Are you a Health Conscious parent like me, who wants to introduce your child to a healthy lifestyle by involving him in some sporting activity? In that case, you need to read further before you go ahead and admit him into sports.
If you would have observed, play is the job of a child. He keeps playing one game or another right from the day he was born. When the child is just a baby, he would be shaking his legs, arms, and head to keep himself amused the whole time. There is a reason for that as well. By moving these parts, he is flexing his muscles and strengthening him. Similarly, as a toddler, he would be interested in playing a different set of games. All the different games the child would be interested in playing would not only be just age dependant, but they also cater to his psychological needs.
When a child turns 4/5 most of the parents would like to admit their child into one or the other sporting activity. But, before admitting him into a sporting activity, one needs to take his psychological and physiological needs into consideration.
The child would be ready for team sports like soccer, basketball, or even badminton only after they reach elementary age. Even in elementary children, only the children above 8 years show considerable interest in team sports. Though a 6-year-old child would be taking part in the team sports, he wouldn’t be an active player (bearing few expectations here and there). He would be just be waddling through the gang of other children.
But once, they are ready for team sports, depending on their interest, we can introduce them to soccer, basketball, badminton, and cricket. All the sports would provide the required discipline and make the children follow a healthy lifestyle.
But what about the younger children? They are best suited for individual sports like gymnastics, karate, or even dance. These activities develop their gross motor skills and improve their body to eye coordination. These games would also teach make them gain confidence by providing them the control over each and every individual body part. That in turn, would allow them to overcome their internal fears of heights, falling, tumbling, etc.
Every sport has both positive and negative aspects and as a parent, we need to understand what suits our child better, based on his psychological and physiological needs.
All the sports would instill deeper values about discipline, healthy lifestyle, mental resilience, empathy in the children. But, only a few team sports like cricket, soccer, etc will instill the team spirit into the children. So we as parents have to decide and decide upon the best sporting activity for our children accordingly.
Author’s Note: I am a parenting blogger and a crazy Montessorian who writes about my experiences on Parenting and about my experiments and learnings on the Montessori Education system. My blogs are at:
Shravmusings: My Kid’s window to the World
MommyShravmusings: My Parenting and Books Blog
