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TC3033
Guest
I’m not sure where you’re at, but here most club sports end before HS.
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phil19034
Guest
Honestly, I am a little baffled by this.
- if one wants a chance for professional sports or the olympics, then the “elite” travel teams is the best way to do
- school sports typically do not start until 7th grade. So you would still need to utilize local youth leagues until then.
- groups like Little League Baseball / Babe Ruth Baseball
- CYO leagues
- American Legion leagues
- local competitive, youth soccer leagues
- youth bowling leagues
- youth golf leagues
- Pop Warner Football
- youth competitive skiing leagues
- youth swim teams
etc
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choose_to_love
Guest
“. . . and I have three words for you” Hmmmm 
blackforest
Well-known member
She indicated that she lives in a rural area. I’m not sure how many of these amenities are available to her. We’ve been spoiled with a homeschool P.E. co-op, Little League for baseball, and affordable sports instruction through parks & rec. But we also live in a decently sized town.
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phil19034
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OK. But even in most rural areas (I grew up in one) they typically have sports other than govt run rec leagues.phil19034:
She indicated that she lives in a rural area. I’m not sure how many of these amenities are available to her. We’ve been spoiled with a homeschool P.E. co-op, Little League for baseball, and affordable sports instruction through parks & rec. But we also live in a decently sized town.
Honestly, most rural areas have better local, outdoor sports programs than many suburban & urban areas because of the abundance of land.
But irregardless, sports should not be a reason not to homeschool. Plus, like I said before, school sports don’t start until 7th grade anyway.
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Irishmom2
Guest
Had to laugh at this. What is the third word?
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Kramgen
Guest
It was a homeschool joke.
Where I live (so cal) there are club sports for all ages.
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Peeps
Guest
Maybe your children won’t be interested in any sports.
Or maybe they’ll be interested in a singles sport rather than a team sport, e.g., running, cross-country, snowboarding, etc.
It’s important to follow your child’s “natural bent.” Some kids truly hate being on a team and would rather work by themselves. Others thrive on team life. You’ll have to wait and see. And I personally don’t think parents can influence a child too much in one direction or the other. I think “team vs. singles” is part of a person’s genetic makeup, and although they can learn to accommodate something that isn’t their “bent,” they are much happier and more productive if they can be in their preferred setting.
My daughters were (and still are, at ages 37 and 34) figure skaters, but they loved (and are still involved with) synchronized skating, which is a team sport. So I have kids that like both team and singles sports!
Or maybe they’ll be interested in a singles sport rather than a team sport, e.g., running, cross-country, snowboarding, etc.
It’s important to follow your child’s “natural bent.” Some kids truly hate being on a team and would rather work by themselves. Others thrive on team life. You’ll have to wait and see. And I personally don’t think parents can influence a child too much in one direction or the other. I think “team vs. singles” is part of a person’s genetic makeup, and although they can learn to accommodate something that isn’t their “bent,” they are much happier and more productive if they can be in their preferred setting.
My daughters were (and still are, at ages 37 and 34) figure skaters, but they loved (and are still involved with) synchronized skating, which is a team sport. So I have kids that like both team and singles sports!
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ZemD
Guest
Thank you so much everyone for all the replies!
I’m going to try to answer everyone at once.
I haven’t been able to reach anyone at our local school district yet, there is no one at the school currently, all our schools are closed here until fall. I do plan to call once life is “normal” again. I do hope our local district would let our kids try out, that would be the easiest solution!
I am asking specifically at when our kids are older, high school age sports. I do understand until that level it will be recreational leagues.
I understand my kids are young. I wanted to gather some information from other homeschoolers as I start to look at homeschool programs for my oldest son in the next year to two years.
I understand my kids may not want to play a sport, but I expect that they might and wanted to get some ideas.
And in no way would we base our child’s education on an opportunity to play sports.
I’m going to try to answer everyone at once.
I haven’t been able to reach anyone at our local school district yet, there is no one at the school currently, all our schools are closed here until fall. I do plan to call once life is “normal” again. I do hope our local district would let our kids try out, that would be the easiest solution!
I am asking specifically at when our kids are older, high school age sports. I do understand until that level it will be recreational leagues.
I understand my kids are young. I wanted to gather some information from other homeschoolers as I start to look at homeschool programs for my oldest son in the next year to two years.
I understand my kids may not want to play a sport, but I expect that they might and wanted to get some ideas.
And in no way would we base our child’s education on an opportunity to play sports.
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Peeps
Guest
I kinda sorta agree with you except for one thing–college scholarships.
