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| Want to Raise Adventurous, Fun Loving Kids? Do This. |
In the past, I’ve fallen trap to the idea that hockey play is mostly a winter sport, save for a few balmy spring days and October’s last hurrah. Starved for sunshine, they’d all grow giddy with the sound of the ice, certain the days ahead would promise hours of long-deserved adventure.
But this was the year of the shift. The year of the shooting, come rain or sleet, weather irrelevant all year long. This was the year of discovering a cure-all in his own backyard – just the thing to sustain him no matter the month.
This was the year of The Team.
I’m often asked at work how to pave the way for sports-obsessed children, and while my very outdoor-preferring self never expected to raise two so fond of their ice rinks, I am and I have.
I could tell you tales of 5K races and weight-room workouts and failed target experiments. I could bore you to tears with afternoon trips to play pond hockey or an evening drop-in sessions with smiles for miles. But if I were to gather everything I know about children and the great sport of hockey, about fostering a love and respect and responsibility for the people around them, about losing themselves in a game greater than our mind can attain, it would be this:
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| Give them a team. |
Give them one of their own, to share or not. Have them name it. Let them own it, adopt it, care for it. Knock on the door, see who lives inside. Paint a picture of it. Paint a picture in it, on it, over it. Let them build it up. Let them belong to.
Let them lug leftover PVC pipes across the yard, tracking mud and all sorts of chaos through your flowerbeds. Let them re-purpose planks of wood as shooting targets and nets. Hide pucks between broken sticks, whisper secret codes to enter in. Let them leap and linger. Hang a high-five hotel. Lean a welcome sign.
Let them climb. Let them fall. Mostly, let them be.
You’ll find two things: an arresting buoyancy in the souls of your children.
The same in your own, as well.
p.s. If you’re in need of joyful ideas for your kid this winter, get thee to District's.
