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Monday, February 13, 2012

Competitive Children

Competitive? Me? I never used to think that I was. Once I had children, I did not want them getting involved with organized sports, thinking that a competitive spirit was not good to develop in them. Time has passed now, and the reality of parenting has settled in. We will ALL be competitive whether we want to or not.

 We are in a race the Bible says. We need to always be on our toes to fight the enemy, at least to be watchful. Competition is a fact of life. There is competition in many parts of life...college, trying out for plays or sports, interviews for jobs, among other things. Those are parts of life that we must face and learn how to deal with while we are young. I think that as parents, we need to help guide the competitive spirit, help our children to have self control, and encourage them to be gracious and humble when losing becomes a sad fact for them. Sports for children offer a great way to learn team work, and goal setting.

 [Check out Make Life Meaningful Monday. My friend Michelle, shares her thoughts about goal setting and its importance in life. She inspired me to write this blog entry, and is also helping me along with learning about blogging. (Thanks Michelle!)]

All of that to say...so far, my children have not been part of any organized sports. It requires a little creativity, not to mention a good savings plan, to enable my children to be involved in sports. Unfortunately it is costly to do, when there are five children who all want to participate. I have it on my heart and mind (and bank account), to make this work for the following school year.

In the meantime, while our finances are establishing, we are encouraging our children to set some goals and compete in 4-H. My children love 4-H. They do compete on county and state levels, but mostly they compete against themselves. Against themselves? Procrastination, laziness, or lack of creativity or preparation are some of the most common setbacks that homeschool children can suffer when it comes to competitive activities. 4-H encourages children to step up, and battle those internal issues in order to win, to receive a ribbon, and to be able to compete on the next level. There are many other reasons why I love 4-H, and I could go on, but will stop here for now. If anyone is interested in more information about 4-H, or have questions about it, please comment and I will be happy to answer.

Again, Thanks to Michelle Changed by the Maker for inspiring the blog idea.  ~~~Melissa

3 comments:

Michelle @ Changed By The Maker said...

You did it, Melissa! It worked perfectly! I have to stop back later to read you post better (our lunch break is over), but I wanted to make sure you knew your post linked! Thanks for joining me!

Melissa Nicole said...

Yay!! I am so glad it worked!! I didn't put a great deal of time into my post, so my thoughts are a little scattered, but I wanted to make sure I gave it a try so I could be prepared for next time. Thanks for the comment! :)

Michelle @ Changed By The Maker said...

Okay, I got a chance to read it. Thanks for mentioning me and the blog a couple of times. I hope you get a couple of visits from the others who linked-up on my post.

Regarding sports, I'm sure it's hard to pay for all of your kids to be in something. Some of the park and rec stuff is free when they're young, basketball and wrestling (I think) both offer some level of introduction for free.

Feel free to join me next week, and write about ANY ways that you make your life meaningful! There are other link-ups that are theme based too. They are a great way to meet other bloggers.

By the way, I have always wanted my kids to be in 4H, but it has never worked out. Where do you go, Grand Forks?

Any chance of you bringing the kids to the armory tomorrow? It's free and the young ones just like to play games and run around. They can bring basketballs or other sports equipment if they want to. Come if you get a chance.

Talk to you later!