Keeping Your Child Busy

I'm going into this blog with an open mind as I do not have any children of my own...this is just a thought I had based off of personal experiences. We have many parents and students who come to us and say something along the lines of: we need to take a break, it's just too much right now. We completely understand how hard it is to maintain a routine when you have a lot going on. Especially with school and other extra curricular activities.

When I'm approached with statements such as this one, I have so many questions. And the questions arise in my brain because I know what it's like to stay busy every single day. Growing up, Monday-Friday my schedule looked a little like this: Wake-up 5 am, 5:30 am swim practice, 7 am breakfast (in the car), 7:30 am go to school, 2:50 pm leave school, 3:30 pm ANOTHER swim practice, 6 pm go home eat dinner, 7 pm homework & practice piano/violin/viola, 10 PM sleep and then wake up the next day at 5 am to do it all over again. ​

Now, I know everyone is different and we all can't handle the same schedules but the direction I think I'm going in is that it was the best thing my parents did for me. Now that I'm an adult, maintaining that busy routine and working my butt off really paid off for what the real world has shown me so far. It wasn't easy, but I'm so glad I stayed active. It taught me how to manage time, how to get things done, how to focus. Not only that, school was stressful...I loved it, don't get me wrong, but I would much rather have swum and played instruments all day long -- swimming and music didn't stress me out. If anything, they were outlets to relieve stress. I know I'm a bit biased. I do run a Music Business and I would love to have all the students in the world. BUT, don't strip away extra curricular activities when stress seems to rule your world. They actually might be helping you out more than you know (:

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