Sports for a 5 Yr Old

My son started soccer when he was in Kindergarten, but if I/we had known about the soccer for the younger kids, he would have been in that earlier. Anyway, they had one practice a week for an hour and a half, then "tournaments" every Saturday. I believe it was around $30 or $40 each season and included socks, shirts and shorts. We had to buy shin guards, shoes, and a ball. There was a Fall season, then a Spring season, both lasting 6 to 8 weeks. The first couple seasons, he asked to go, then when they had three or four weeks into the season, he said he didn't want to go. I explained to him that once I paid the money for his fee, he had to go. He understood that, and continued each season. Throughout his school years, he played other sports (t-ball/baseball, track, football, wrestling), but always stayed with the soccer as well. If there was a schedule conflict, soccer won. During high school, he played for the school, and helped coach one of the town recreational teams. After he graduated, he was assistant coach at the school (great part-time income), and participated in recreational adult soccer teams. Being involved in sports has really been beneficial for him throughout his life. He is now 26, and is in the Air Force, but he still finds time to play in one of the recreational teams on base. He has told me that although he wasn't so happy about my rule of "if it's paid, it WILL be played" at the times it came up, he is happy now that I did it that way. It taught him a responsibility of following through a commitment.

Yes, sports teaches many things that nothing else can do.

I always wanted to do stuff when I was a kid but not much was available to me way back then.

As a grandparent raising grandchildren I understand the importance of what sports teach and how important it is to keep the kids so busy they don't have time to find trouble or to become lazy and addicted to TV or games.

Our granddaughter is in 2 dance classes, she does hip hop one night per week for one hour.

She is in a combo class of tap/ballet one night per week for one hour. She hates the ballet part of it but it is crucial to her bone development and her posture, growth, etc...she gets to choose all kinds of stuff and I choose this class for her. She understands this and goes. She has started to get to that stage where she is beginning to like some of the stuff she is learning too. There is a time period from about 5 up to 7 where they don't want to go but if they just go they end up enjoying it while they are there. Google the benefits of ballet for kids.

She is in gymnastics one hour per week after hip hop class, she begged for a couple of months to do this, she gets plenty of tumbling but she really really wanted to do more stuff on the uneven parallel bars so she does the hour of gymnastics when she gets out of hip hop. A couple of her classmates also do this now so she has several friends in it too.

Then she made the show team for gymnastics this past Summer so she goes to show team practice twice a week an hour each time. During that hour she is flying through the air, flipping over and over and over doing all kinds of tucks, handsprings, splits in the air, etc...she loves each and every minute of it, plus the go to every school in the district and put on a show. At her school she is a bit of a popular girl due to this activity and the BMX.

BMX is awesome. As soon as kids can ride without training wheels they can rice bicycles in BMX.

You can go to:

http://www.ababmx.com/

to find a track near you. It is worth the effort to even go to one race and explore the possibility of racing. It is very family oriented and there are tracks all over the USA and Canada that ABA members can race on.

Our grandson has some sensory issues and is just starting to calm down enough to do sports.

He has played T-Ball in the past, it is mostly fun for the parents. The kids learn how to work together as a team a little bit, it is one of those beginning sports that are only for little kids. No pressure, mostly just for fun of getting to hit the ball and run. A lot of the kids will sit down and play in the dirt when they are in the outfield. It is boring to wait for the other teams players to make contact with the ball. It is just for fun, they don't even keep score.

They get to have a tee shirt, trophy or medal at the end, and have made some new friends they will see again and again through their childhood while playing sports.

He has done T-Ball and Soccer through the Y too. Still very low pressure and the focus is on team work and sportsmanship. Very worth the time and effort to do the Y sports.

He wants to do football too and has the body type to be very good. He can throw anything, stereo speakers, chairs, toys, brooms, tables, etc...dead center each and every time he has a rage and is acting out....yes, it happens daily. His issues are very complex and he is seeing a couple of people and has his own aid in pre-K.

He would love to do football and we would love for him to but it is very expensive. The registration fee is $50 and then the clothes rental is $50, then he has to buy a jersey which is another fee. He can wear his soccer cleats but the tip of the toes has an extra cleat in football shoes. We cut it off for soccer and we would not want to buy more shoes just for football.

He will be allowed to do any and all sports he wants to because it helps with his development and his sensory issues. If he becomes too aggressive in a sport he will immediately be done with that one that day and only allowed to participate again if he is acting accordingly.

