Saturday, June 21, 2008

how do you know?

Thursday night, my sweet friend, James (son of Blue Yonder blog) invited me to his first guitar recital. It was so sweet watching all of these little ones strumming their guitars. As I sat there watching these 5 & 6 year olds, girls and boys I wondered how in the world did they discover the acoustic guitar. Stefani's oldest plays fiddle and James, 6, plays guitar. She said it was b/c of the music they are always playing in the house. So, then last week Erica asked if I planned to enroll the girls into any dance programs this fall. Then, today I spent the morning at my friend Julie's, whose daughter is actively involved in competitive cheer almost year-round. I mean the greatest golfer on the planet began playing golf at age 2. So, my thought is what do I do, if anything to encourage our girls to pursue? There are so many options for them and I DON'T ever want to push them into anything, but at this point I almost feel like I control their destiny, I can expose them to anything right now and encourage them to be anything, but WHAT? I desperately want my children to play some instrument, but yet I also want them to be active in sports, but when do I begin to encourage it? LE LOVES to sing and she is always singing, Bella on the other hand is so active and would probably be amazing at athletics just given the opportunity. And then that is other thing, how do you support both children in ventures and not be at soccer on Monday and Thursday, games Saturday, Music lessons on Tuesday and Friday, recitals the first Saturday of the month, church Wednesday & Sunday? How do you Super Moms do it and keep sanity in your home. That is rule # I don't know, but it is a rule that we eat dinner as a family, TV off together. I don't know maybe I am just rambling, but I do want to encourage my girls to do and be anything they want to be, but just don't want to push them into anything, but also don't want to neglect them from things b/c I am not exposing them to- something they could be amazing at?

2 comments:

Erica Wagner said...

You just do. You expose them to several different things and then you pick one (or two) and stick with it.

There are days when I'm dog-tired and dreading soccer practice or ballet lessons (and don't forget soccer games on Saturday), but there is nothing more that I would rather be doing, than being there to see to it that my girls are emotionally, physically and mentally developing to be the best well-rounded child possible.

We are not pushing them to do things they don't want to do, because they thrive in any activity we put them in. They may not be the best or the most talented, but they are developing skills like teamwork, winning/losing, being committed to an activity, etc. etc.
Plus, we feel it is important for them to be active, not sedentary.

However, we do recognize the importance of family time and do not wish to ever be consumed with extra-curricular activities that take us away from home. That is why there are limits as to what we will allow them to do.

There is a happy medium between the over-extended child and the sedentary child. You will find your balance for your family.

It is overwhelming at first, but you will get the hang of it. Besides, your girls are still young. You have a another year or two to really start worrying about it!

Anonymous said...

Me thinx you fret too much...
YOU really have NO control over these "things"...AS you know...they both have their own likes and dislikes...you just keep exposing them to all things and they will pick up their own favs..
MOST OF ALL>>>ENJOY EVERY MINUTE... this too shall pass TOO QUICKLY>>>