Once I read a post from a homeschool blogger who mentioned that homeschool parents shouldn't segregate their children for playing sports.
I thought her opinion was quite valid as sometimes as homeschoolers we stick to ourselves too much. We try too hard to just make a community for ourselves and shut off the "schooled" world. Not particularly useful that approach I think in the long run as our children need to be able to cope with the world as well.
BUT all that said... I do put my son into homeschool soccer. Why?
1. it's six weeks
2. it involves no weekends
3. there are no self-important groups
4. it's very manageable.
5. it's highly affordable
Is it the best soccer out there? No.
But when you have a child who isn't particularly sports minded, it gives him a safe place to do soccer and to have some fun.
I thought her opinion was quite valid as sometimes as homeschoolers we stick to ourselves too much. We try too hard to just make a community for ourselves and shut off the "schooled" world. Not particularly useful that approach I think in the long run as our children need to be able to cope with the world as well.
BUT all that said... I do put my son into homeschool soccer. Why?
1. it's six weeks
2. it involves no weekends
3. there are no self-important groups
4. it's very manageable.
5. it's highly affordable
Is it the best soccer out there? No.
But when you have a child who isn't particularly sports minded, it gives him a safe place to do soccer and to have some fun.
It's very much a parent run enterprise, with people of various levels of coaching experience involved. Sometimes older teens help with the coaching, sometimes parents. People bring different things to the field and the children need to cope with that.
Last week a dad coached and made the girls quite angry. He had all the boys play forward positions and stuck the girls playing defense and then made the decision to tell them that they weren't switch positions with the boys at all. I wasn't particularly impressed either but decided to let it be (and couldn't discuss due to commitments elsewhere) and after thinking about it, decided it was a learning experience for the children and nothing to worry on. Also it was interesting to me seeing how the girls figured out how to deal with it, some of them played hard and watched the ball, others rebelled and decided to ignore the game.
Other weeks we've had coaches let the children pick their team-mates so some children needed to deal with being picked last. Other weeks the coach has needed to help out a weaker team. It all works out The children have different life experiences and figure out a way to make it work for them.
Last week a dad coached and made the girls quite angry. He had all the boys play forward positions and stuck the girls playing defense and then made the decision to tell them that they weren't switch positions with the boys at all. I wasn't particularly impressed either but decided to let it be (and couldn't discuss due to commitments elsewhere) and after thinking about it, decided it was a learning experience for the children and nothing to worry on. Also it was interesting to me seeing how the girls figured out how to deal with it, some of them played hard and watched the ball, others rebelled and decided to ignore the game.
Other weeks we've had coaches let the children pick their team-mates so some children needed to deal with being picked last. Other weeks the coach has needed to help out a weaker team. It all works out The children have different life experiences and figure out a way to make it work for them.
Edited in to add: Despite different learning/coaching styles and different life experiences I am delighted to be part of this homeschool soccer group. The coaches surprise me sometimes with how they coach and more often than not, encourage me in my coaching/teaching endeavors. It's interesting to observe what people do and how they do it. Do somethings bother me? Yeah, but then I do some things that also bother people, and I figure roll with it as much as you can. That's the way it all works right? Do the best you can, roll with the experiences you are offered, and learn from it.
RSS Feed
