Son has had 3x extra curricular activities he's been involved in over the past years:
Boy Scouts
Basketball
Piano (quit about 2 years ago)
Boy Scouts OK. He's on good track of becoming Eagle Scout by 16 or so and likes it.
Plays basketball for school team and AAU clubs. OK player but not outstanding. Always been a "6th man" on team. Can make middle school team but chances of making varsity team by High School is 50/50 at best. He likes athletics a lot but his physical genetics (slim frame, average height) makes it hard for him to excel w/o a lot of work.
Played piano for 5 or so years from high level teachers but quit during end of 5th grade. Got sick of practicing 1-2 hours a day, lost interest in music and liked athletics more. Last MTAC test he took was Grade 6 and passed with honors. Recently talked to him about going back to piano to have chance to pass level 10 test. He could conceivably take the level 8 test next if not worried about passing with honors,etc. He was open to it as long as work was less intense (i.e. practice <45 min a day, no competitions, etc). I told him he would have to practice a lot more closer to test time but he's OK with that.
Anyway,
What choice would make more sense to you:
A) Put all efforts into basketball (private coach, gym, AAU club, etc) to try to get him varsity level by High School.
or
B) Let him play basketball/sports for school (no AAU, private coaches, etc) and take piano lessons mainly to pass MTAC tests. We've read passing MTAC level 10 is nice for college resume but not a game changer unless you are state champ in piano, etc.
My wife and I worry that he's getting into the habit of starting and stopping extra-curricular activities. Like most kids, he shows interest in a lot of different activities but can easily get distracted with too much work. He was involved with a lot of things during 6th grade and it ended up over extending himself and it hurt his grades. He's currently just playing school sports now but basketball season is coming up.
Any suggestions or ideas are welcome.
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