I am requiring both children to pick a sport from the YMCA offerings and follow through with it. It's a requirement because "be comfortable playing pick-up games" and "have lifelong fitness habits" are two items on my Goals List for the kids.
Following through is more of a challenge, because I myself am not comfortable with sports, especially anything involving a ball. I've never played any sport, but the kids need me to participate at games and practices and to go out and practice with them.
My husband didn't really do any sports either, having dropped out of baseball "when they took the T away", and he's not around enough to work with the kids anyway. So I have found myself the only Mom in a gym full of dad's trying to throw and catch a football with Hypatia. (A horrible experience, but it showed me I just need to play around with balls at home more)
I went out and bought a baseball mitt so I can try and play catch with Carbon. It's a bit frustrating, but Carbon's comment is "Mommy is really bad at baseball, but it's good that she's trying".
And that's all that I expect of the kids, so at least I'm modeling the idea. Carbon is not "sporty" so far, but that doesn't mean he can't get out and have fun and stay fit. It remains to be seen with Hypatia - she's actually pretty good and she's a fast little runner.
But we aren't looking to be "good at" sports, and I want to avoid unhealthy competition. This is about community, health, and fun, and that's the place that sports have in my priority list.
I think the skateboarding they do counts too. And of course the swimming. Team sports work out well for some, but I am fairly convinced by my own experiences they aren't for us all.
ReplyDeleteI think M. is going to end up taking dance lessons when we get together the money. Both are doing swimming, and K. has done ice skating.
At home, they like skateboarding and bike riding.
We tried soccer last summer, and even though it was super pee-wee friendly, the kids weren't ready. They kept running off the field to go roll down a hill by the field LOL. I think we'll wait through this summer before trying again next summer. 5 and 6 seem like perfectly reasonable ages at which to start soccer for the average kids. Meanwhile, G. got the kids lacrosse sticks and a ball to play around with (she's gradually giving them info about the actual game), and she also has been doing T-ball with them out at her parents house.
We play catch all the time at home, but not yet at large distances (more like at a few feet distance). We have various sports gear that gets taken out occassionally for at-home or at-park use: roller blades, footballs, frisbees, hackie sacks, etc.
Since we have a pool (assuming we can finally get it to go back from its green shade to the usual blue one of these days), they'll be swimming nearly everyday this summer.
I'm not sure if we'll do a lot of team sports yet. K is for now very shy around groups, and M is intimidated by competitive activities. I'm still trying to figure out whether pushing them on those two issues would even be effective, or if it would just make all of us feel frustrated.