I have so many friends whose children attended or are attending college on a full ride SPORTS scholarship. I’m not talking about professional sports careers–these kids are just fairly skilled in their sport and are willing to work for their college in exchange for attending the college without having to pay money (or relying on their parents to pay).
This is a “prize” that is worth thinking about. I’m not saying you should move to a city just to be in a place where your children have the opportunity to play sports and get “noticed” by colleges.
But if, as your children get a little older, they seem to have some degree of skill in a sport, it might be worth thinking about going for that college scholarship, unless you are financially in a position where college costs are not daunting to you and your husband.
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ZemD
Guest
We have discussed this possibility. My husband was an athlete and made it to an AA team. If our kids seemed to be particularly talented I think we would try to pay for a “travel/elite” type team at that point so they could be scouted. I understand your point!
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TC3033
Guest
I wasn’t thinking about “off season” clubs. Where I’m at (for HS kids) There’s some winter club hockey, pretty limited basketball (if you’re going to play in season), baseball/softball and soccer (because baseball, and here soccer, is a summer sport so there’s summer club after spring HS season/before fall).
Club hockey is more-or-less for the kids that couldn’t make their HS teams, or a coach will tell a goalie to play club for a year (or two) rather than sitting on the bench all season.
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TC3033
Guest
I assumed that youth leagues were already “on the board” and we were skipping to HS.
In some places, if you want a chance to play in HS it takes playing “off season” elite too.
Not to mention that if a player doesn’t utilize youth sports, unless you’re at a small enough school that takes everyone, it’s really…really hard to make a HS team.
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phil19034
Guest
What do you mean by “recreation leagues”? Because I would not consider Little League Baseball (for example) to be a “recreation league.”
To me, a rec league would be provided by the local govt or YMCA (except swimming, which is competitive).
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phil19034
Guest
Keep in mind that you can (if you want) homeschool you kids for grades K-8 and then send them to high school if school sports are that important.
When I was in highschool, I knew a kid who was homeschooled until 7th grade, then went to middle school.
So no one says you have to choose in Kindergarten for their whole K-12 career.
God Bless & Godspeed
I am impressed!
I am the more unsportive person ever, and sport is the only thing that I struggle to incoroporate in the planning. In fact my child now don’t like anything physical as I never push her in this direction and with the confinement the degree of physical activity we do is gone to zero!
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on_the_hill
Guest
It’s also state law in PA that homeschool kids have equal access to sports and other activities.
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on_the_hill
Guest
I just want to give a caution about club sports.
One of our daughters played on an elite “Academy” club soccer team for several years. It cost a lot of money, and got more expensive each year. By the end (she quit when she started 7th grade) it was costing us close to $3,000 per year.
Other parents had their kids in the club and continued to spend $$$$ in hopes of earning college scholarships. By the time those girls were into high school, they started dropping out. They were already ten year “veterans” at that point and were ready to retire.
I went to a presentation by the sports psychologist for a huge name brand D-1 university that’s world renowned for its basketball team…ok, it was Duke.
He didn’t have much good to say about club sports.
Scholarships: There’s not much money in sports scholarships. Focus on academic scholarships.
Pressure/stress: kids burn out. Their sports time shouldn’t be your investment in their college fund
Injuries: year round dedication to a single sport is asking for problems. There are 13 year old pitchers who are getting arm surgery.
Clubs: might have good, caring coaches but they are run by business models. The priority can’t be your kid. The priority is the business.
When our kids got involved in scholastic sports, the whole world of athletics changed for us. For one, it’s free. Second, travel is local. Third, we found a sense of community, belonging, parent Involvement, and connections with coaches/teachers that never really existed in the individually competitive world of club sports.
One of our daughters played on an elite “Academy” club soccer team for several years. It cost a lot of money, and got more expensive each year. By the end (she quit when she started 7th grade) it was costing us close to $3,000 per year.
Other parents had their kids in the club and continued to spend $$$$ in hopes of earning college scholarships. By the time those girls were into high school, they started dropping out. They were already ten year “veterans” at that point and were ready to retire.
I went to a presentation by the sports psychologist for a huge name brand D-1 university that’s world renowned for its basketball team…ok, it was Duke.
He didn’t have much good to say about club sports.
Scholarships: There’s not much money in sports scholarships. Focus on academic scholarships.
Pressure/stress: kids burn out. Their sports time shouldn’t be your investment in their college fund
Injuries: year round dedication to a single sport is asking for problems. There are 13 year old pitchers who are getting arm surgery.
Clubs: might have good, caring coaches but they are run by business models. The priority can’t be your kid. The priority is the business.
