My Actual Idea
ByA couple weeks ago, I made a few posts about kids and sports. In my last post, I spoke of an ‘idea’ I have for how we can help kids get together and play freely on the empty playgrounds of America. In the comment section, my brother-in-law, Sean, talked about a set up he has arranged as a coach for the kids in his area.
Essentially, he has parents/coaches overseeing free play. All the kids come to the park and play pick-up soccer with minimal oversight. I like this idea and believe it would be great for more parents/coaches to buy in. But the idea I thought of is a bit more grassroots than that. In short, it’s this…
Parents more or less force their kids to ride their bikes to their local park or one person’s backyard, in order to meet up with friends. And they can be sure that their kids will meet up with friends because one or a few parents can call around to arrange such a ‘providential’ circumstance.
I trust everyone is following me here. This is what I plan on doing if my kids start struggling in this area. I figure that if the parents can arrange the initial meetings by organizing themselves to all force their kids up to the park or the backyard at one time, such meetings will end up arranging themselves in the end. Because I have to believe that kids will inevitably enjoy their time together and thus, want to enjoy such times again.
It seems best to me to begin in a great backyard. Choose someone’s house with good enough space for a football or wiffle ball game. And a basketball court (of course). Or whatever. Tell the kids in the area that they need to go. When they ask why, tell them they just need to get out and play. Sure, maybe the first couple of times, they won’t know what to do, but eventually they will get going and hopefully, arrange themselves.
Any thoughts out there on this one? Let me know.
2 Comments
July 12th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
I don’t know about all kids, but I know that some kids are pushed out the door to go play outside– generally with neighbor kids and especially in cul-d-sacs. I know my aunts kids are a bit older (3, 6, 11, and 12 if I remember correctly), and she does boot them out, and the kids play on their own with the neighbor kids. They also live in a suburb on a not busy dead end street.
In some ways, I think that this success depends on the parents early on in the child’s life. On the other hand, some kids do not enjoy athletics (or at least group athletics) and would rather ride their bike, and I do not believe that forcing them in to a group game (even without rules) will do much to increase their enjoyment in physical activity for a life time.
It’s been a bit since I read the earlier posts, so I could be all over relative to those, but I think my bumbling words are about almost clear. Like mud.
July 17th, 2009 at 4:00 am
I think it’s a great idea. It would not only spark physical activity and teamwork, but also creativity. I remember when my mom used to send my brother and I outside when we visited our grandparents house. They didn’t have any “cool” sports equipment, so we couldn’t play the sports we loved (football, basketball, baseball). However, it was one of the funnest summers because we invented our own games. One game included a beachball and a wiffle bat. The batter would try to hit the beach ball over the fence with the wiffle-ball bat. If he got a homerun it was ten points. The catch was that the defender stood at the fence, waiting to leap in the air and swat away the ball. There were a bunch of other ways to score points, but all of that is to say that our parents set us up to really be creative, competitive, and active at the same time. It was seriously one of the best summers I’ve experienced. So, I think think your idea is a good one.