Does an 8 year old boy need to do out of school sport?

[cazzzz]

Hi

Please help with my dilemma.

I have 8 yo and 5 yo boys.

The 8yo has a weekly schedule that goes like this:

Tues night - swim lesson (non negotiable as we live in Australia)

Thurs and Fri night - after school care due to my job

Sat morning - woodwork class (which he loves).

He also learns guitar and soon will have increasing amounts of homework.

He now wants to do football - Wed night and Sunday morning (training and games).

I would really appreciate your help with these questions:

1. Do boys need to do sport and why?

1. Is it realistic to add this into our weekly routine?

Thanks

Truthfully and honestly for me anyways - no.

I have a boy and a girl

my girlie goes to ballet once a week and invariably will have friends or go to a friends through the week she goes to her dad's every weekend.
my son goes to happy clappy music stuffs and library story time.
Between this I work as well.

If your life can stand it - sure send him but I suspect the fact you have asked means you're not "up for it"

SO many people seem to cram all this stuff into their lives for their kids and they are whacked out skint and feel quite robbed of life.

I would try the footie, see how it goes, might put preconditions on it -- like h-work to be done first.

fwiw -- ds1 is 9yo & does no ec activities or sport at all. Just not interested, I don't think he suffers for it.

Sounds like he will have a very busy week with the addition of a sport, as well. However, I am of the opinion that children need structured physical exercise and I have to say, I think as boy's get older, their need becomes increasingly pressing. Exercise and team sport are proven to improve boy's levels of concentration and their behaviour. For that reason, i would be supportive if my DS wanted to join a sports team.

Perhaps you could give it a try for one term and see how it goes? You have to think of yourself, too, of course and how this affects family life. Life is no fun if you spend the whole time ferrying children to classes.

Sunday morning should be ok. Will you have to be taking him there and bringing him back?

Wednesday night being the middle of the week is more the problem. However I have to say when my dd was doing Kung Fu Wednesday nights, it did give her more energy for the rest of the week which is one of the good things about sport as an after school activity as opposed to say woodwork or music - which are also great but the sport is a means of letting off stress, and building up energy levels to better help them get through all the rest.

I think probably the swimming is enough if he walks to school and runs about a bit, I don't think extra sport is vitally necessary but I think it might do him good. I would try it.

My 8 year old son does football on a Monday, tennis on a thursday and a football match on a Saturday morning. Would probably put him in a club after school every day if I could afford it! But thats because he is very athletic and loves nothing more then playing football, he would play all day every day if he could.
I dont think every child should do activities after school, some children are happy to go home and do other things, other children have a bit more energy and like to be active.
Your son sounds like he does a lot of activities outside of school and enjoys it by what your saying, so would probably like to do football. Its whether or not you could fit anything else into your day!

I think sport for boys is a good idea as an outlet for energy. See the thread on 9 year old boys . This becomes more important as they reach puberty and the hormones increase aggression and make them restless.Sport is a positive way to deal with this.

I would be really encouraged to have such an active and enthusiastic child, although I fully sympathise with the extra demands it makes on you with child delivery etc.

I would definitely go for the footy. Perhaps you could cultivate parents of other children who go, and arrange to share collection and delivery of children to practice sessions?

As his other commitments increase he will have to learn how to juggle and prioritise all the things he needs to do - which is a good thing to learn early as well! he sounds like a do-er, and that is a positive quality which it is good to encourage (as much as you feel able!)

Thanks for your messages everyone -

I actually started this thread up on the parenting page too, as I thought I might have misclassified it here.

I have signed him up for footy today (last place in the squad - maybe it was meant to be??!!)

I do have some trepidation about fitting the rest of life... but we'll see how it goes.

Cheers,

Cazzzz

well I always swing back and forth thinking maybe my dd should/wants to do more and then thinking it is all too much (at least too much for me)

But I see you have one Z more than me so maybe you just cope better with all the ferrying about!