When our kids got involved in scholastic sports, the whole world of athletics changed for us. For one, it’s free. Second, travel is local. Third, we found a sense of community, belonging, parent Involvement, and connections with coaches/teachers that never really existed in the individually competitive world of club sports.
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TC3033
Guest
A club isn’t always going to be “elite” though either. In many areas the only way to play a sport, at least semi-competitively, is via club or association. Here in MN where hockey is about as elite as your going to find, the only way to play is via the local club/association. I probably have close to $3K in this year…but ice time ain’t cheap.
I’d also point out (Which does depend on the school), nobody is making the HS team without at least playing some level of club sport. Again, unless you’re in an area where “everybody makes the team”.
That’s not the reason to put kids in sports. You’re talking about 0.001% of players in America.
Interesting…since most (probably all TBH) of the kids that play basketball at Duke (and most all other Power 5 conf. schools) play AAU too.
Agreed.
Couldn’t disagree more. Many of them are non-profits.
Wow, must be nice…I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s fact though. I didn’t play on one school team where my parents didn’t have to pay. We also had to buy our own uniforms. I still have 'em.
I guess, define local. It can be “local” if you have a bunch of schools the same size clustered together or you’re in a metro area. I remember having to get out of school at noon to go to some road games and not getting home until anywhere between Midnight and 2:00AM…on school nights.
Honestly, I’ve coached both club and at the High School level. The HS team that I coached, yes, that was a very tight knit group of parents/players/coaches…but we also were via club as well.
In my overall experience, I’ve seen the club/association teams be just as much (if not more) close knit with much more parent involvement… My $0.02.
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Peeps
Guest
Like I said earlier, it depends on the child’s “natural bent.”
My older daughter has skated since she was a toddler, and she is now 37. She worked on her ice dance tests for over 15 years, finally passing the last one when she was 31. It took a lot of love and dedication and her own money (once she was on her own and working)–her coach’s fee was $150/hour (he was a 2-time Olympian).
She has often said that skating is the closest human beings can get to flying–no strap-on “wings” or flying devices–it’s all done by the human.
Her sister is currently not coaching for the first time since she was 16 (she’s 34) because of the COVID shutdown–and it’s driving her nuts! She is a fanatic about the sport of synchronized skating–we never had to force her to get up at 4:00 a.m., and she was one of the hardest-workers on her team, and her coaching is the same way. She’s competitive in everything she does–back during her school days, all a teacher had to do is turn an assignment into a competition, and our daughter worked 24/7 to win!
We aren’t really like that. It’s their own God-given “natural bent” and we just followed it and the results are delightful.
But if we had a child who was not the least bit interested in sports, I think it would have been cruel and inappropriate for us to try to turn that child into a rink rat or any kind of athlete. They need to learn enough about sports to be comfortable in a work conversation (it’s not a good thing to say, "What does it mean when a baseball player gets a touchdown? Is that when the ball gets kicked into the net? ")
I do think that ALL children should have some kind of activity that keeps them physically active–that could be something as simple as a daily walk with Mom and Dad down to the store, or riding their bike around the neighborhood, or walking their dog. It is not good child-rearing to allow a child to become soft and weak.
My older daughter has skated since she was a toddler, and she is now 37. She worked on her ice dance tests for over 15 years, finally passing the last one when she was 31. It took a lot of love and dedication and her own money (once she was on her own and working)–her coach’s fee was $150/hour (he was a 2-time Olympian).
She has often said that skating is the closest human beings can get to flying–no strap-on “wings” or flying devices–it’s all done by the human.
Her sister is currently not coaching for the first time since she was 16 (she’s 34) because of the COVID shutdown–and it’s driving her nuts! She is a fanatic about the sport of synchronized skating–we never had to force her to get up at 4:00 a.m., and she was one of the hardest-workers on her team, and her coaching is the same way. She’s competitive in everything she does–back during her school days, all a teacher had to do is turn an assignment into a competition, and our daughter worked 24/7 to win!
We aren’t really like that. It’s their own God-given “natural bent” and we just followed it and the results are delightful.
But if we had a child who was not the least bit interested in sports, I think it would have been cruel and inappropriate for us to try to turn that child into a rink rat or any kind of athlete. They need to learn enough about sports to be comfortable in a work conversation (it’s not a good thing to say, "What does it mean when a baseball player gets a touchdown? Is that when the ball gets kicked into the net? ")
I do think that ALL children should have some kind of activity that keeps them physically active–that could be something as simple as a daily walk with Mom and Dad down to the store, or riding their bike around the neighborhood, or walking their dog. It is not good child-rearing to allow a child to become soft and weak.
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