11 hours

starting in the fall, my soon to be third grader, Addie will be going to 7 hours of dance and 4 hours of gymnastics every week.  This seems to be a bit overwhelming for an 8-year-old.   I have no idea how this will go.  At first, I was very upset about the dance hours being extended so much.  Last year she went 2.5 hours a week. That seemed like plenty.  This summer she went to 5.5 hours of dance and I was shocked when the fall schedule went up even more. 
The Issues:  money is not the problem here.  NO I am not wealthy or even close but I have been fortunate enough to exchange floor routine choreography for free tuition at her Gymnastics place.  I also will be doing choreography in the Spring for her dance studio, which will help with the cost of her lessons... My concern is whether or not Addie can handle 11 hours a week on top of school every day.  We have discussed options but the bottom line is Addie wants to give it a try.  If she starts to struggle in school or starts to hate what she is doing, we will have to come up with a new arrangement but for now she is progressing nicely in both and at this point it is hard to make her choose between the two.  At some point she will have to.. since the more advanced she gets in both will require even more hours.  She also has the advantage of having little brothers that are still young enough they aren't involved in much yet.  That will also change in the near future.  Really it doesn't require that much from me either since the studios are close enough I can just drop her off and come home and then pick her up several hours later.

 one if the reasons I decided this was ok to try is because even when she is at home she is dancing or tumbling.

 even with friends over she convinces them to make up dances for fun

She is also getting pretty good and it is fun to see her develop her talents.  The funny thing is.. when I ask her what she wants to be when she grows up, she never answers with a dancer or gymnast.  The answer is always Miss America and a professional cheerleader. I guess she needs both tumbling and dance ability to be the professional cheerleader and to be miss America she has got to have a good talent.  Although, we all know that many dreams never turn in to reality.  I am not one to discourage people from trying.

* authors note: I understand that this post is easily controversial. People have strong opinions about having  kids do too much or too little.  I don't care what other parents choose to do with their kids.  I don't think there is a  universal right or wrong answer.  I am also not asking for anyone's opinion.  I have already made up my mind.  But nice comments are always allowed and appreciated :)