) for 30 minutes a week. He has soccer games once a week for like 45 minutes and one hour practice.

Now dd 7 and HER hockey??? Whole other story!!!

[Psychomom]

At preschool age, usually twice a week for an hour at a time. This held true for soccer & tee ball...all my kids have been in gymnastics from toddlerhood and it's once a week for 45 min-1 hour.

[crunchymom2b]

DS takes a gymnastics class at 2.5 years old. It's 45 minutes once per week. We could do more but the cost is outrageous to us, $145 for 8-10 week sessions, twice that for 2x week and it would be the same class with different kids. We stay with them until they turn 3, then we watch from the other room. We start with a "hello" song then do a tuck n roll, bridge, and handstands 3x each. Then there are usually 3 different activities they go through - obstacle course, trampoline, beams & bars, bounce house, jumping/vault, etc. Then they end with a "goodbye" song and they each get 2 stamps on their hands or feet. DS LOVES it! We hope if he continues to like it to get him onto the team when he's a bitolder.

I hope our soccer and t-ball teams are like that around here! Thanks for posting the info everyone!!!

[alsatia23]

My 4 year old just started soccer this year. We have practice/skills for 30 minutes on Monday evenings for 8 weeks (that's the spring season). We've only had three so far, the first was just a run-around get to know each other and play with the balls practice. The second they kicked the ball back and forth with a partner and then kicked their ball up and down the field into the goal. Last week we had a skills trainer teaching them how to stop the ball and kick it different ways. And then a game every Saturday, the game is four quarters of 10 minutes each with breaks inbetween each quarter (so about an hour total).

I'm not sure if it's just for the youngest age group or all age groups, but for our soccer club, parents volunteer as coaches..

[Kimmyann]

When he played soccer it was just on Saturday mornings for 90 minutes..they didn't have official games just lots of kicking the ball around and skill drills. The first 15 minutes or so was just spent herding the kids up, and a stretching period. Then they would do whatever skills the coach was showing them to do. It was a big group so it took a bit of time to get through all the kids doing the skills.

Now he is in t-ball and he has a 1 hour practice from 6-7pm 1 night a week and a 90 minute practice on Saturday mornings. Generally, they review previous skills taught, learn a new skill, break up into smaller groups to catch and throw with the coaches, then get back into a bigger group at the end to practice hitting and running the bases.
The weeknight practice is not very good for us since my son's normal bedtime is 7:30..on practice nights he doesn't get to bed until almost 9:30.

[mom2LBJ]

DS2 (4, turns 5 in May) has been doing TaeKwonDo for about 9 months. They have a specially designed "ninja" class at our school for 4-5 year olds. They teach basic TKD skills (simple kicks, blocks, short kicking drills, start patterns), fitness (push ups, sit ups, jumping jacks, running, bear crawls, frog jumps etc), self defense/stranger danger and basic TKD commands (counting, ready, bow, etc in Korean). They're short 30 minute classes that are held 2-3 times a day 6 days a week. We take DS2 to a class 3 days a week during the school year and 5 days a week in the summer (indoor play & we can take as many classes as we want with our membership w/no extra charge).

Its more fun & fitness than it is structured "real" TKD at that age, but I like how they tone it down for the age group/attention span. They don't spar or break boards, but they do have fun learning the basic skills while getting an intro for TKD. It also lets DS2 feel included since everyone else in the family also takes classes in martial arts 6 days a week. For now we only enter him in the inner school tournaments and not the bigger ones. They also hold community activities at the school that he participates in like Halloween safety clinics, parents night out, summer camps, Santa visits, birthday parties etc all involving TKD. He really loves it

[*KaiMom*]

Gym-
Once a week for 45 minutes

T-Ball-
For the first 3 weeks there is 2 practices a week for 90 minutes. Then for 6 weeks after that thery only play games, twice a week for 90 minutes and they don't keep score.

[mcpforever]

DD (4.5) does taekwondo 2 days a week for 30 minute sessions. She started at 4.5.