“Toddlers and Tiaras“…”Toddlers and Sports“…personally, I would pick sports for my toddler.
But is this a smart idea? Is it a better choice or does it just sound better to me.
Toddlers are really still growing and their bones are not fully hardened which makes injuries more serious when they do happen. According to this post in Parenting.com orthopedists are not proponents of competitive sports for young kids. The reported childhood injuries have increased as more children compete in these sports.
So what are the options?
- Keep activities playful
- Change the activities that a child engages in so that the stress on his bones and muscles are changed as well
- Keep it non-competitive for the toddler…let them just have fun…there is nothing wrong with that.
It is just better not to push our kids…Balance is key.
Knowing what that balance is seems difficult these days.
What do you think about sports for toddlers? What choices have you made?
I would love to hear from you.
http://www.parenting.com/article/toddler-sports?src=soc&dom=tw
I don’t plan to enroll my toddler in organized sports for a long long time, probably until he’s in middle school. Organized sports tend to focus on adults; adults tell kids where to run, where to kick, how to keep score. Imagine if you took a bunch of kids, gave them baseballs and bats, and let them make up their own game. They practice their social skills by making up their own rules, calling shots, and running wherever they all decide to run. I think organized sports is wonderful for older kids, especially high school kids, who can truly benefit from a rigorous and standardized set of rules and games, but for the young ones? They just need to explore and play right now.
I agree that organized sports lose their focus to the parents instead of focusing on the kids learning and having fun while playing. It becomes all about winning almost at any cost even to keeping players “on the bench”. Playing is what is important to toddlers and younger children. Thanks so much for reading and sharing your thoughts.