Both kids do swim lessons when they are available at the Y and when they fit with our schedule. Of course during soccer season and everything else Spring is not a good time to do them. Most of them are smaller classes though since most are doing the sports.

I hope you will google bone development and things like that when you are trying to decide on what sports to do. I googled why do kids need gymnastics and got site after site about how they movement makes the bones even grow to a different strength and shape. It is amazing what the different activities can do for the kids that they have no idea about.

We have a great parks and rec program that allowed us to try out some programs inexpensively. Our son is five and half and did swimming (he hated) and karate (he loved!) each $20 for about 7-8 weeks. We try to only have one thing going on at a time. He does little league Tball in the spring which he loves and has one practice and one game a week (usually). It is $50, plus you have to prepay for $50 in raffle tickets, which I can usually sell to family.

My daughter has not ever been in organized team sports. At five, she started Karate. She started swimming lessons much younger. Now at 9, she is going for her Brown belt in karate and will be joining a swim team soon as she's passed all the swimming levels. She has a swimming lesson once a week, and goes to Karate classes about twice a week but we choose which days and there isn't a mandatory number per week.

Swimming is inexpensive through the YMCA. Karate is about $100/month. I don't know if she is "really into" either sport but enjoys them and the sense of accomplishment from progressing in skill. I see both these sports as life skills, necessary for her health and safety. She can be competitive at times, but that isn't the main reason she is in these sports.

My 9 year old started TaeKwonDo at 3.5 years old, 3-5 times each week. Last year, after 5.5 years, he was tested by a testing professional from the TKD Federation and awarded his 1st degree black belt. He still continues 4x/week. He also has done soccer each fall since he was 4. He wants to be a professional soccer player. He puts 100% into everything he does. We just don't have the time to put him into club soccer, which the practices are 3 nights each week and games every single weekend ALL YEAR ROUND. We have 4 kids and he still wants to do TKD, so there's just not enough time in the day. He also does springboard/high diving each summer at the local college for the past 3 years.

My 3 and 5 year olds do TaeKwonDo 3 days each week right now and swimming 2 days each week. Each fall, our almost 6 year old decides he doesn't want to play soccer. We'll see about this year.

TaeKwonDo is $99/month
Swimming is $400/month
Soccer is $150/season, but we always donate another $150 for another player who can't pay...so $300/season for our 1 child and another.

My recently turned 4 year old started playing softball in a real league (as in not a tiny tots/pee wee program). She is technically too young to play in the league (3 months shy). Her older sister has played since she was 4 but her bday made the cutoff then. My mom and husband are the coaches. they practice 2 times per week and then the games started yesterday so now they will have 1 practice per week. Since yesterday was opening day we had to be at the field at 730am! for pictures and festivities. They had a double header (!) at noon and 130p. because it was such a long day I do think it was a bit too much. In the second game my daughter was too tired to go on the field. Plus we are in CA so it was warm, 75, for february. so she sat with me and I did not care one bit. She did go and shake hands/ high five at the end. but we did not finish the day at the field until 3pm. Even I was exhausted. But she did very well and we were all happy. For costs the league was $90 per girl. We play at a stadium where it is $3 to get in per person per game. They needed cleats (used multiple seasons plus hand me downs) and a mitt. Coming from a long line of softball players they each have their own helmets and bats. But most were gifts. Because my 4 year old is pretty tiny we bought her a little more expensive bat (or I should say santa did) so we could have it "rolled" or lightened so she could actually swing it. I would have done it with a less expensive bat but they do not have the capibility to do so. Oh and then for girls we must have hairbows but I know how to make them pretty inexpensively.

MY 4 year old grandson played t-ball this past summer. There were no practices and actually no "games" it was basically a group of kids ( and parents) who got together, half of the time you would be in the field half of the time you would be at bat. The parents were with the child at their "position" out in the field...just to help keep them focused and avoid having anyone getting hurt when someone ACTUALLY managed to hit the ball...lol. My Grandson had a ball...he learned some basic baseball skills and loved every moment of it!! I am not sure exactly how much they paid for the summer session but I feel like it was less than $50. He is now taking tumbling classes...( I know..not a sport) I believe they meet once a week for an hour or so...it is costing something like $40 for 12 weeks of lessons.
I think that at this age, it is more about letting the child explore his/her options...see what really clicks with them and just let them have some fun and some exercise. Two of our daughters started playing T-ball at 5 and stayed with it clear through High School and College. In fact one of them was offered a 4 year full ride scholarship for her skills behind the plate as a catcher!!! It is never too soon to let your children start exploring sports!!!