My oldest daughter is four and started organized soccer for the first time. The first couple of weeks she seemed paralyzed on the field. Didn’t do much talking to the other girls. But I noticed at her practice this past week that she’s beginning to “get it.” She must be very analytical (I can only assume she was dissecting all she was taking in) because she was running around having so much fun and then I saw her having fun with her teammates whereas before she was keeping to herself. So I think part of having fun is understanding what your responsibilities are and how you fit in. I credit her coaches for being good communicators and being patient with their development!
That’s awesome, Colin. Also a great example of how much we can learn about our kids from observing them in a team sports setting. Especially the youngest athletes like your daughter.
For me, there are a lot of different ways— does my child ever play the sport outside of practice? Do they look engaged during games? Do they look forward to practice? When it comes time to register for the next season, do they want to?
But most importantly, I think the key is to let the sport belong to your kid— ie, it’s about them getting what they want out of the sport. That way they’ll have enough of sense of agency and control that they’ll give us the most obvious sign of whether they’re having fun or not— they’ll say so!
My oldest daughter is four and started organized soccer for the first time. The first couple of weeks she seemed paralyzed on the field. Didn’t do much talking to the other girls. But I noticed at her practice this past week that she’s beginning to “get it.” She must be very analytical (I can only assume she was dissecting all she was taking in) because she was running around having so much fun and then I saw her having fun with her teammates whereas before she was keeping to herself. So I think part of having fun is understanding what your responsibilities are and how you fit in. I credit her coaches for being good communicators and being patient with their development!
That’s awesome, Colin. Also a great example of how much we can learn about our kids from observing them in a team sports setting. Especially the youngest athletes like your daughter.
For me, there are a lot of different ways— does my child ever play the sport outside of practice? Do they look engaged during games? Do they look forward to practice? When it comes time to register for the next season, do they want to?
But most importantly, I think the key is to let the sport belong to your kid— ie, it’s about them getting what they want out of the sport. That way they’ll have enough of sense of agency and control that they’ll give us the most obvious sign of whether they’re having fun or not— they’ll say so!