When it comes to children and activities, we likely all have a struggle to go ahead and help them find something they enjoy. Here’s the thing, many times we aren’t sure when or if our kids will enjoy a sport. I know that with my son, we tried quite a few and his personality just didn’t match it! Finally, we’ve convinced him to follow through on learning to swim (no one wants their child to panic if they fall or push into a pool), but he also found his passion, gymnastics! It happened accidentally. I’ll tell you more about that later.
Have your child give these 5 sports a try
- Soccer – Soccer is a fun game, and even at the young pre-school age, all the kids get involved easily.
- Tennis – Tennis is a game that pretty much everyone gets to play, so once your child has good hand-eye coordination, you can pick up this game. Plus, it is easy to pick up even in late elementary school and still catch up to the “regular” kids (not necessarily the professionals)
- Gymnastics – This is actually an activity that is great on its own, but dancers need gymnastics, so do soccer players and football players too! So, having some basic balance, strength, et cetera is a great basis to have!
- Dance – Both girls and boys love silly dance time. You don’t have to sign up your son for ballet (but even football players need some good foot work!), but most dance studios now have classes which are less specialized and focus more on “music and movement” or “musical theatre” which help to give more exposure to those who are less of the traditional dance type.
- Sports Sampler – I know, I know, this isn’t a sport, but families do overlook the mixed sports classes where kids get to try many different activities. These are often available through the YMCA or your community schools or recreation center.
Accidental Passion
The reason, I recommend having your child try multiple sports is because you may be surprised where their passion actually lies! What happened with us, is that we moved from the US to India in the spring, and when we settled down, sign ups for most sports was over. Our daughter loved dance, and being recital season, no one was taking sign ups! Our new neighbors said “why not give gymnastics a try!” So we said, why not. Since the second kid had a discount, we signed up both kids. It turns out, they both love it and have an aptitude for it!
You’ll see that I actually left out some popular sports. I left them out because I found that they are sports that are a lot of waiting around and young kids just can’t handle that! These sports are like t-ball (in the outfield, max two kids touch the ball. boring!) and golf (take a lot of time to see results).
From my experience, trying multiple sports gives you and your child to see what sport will actually be something they enjoy.
What sports have you given a try?
