I have heard every argument in favor of organized sports, I really have...and I have given careful consideration to them.  Recently, I have chosen to take a bit of a stand against signing my kids up.  I have observed first hand that they do not always teach team spirit, sportsmanship or how to "be part of a team"... in fact I have seen quite the opposite encouraged many times.

Many people are heavily involved in their kids sports and I say "hooray" if that is where God has called your family. What got me thinking about this was the slow realization that occasionally even among homeschoolers there is some peer pressure...among the parents I

I have taken some slack for supposedly causing my girls to miss out on fun of this social opportunity. When we decided to homeschool, i began to seriously reevaluate what things are important to keep in our dailylife and what needed to be weeded out. There are so many wonderful things to choose, but they can come at a cost if they bump out another plan God has for us. 

My kids have played many sports and usually have a great time...however at a tremendous time sacrifice to parents.  We live in a very sports orientated community, even our pastor bases many sermons around sports themes.  We sometimes feel like odd man out for deciding in this season, no sports.

I resist the notion that kids wont learn to be part of a group if not on some kind of team. Is our family life not a team? Do they perhaps learn to be part of groups as they grow in their daily interactions with people they meet each day? The team my daughter is interested in practices 3 days a week, 2 hours a day and games on Saturdays. She is 11 and this is a beginner team. Does this only seem excessive to me?

I have decided to pray diligently, search our my childrens gifts and callings and pursue them. I have seen too many families stretched beyond a comfortable zone as they shuttle kids here and there. My heart aches for the kids i see that have no time for just playing. I had to tell my child this time the anwser is no. As a family we are choosing to spend our time differently: playing with each other, spending time alone to use imagination to create new opportunities, time to relax and most importlantly time to be avaialble.

Time to be avaialbe is a valuable commodity these days. Time to be there for a friend, listen to needs and practice servitude. There is nothing wrong with sports, they can be great fun. I am just amazed that sometimes I have to defend our choice, indeed our right, to choose a differerent activity...just living and seeing where that takes us.