Activities for the Homeschooler
When my kids were very little, I wanted to get them involved in some activities. Everyone else was doing it, so I figured that was a good enough reason to plug my kids in somewhere too.
Just kidding.
Anyway, we did ballet and gymnastics, some ice skating and swimming and possibly basket weaving, but it was a long time ago, and my memory is blurry. But after the 3rd child, and when it seemed apparent that more children would join us in the future, we realized that our time and money and energy would not be sufficient to have all our kids involved in a bunch of stuff. Nor was it really necessary, we realized, for our kids to be well rounded individuals, for them to be shuffled off to this and that 5 afternoons a week. Starting from the age of five.
But we still wanted to introduce them to things, especially physical activities. (Music and art is a discussion for another time). But how to choose? How do we decide who gets to do what? And when and how many?
After going around and around, we came up with a set of criteria to help us decide:
1. The sport must lend itself to being done alone or with a friend as well as on a team.
2. The sport needs to be something that a person can do well into old age.
3. They can start this activity at any point in their lives.
And that's about it. It leaves out quite a few sports, but does include: tennis (OK you do need one other person), swimming, ice skating, golf, running, archery, horseback riding. I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones that we dabbled in. But you get the idea. We picked things that could be played as a team sport (and, indeed, I have some kids on a swim team at the local public school.) or could be enjoyed alone or with a friend. We wanted our kids to see the value in enjoying a sport or activity far beyond high school and competitions. We wanted them to develop their skills but also their love of being active for activity's sake.
Sometimes a job presented itself because of being involved in a sport. Sometimes friendships were forged. Sometimes there were lessons to be learned about the limits of one's capabilities, and how to surpass them.
Team sports are fine and can offer a child a wide array of benefits. And I'm not bashing the football or basketball or baseball team at all. But once high school and maybe college is over, sports are over for the vast majority of kids. But if a child has been involved in a sport for the love of the sport, he can carry that with him his entire life. If he can go straight from playing for the team to doing the sports he loves with his friends and family, then that is a win that lasts.
Just kidding.
Anyway, we did ballet and gymnastics, some ice skating and swimming and possibly basket weaving, but it was a long time ago, and my memory is blurry. But after the 3rd child, and when it seemed apparent that more children would join us in the future, we realized that our time and money and energy would not be sufficient to have all our kids involved in a bunch of stuff. Nor was it really necessary, we realized, for our kids to be well rounded individuals, for them to be shuffled off to this and that 5 afternoons a week. Starting from the age of five.
But we still wanted to introduce them to things, especially physical activities. (Music and art is a discussion for another time). But how to choose? How do we decide who gets to do what? And when and how many?
After going around and around, we came up with a set of criteria to help us decide:
1. The sport must lend itself to being done alone or with a friend as well as on a team.
2. The sport needs to be something that a person can do well into old age.
3. They can start this activity at any point in their lives.
And that's about it. It leaves out quite a few sports, but does include: tennis (OK you do need one other person), swimming, ice skating, golf, running, archery, horseback riding. I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones that we dabbled in. But you get the idea. We picked things that could be played as a team sport (and, indeed, I have some kids on a swim team at the local public school.) or could be enjoyed alone or with a friend. We wanted our kids to see the value in enjoying a sport or activity far beyond high school and competitions. We wanted them to develop their skills but also their love of being active for activity's sake.
Sometimes a job presented itself because of being involved in a sport. Sometimes friendships were forged. Sometimes there were lessons to be learned about the limits of one's capabilities, and how to surpass them.
Team sports are fine and can offer a child a wide array of benefits. And I'm not bashing the football or basketball or baseball team at all. But once high school and maybe college is over, sports are over for the vast majority of kids. But if a child has been involved in a sport for the love of the sport, he can carry that with him his entire life. If he can go straight from playing for the team to doing the sports he loves with his friends and family, then that is a win that lasts.
Comments
Post a Comment