Kids and Their Activities: Horror (and not quite) Stories

As much as I've enjoyed DaughterQuant's volleyball exploits, watching/listening to her (and her elder siblings) actually play some real music has been one of the most gratifying experiences I've had as a parent.

 

The twins are about to be 21 months, and there is already a lot of differences.
They are not identical, so they look different and are different in size.
But they act and react differently, too.

Even the newborn at four months seems so different than they were.

But I don't care about talent or preference, everyone is taking piano lessons!

 

I dig that very much.

 

Not quite that simple when developmental delays are involved.

 

Will never forget that night, walking down the hallway past SonOfQuant's bedroom, when I heard him playing the gigue from Bach's first cello suite. Holy shit what a moment.

 

For us, it's not any one activity, it's just that every weekend day tends to have at least 2 activities to plot out. For example, my 9 year old has a big personality and has been taking acting lessons for the past 2 years. It's great for him and he really enjoys it, but it's a 50 minute round trip drive every Saturday for a 75 minute class. So that's 2 hours for one of us 7 months of the year.

My 12 year old takes enrichment classes at a college 35 minutes away Saturday mornings for 6 months of the year. It's great for her and she's learning lots of cool things, but there isn't really time for me to go home so I'm stuck there for 2 hours and there is only so many times I can go to the Yogi Berra Museum.

Add in-town hoops and soccer for both, baseball for him and its just takes up a huge amount of the weekends.

 

I approve this message.

And seriously I have met many adults who regret not continuing with piano/guitar/flute, etc. but have yet to meet one that regretted the lessons.

 

My daughter was a brownie for a few years, did about a year each of soccer and Tae Kwon Do, but that was it for her. She has never enjoyed sports very much.

My son (who has Down syndrome) loves sports and still plays at 26. About five years ago when he and his friends who enjoy baseball were getting too old to play Challenger Little League, I went to the local town rec department and told them I wanted to start a co-ed softball program for young adults -- the idea being to mimic an adult after-work league. The town rec folks have been great. They assigned me a softball field near an outdoor pavilion with picnic tables and a couple of grills, and provide equipment, hats and t-shirts. So on Wednesday nights in the summer, we play softball for about three innings then have a pot luck cookout. It's been a big success.

In the winter, we have a basketball program on Sunday afternoons.

 

Good on them (the rec folks) and good for you, your son and his friends. That's a really nice deal, there.

 

I cannot imagine.

 

I used to think swim and travel baseball cost a lot. Then my daughter got involved in gymnastics.

In addition, the meets are excruciating. At the lower levels, every girl's floor routine is to the exact same song. I don't mean every girl on our team. I mean every one of the 100-plus girls at every meet we attend for an entire year.

We are eagerly anticipating the first crack in dedication, the first "eh maybe I don't want to try this," and we are fully planning to feed those doubts and get her into something else. Of course, she loves it more every day.