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Mumofthree

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  1. Again thank you for your replies. Agree with the above and will bide time waiting until he is ready. I sadly also agree with the comments about pressure on girls. My DD is also far too aware if her weight. She's far from fat but she's muscly and does have a naturally curvy body that when she slouches she looks bigger than she is. She had a sickness bug last week and lost 2lb and she was delighted. I was mortified! Kids this young dancers or not shouldn't even be vaguely concerned with these matters. ?
  2. Thank you so much for your comments. Sadly at my sons age there arnt many boys that dance. 2 a fair bit younger than him and none then until grade 4+ we are kind of restricted looking elsewhere at the moment as my daughter is thriving where she is and the teaching is super. He'll continue with freestyle for now and I just hope that he soon hits that magic age where he is less concerned with what other people think. Hubby/daddy would be very supportive of him doing ballet but I will make sure he sees other male role models who can inspire him to dance too xx
  3. My teeny tiny boy is 5 on Tuesday. He's obsessed with ballet (thanks to older sister also obsessed). His body is new and young but it's clear to see he's got a good body for dance. He role plays at being a ballet star like Polunin or Acosta, his sister is his teacher in the games. He dances beautifully for his teeny tiny Age. But he won't attend class (he does street dance and freestyle and his teacher begs him to do ballet but he won't). He's so sadly been indoctrinated to think boys do football and girls do ballet. How do we get over this? At what age do these stereotypes go out the window ? Mums of boy dancers fill me with hope? Xx
  4. Thank you so much for your comments very helpful. I will wait and see what happens at the final audition in April and if she gets through I'll drop a few messages for your advice xx thanks
  5. My daughter has literally just Turned 7 and is progressing (well admittedly) through rad grade 1 so she's I would imagine One of the least experienced dancers auditioned. We are delighted however she has been called back for finals on April 2nd. Her dance teacher however is skeptics about the project and seems to think virtually all who audition will be cast as it's in her opinion an easy way to gain the termly fees and whilst DD is so young it might not be worth our money. Does anyone know what the cast/audition ratio is? Is it worth the time and money for such a newbie dancer? Xx
  6. Ok so I'm speaking hyperthetically but what if DD was offered a place in vocational training in year 7 but didn't get funding (via the audition process) but me and DH could stretch and pull money from equity etc to pay for first year would DD get the opportunity to apply for funding in year 8? Or even for those families on a high income say above 90k where they are not eligible for funding, what protects their DC's place if their income drops and they can't afford it any more? Is there individual insurance that can support this. This probably won't be relavent to me but I'm just intrigued at how it all works X
  7. thanks so much for this, I agree, and I guess im going to just have to sit back and be patient for some years and see what will be will be. I am grateful that I have learnt from posts such as yours that even if she doesn't get on JA schemes or get vocational placement in year 7 it doesn't mean its the end of the road. I think this is what I initially thought which was part of the reason I wanted to 'plan ahead' to get the ball rolling and get her in as best condition to apply for the JA schemes, and yes we will still apply next year but I wont let it cause heartbreak if no places are offered as I have learnt from this forum that a 'yes' is far more often than not preceded by a lot of 'no's'. I think its a bumpier journey than I had anticipated but one perhaps filled with more opportunities and choices than I realised.
  8. Blimey it's all so complicated. As said earlier if if was a bit more transparent we'd all understand if a bit better.
  9. I agree with you peanut68 - I think to some extent schools probably shouldn't even charge for the auditions but again if there was more transparency with funding then yes maybe fewer would apply and yes maybe some talented dancers would slip the net - but surely this is the case in absolutely any profession where talent is concerned, there's inevitable going to be academic kids who don't end up in academic professions for similar reasons - but I don't see the point in auditioning if you cant afford to follow through with the training and I guess that's why I posted in the first place, I know its impossible to get a finite answer but I would love to be able to sit there with a calculate and say 'yes we'll be able to afford it lets go for it' or 'no this is not possible lets get off this train before any heartbreak'. again to some extent my daughter is 6 nearly 7 - she's teeny compared to many and I'm the first to admit so so so many things may change her path/talent/mind but I would like to put a vague plan for the future, we will able to apply for JA schemes next year as shell be 8 next feb so could start a year in sept, but what's the point if we cant afford to continue on that path. yes shell get the training, yes she'll enjoy it but in reality whats the end result? going back to comprehensive school and her talent ends up wasted.
  10. yeah you see i guess everyones financial situation is individual and I do have friends who have a greater household income but as they have significantly greater mortgages/debt/other children they don't have the same disposable income as we do which is why I feel fortunate that we are able to afford to send our children to so many classes and activities. I really am so grateful for that because I know many families just cant even afford that. I'm also fortunate in the respect that yes our household income is 'low' compared to most but its because I only work 18hrs a week (currently on maternity leave) and I do that so that we don't have to pay for childcare, and so that I'm around for my kids and I'm able to take them to classes and activities and generally give them the best life we know how. If I worked full time our wages would increase significantly but then I simply wouldn't have the time to be taking them to lessons so I don't think you can compare one person to the next in that way. I do feel however the funding process could be more transparent though. it is confusing and for people like me that want to plan for the future id like to be able to say yes or no whether we can afford for my DD to go to vocational training in the future and then id know how much time and effort and money to put into her dancing in these early years. I know its not as simple as this but it would be nice to say 'ok yes my DD meets 'x' criteria in terms of ability and talent and so this means we will be eligible for 'x' amount of funding. that way at least people know where they stand rather than sending their kids through the stress of auditions and setting them on this path only to even be offered a place and not be able to afford it. I cannot imagine the heartbreak of this. if it was me auditioning I would rather be told I was poor and didn't meet the level of talent required rather than be told here yes have a place and then not be able to afford it. I think DH and I would end up being on of those couples who ends up remorgaging the house rather than tell our DD she cant go because we cant afford it but then again I do fully appreciate not everyone has that equity in their property either.
  11. Thank you yes I do agree. She just lives for dancing. This said she's academic too so you are all very right, who knows how the future will play out. She does do LAMDA and street dance (more so because her younger brother is too timid to do it without her) - she was doing recreational gymnastics but got quite bored with that. The classes where over full and she spent 80% of the class time queuing for her turn to go on the equipment. I think I'm just going to chill this year whilst on maternity leave and try not to over plan and try and over think the future and when I'm back at work finances will be a touch easier and she'll be edging towards being 8 so we'll be in a better position of seeing where her heart lies in things. Yeah the funding process I guess is fair and I suppose it's just a shame there isn't more funding abailible especially when kids are deemed talented enough to make it through final auditions but then not get the funding. I'll certainly keep using this forum. None of her school friends dance so they all think I'm perhaps a bit nuts stretching myself but then only we know how much she loves her dancing currently. I guess at this stage it is just dreaming but then if we didn't dream we'd never have anything to strive for xx
  12. Lema - you see the situation your in is the one that concerns me most, her being offered a place then not funding and we simply wouldn't be able to afford it so she'd have to miss out or like you reapply. You'd think they would work the funding on to those that 'need' it most as the priority over the talent level, it seems this way you might have parents who are very affluent and would be able to afford standard fees Being offered funded places. I understand their contributions are higher but it makes me sad when lower income families have to miss out.
  13. Does anyone know figures about how many kids are accepted onto the courses versus how many are offered funding?
  14. Thanks Lisa and taxi for ballet. Xx
  15. Thanks. Feel a bit more relaxed now having spoken to you guys. We will chill out for a year and will look at JA next January (she will turn 8 next february) thanks
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