Not Just Sports
Growing up, I played ball. What I lacked in natural ability, I like to think I made up with in heart. Still all those basketball, softball, volleyball and even football games compares nothing to watching Baby Girl play, that tops it all.
In talking with friends tonight as our kids roasted marshmallows for smores (Baby Girl kept calling them snores) around a campfire, he said that he never could imagine one of his kids not being athletic. He got a athletic scholarship in college and now is a coach. His wife also got a athletic scholarship and is still active today. How would either one of them enjoy or even relate to a non athletic child?
Welp, they got the chance to answer that question after the birth of their first child. The second child is a natural athlete but not the first. Shocking him, he quickly learned that he would feel no difference between the two. He loves watching one excel in sports but feels the same pride and adrenaline rush when watching his first performing in musicals and plays.
I know exactly how he feels. Baby Girl is a natural born athlete. She's so much fun to watch when playing basketball and softball. I'm hoping to get her into tennis this summer and maybe gymnastics at some point. Little Man is on the other end of the spectrum. He's not athletic, competitive or physical. But when he won the Spelling Bee this year, well it was every bit as exciting as the best game Baby Girl ever played. When he got 1st in the Science Fair, I was beyond proud as when Baby Girl hit her home run at the end of the season.
Although there aren't competitions for building (or none that I know of), when Little Man builds with his Lego's, hot wheels tracks and Knex stuff, it's amazing. He spends hours creating in his room scrutinizing over each piece. He can follow manuals to a tee to create all sorts of creatures and machines. Then, he can turn around and create something equally as cool straight from his imagination. I'm astonished with both. I couldn't do anything like that on my own or by following directions. He also loves to write and can draw like you wouldn't believe.
While he's not naturally athletic, he loves the comradery of being on a team. Right now, the only team activities offered centers around sports. But in the future, I can so see him doing academic bowls, debate teams, in book clubs and participating in a science clubs. Maybe he'll be one of those science kids on the David Letterman Show. Dad mentioned that he might try golf. It's a team sport but is not physical but extremely mental. I'm thinking about putting him a summer program like Hook a Kid on Golf which teaches him the basics of the game and he'll walk away with his own clubs, golf bag and such.
I know those activities are not nearly as popular as sports, but for me, there's no difference. I watch the softball championship and dream of Baby Girl there one day. When I see Little Man lost in a world of Lego's, I dream of him as an engineer or architect. It's funny, after he won the Spelling Bee, he mentioned that he thinks it increased his popularity, maybe kids, like me, are beginning to appreciate things other than just sports, at least for a few days.
In talking with friends tonight as our kids roasted marshmallows for smores (Baby Girl kept calling them snores) around a campfire, he said that he never could imagine one of his kids not being athletic. He got a athletic scholarship in college and now is a coach. His wife also got a athletic scholarship and is still active today. How would either one of them enjoy or even relate to a non athletic child?
Welp, they got the chance to answer that question after the birth of their first child. The second child is a natural athlete but not the first. Shocking him, he quickly learned that he would feel no difference between the two. He loves watching one excel in sports but feels the same pride and adrenaline rush when watching his first performing in musicals and plays.
I know exactly how he feels. Baby Girl is a natural born athlete. She's so much fun to watch when playing basketball and softball. I'm hoping to get her into tennis this summer and maybe gymnastics at some point. Little Man is on the other end of the spectrum. He's not athletic, competitive or physical. But when he won the Spelling Bee this year, well it was every bit as exciting as the best game Baby Girl ever played. When he got 1st in the Science Fair, I was beyond proud as when Baby Girl hit her home run at the end of the season.
Although there aren't competitions for building (or none that I know of), when Little Man builds with his Lego's, hot wheels tracks and Knex stuff, it's amazing. He spends hours creating in his room scrutinizing over each piece. He can follow manuals to a tee to create all sorts of creatures and machines. Then, he can turn around and create something equally as cool straight from his imagination. I'm astonished with both. I couldn't do anything like that on my own or by following directions. He also loves to write and can draw like you wouldn't believe.
While he's not naturally athletic, he loves the comradery of being on a team. Right now, the only team activities offered centers around sports. But in the future, I can so see him doing academic bowls, debate teams, in book clubs and participating in a science clubs. Maybe he'll be one of those science kids on the David Letterman Show. Dad mentioned that he might try golf. It's a team sport but is not physical but extremely mental. I'm thinking about putting him a summer program like Hook a Kid on Golf which teaches him the basics of the game and he'll walk away with his own clubs, golf bag and such.
I know those activities are not nearly as popular as sports, but for me, there's no difference. I watch the softball championship and dream of Baby Girl there one day. When I see Little Man lost in a world of Lego's, I dream of him as an engineer or architect. It's funny, after he won the Spelling Bee, he mentioned that he thinks it increased his popularity, maybe kids, like me, are beginning to appreciate things other than just sports, at least for a few days.
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