Thursday, May 3, 2012

When is the right age for children to play sports?

My oldest son goes a mile a minute. He has the most insane amount of energy and he doesn’t stop unless he is asleep {NO exaggeration}. There is no down time, there is no resting and relaxing, he is a go getter who never slows down.
 
This can make following directions a challenge. It is not that he doesn’t listen… he is a very good listener when I can get him to focus. It is the slowing down to focus part that can be a challenge. I know he hears me. There is NO WAY that he has learned to tune me out this early in his life!
 
I have taken multiple classes through the park district with my firstborn since he was a baby. We took tumbling classes, music classes, art classes, pre-pre-school classes, and now we have taken a karate class. As a side note - I am not sure how wise enrolling him in karate was. He tends to kick and hit everything around the house now while he yells “Hiyah!”

I give him kudos for performing the moves correctly. He obviously paid attention in class when the instructors were teaching the routine. He has the punch-punch-hammer down pat. But once the routine is over he starts running circles around everyone… literally. He gets up and does laps around the kids in his class. This is obviously something that we are going to have to work on.

I do understand that I am raising boys and that boys typically have a lot of energy and are often quite rambunctious. I do not think that there is anything wrong with my child. He is a typical 3 year-old boy. My concern is the age appropriateness of enrolling him in sports and/or activities that require a lot of directions. Is it worth it at this early stage of his life or is it just glorified babysitting?


I want to enroll my son in t-ball and soccer this year and am now questioning this decision. I feel that he benefits from taking these classes from the exposure alone. Even if he does not remember everything he learns in these classes he is being exposed to how a class works and what is expected of him. He is socializing with peers and getting to burn off some of his endless supply of energy. I keep going back and forth on this decision. More likely than not, my son will be participating in one sport or another this year. I guess we will see how it goes.







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