Kid's Sports: T Ball

Baseball is in full swing, with opening game day for many local leagues happening this past weekend. Our family was a part of the fray, squeezing in a game between other activities.

Daniel was a trooper and gave up his afternoon nap (before his last night shift of the week) to attend Jack's first game.

Practices have been pretty comical. As you might expect with 4 and 5 year olds, there is a lot of looking at the sky, throwing dirt, using gloves for things other than catching, etc.

Thankfully, Jack seems to be enjoying himself. 

When I asked him what his favorite part was, he said "hitting the ball."

During the game, each player gets a chance to hit the ball and run the bases twice (for a total of two innings with no score). The last hitter gets to hit a "home run" and runs all of the bases at once.

For our first inning Jack went last and he loved getting to run all of the bases.

In the second inning, they batted in reverse so Jack was first up. We had to tell him to stop at first, and each subsequent base.

Evidently where we live baseball is a pretty big deal, and it can be taken really seriously (even on the T Ball level). 

I have to say that we are very pleased to have fairly laid back coaches who encourages parents to get out on the field to help direct the kids.

The kids have a little bit of a herd mentality as they try to simultaneously field the ball and throw to first.

Jack managed to field and throw to first once, and was pretty proud of himself.

Jack's team is the Hot Rods and he was really excited to get his jersey and ball cap. He wants to wear them everywhere.

I don't know if we will be a baseball family forever, but it is fun to see Jack make new friends, and learn some new skills along the way. 

With practices every Monday and games every Saturday for 8 weeks, it helps with our goal of getting outside everyday!

A glimpse of what 4 and 5-year-olds look like practicing T Ball.

Lots of herd mentality, chasing the ball during their first game.

Kids and Sports: Gymnastics

This one is my favorite. #lifewithapreschooler #jackjack #mohaus2016

A video posted by Cheree Moore (@mo_haus) on Jan 12, 2016 at 1:06pm PST

Sports. Every time we discuss athletics in reference to our kids, Daniel and I find ourselves sitting on the fence. 

On the one hand, we both had really great experiences growing up and playing various sports (even if we were never great). On the other hand, we are concerned about the level of competition and expectations for kids these days (even little kids). To be honest, we are turned off by the whole hullabaloo.

With that being said, we are slowing dipping our toes into the waters and getting a feel for what may, or may not, be in our future.

We don't plan to push our boys into sports if they don't like it, but we do want to give opportunities to try things. And there are pros to participating in sports like discipline, team work, and becoming stronger and more coordinated.

At the end of last year, Jack came home saying that he really wanted to do gymnastics. It was pretty much all he talked about. So, we signed him up for 8 weeks of classes with friends.

He had a great time participating in these classes, but I don't really see him doing gymnastics on a long-term basis.

While the little girls (for the most part) attempted to learn how to properly do cartwheels and rolls, Jack treated the floor exercises like a timed obstacle course. He didn't care about doing it right, he just wanted to do it as fast as possible.

 

Also, he wasn't crazy about the bars. Flipping over them is not his cup of tea. I am proud of him for trying everything even when it scared him (another benefit to athletics is getting out of your comfort zone!).

Overall I would say that gymnastics was a good experience. He has really good balance (he has been walking on narrow beams since he was two), but I don't think we will sign up again unless he shows more interest.

 

It is spring now and baseball season has come to our neck of the woods. So I signed Jack up for tee ball (I didn't want him to have to go straight to coach pitch next year without the opportunity to hit off a tee first).

 

Jack is super pumped about tee ball and can't wait to practice at the park across the street from our house.

T ball is more involved than gymnastics in that it is an evening commitment to practice every Monday night, as well as a Saturday commitment for games. For EIGHT weeks. This means no spring camping and our Saturdays will revolve around ball games. We don't love this, but we're trying to embrace this season of our life.

Also, when we signed up for T ball I was envisioning the movie The Sandlot. You know: a rag tag group of kids, old tennis shoes, sharing a bat and even a helmet.

That time Jack didn't feel good and refused to do an assisted cartwheel on the beam... afterward we went to the grocery store and he threw up in the checkout line.

Then we received the list of things each kid needed: glove, cleats, bat, helmet.

This was not exactly what we had in mind. We weren't dying to spend a ton of money on something he might not even like. But we had already paid our fees, so I checked our church's Mom Swap group on Facebook to see if we could get anything second hand.

I am so thankful that I did this because church friends with older kids hooked us up with gear they had outgrown, and I don't have to feel guilty about spending a bunch on new things. If Jack decides he likes it we might consider some new gear, but for now, we are sticking with second hand.

Here's to spring tee ball season and all that it might hold!