Sports: A Great Children Entertainment

By: Jason Petrina




Children are participating less and less in sports. In most case especially suburban kids tend to not participate in any active activities. Children are now increasingly spending their days indoors either surfing the internets, playing on entertainment consoles or just channel surfing the TV. Sports are beginning to fade away from the general public, with only the dedicated children whose parents sign them up continues to participate in them. Most parents believe as long as their children are at home and quiet then there is nothing wrong with the kids not participating in any sports at all. But what the parents don’t always realize is the benefits their children can gain through participating in competitive sports.

It is needless to say that most children these days are experiencing obesity. Obesity can be greatly reduced just by having your children active everyday. It does not even have to be competitive sports that these children need to participate in; they can easily fight obesity with activities such as jogging or walking. But in general team sports will allow the children to stay physically fit because of the activities these sports will have the children do on a regular basis. By playing sports at a young age, you will benefit greatly from reduced chances of health problems such as heart problems. If your children are not especially gifted with athletic abilities than even simple physical activities such as jogging or a game of catch can greatly help them stay in shape.

When children participate in team sports such as soccer or hockey they are not just gaining knowledge in the game but are benefiting from psychological growth. They will benefit from greater self-esteem. By participating in sports kids will be able to grow emotionally as they will see themselves in a more positive light contributing to their self-esteem. That is not to say kids won’t physically grow too, they will get stronger which leads to a healthier lifestyle. But with sports they can see themselves be part of a team and play an important role in the group allowing them to feel better about themselves. But if your kids are not especially athletically gifted that is not a problem since children will still feel good about themselves when they see the improvements they make as they practice and play more often.

By playing sports children can get a very valuable lesson called sportsmanship. When kids play sports early on in their lives they will be able to learn and deal with losing in a less negative way as compared to someone who has never lost until they are older. Kids will not beat themselves over losing at a young age, which means children benefits from this because of the emotional growth they will gain. And sportsmanship can not be taught better in any context other than through sports. What can be learnt from losing is that not everything they will always do will mean they will win, and they will just have to accept the fact that losing is part of winning.

Sports can teach children problem solving skills and teamwork at the same time. Playing in team sports such as hockey and basketball will help children build their teamwork skills as these sports requires players to interact with each other which requires a great deal of teamwork to be in place first. And also teaching children teamwork early on will give them an edge in the future working in team settings. The problem solving skills that will be learnt early on will help them both in everyday life and even in academic settings. Depending on what sports you play there will be sports that will require more problems solving than others.

What sports really gives kids are chances to develop life long friendships with other kids. When kids participate in sports they will have a chance to meet kids that have common interests. They will also be able to come in contact with kids from different ethnic backgrounds to come together and play as well. By having the chance of playing with kids around their age they are given the chance to develop their interpersonal skills as well so they will not be as shy in future situations. Comradeship will also be developed for the kids when they participate in more and more sporting activities. It also provides the children with a group to fall back on for social support later on in life as well.



Jason Petrina is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit - www.articleclick.com