Horseback riding: great for all ages & levels!

Woodland Horse Center -- great intro (to advanced) camp & two riding lessons each day

Anonymous wrote:To the OP - your son is so young. Try not to get caught up in feeling behind and let your son plays anything he enjoys. My son tried lots of different sports but never had any interest in soccer. He started playing with friends at recess in 5th grade and said it was fun. He asked to play rec soccer for the first time ever next year when he will be in 6th grade. He said he’s doing it just for fun and learned from playing all year with friends, many who are on travel and many who do not play on any organized team. Sports don’t always have to be competitive. My son doesn’t want to play on the high school team or in the World Cup. I’m proud he’s trying rec for the first time at 11. Don’t worry if your son is the best, only if he is enjoying himself.

I want to add that my son would not have not had the confidence in 3rd when friends were starting travel. I understand your son feels like he wants to keep up and meant to say sometimes it gets better later as all of the kids mature and are no longer trying to show off and brag that they play on a travel team. Now they all play together for fun again.

To the OP - your son is so young. Try not to get caught up in feeling behind and let your son plays anything he enjoys. My son tried lots of different sports but never had any interest in soccer. He started playing with friends at recess in 5th grade and said it was fun. He asked to play rec soccer for the first time ever next year when he will be in 6th grade. He said he’s doing it just for fun and learned from playing all year with friends, many who are on travel and many who do not play on any organized team. Sports don’t always have to be competitive. My son doesn’t want to play on the high school team or in the World Cup. I’m proud he’s trying rec for the first time at 11. Don’t worry if your son is the best, only if he is enjoying himself.

Please don't give up in 3rd grade just because it is new. I get wanting to be on the same team as friends right away, but he may have to work his way up to that, and that's OK. If he likes soccer and basketball, encourage him to play.

DH didn't start soccer until 6th grade even though where he lived kids started as toddlers, and he ended up playing in college. You never know at what pace and to what level a kid is going to develop. Your kid my be running rings around his friends by age 15.

There is so much unhealthy, developmentally inappropriate hype in this area. You just have to tune it out and do your thing.

OP, you said your son felt behind in basketball. The main reason that kids your son's age usually feel that is that they can't dribble well. Next is that they can't catch a hard pass (it will squirt through their hands).

Most people don't realize how quickly kids can learn to dribble well enough to play. If your kid wants to try it, you can google some dribbling drills and they can work on them in the driveway or at the park. My kid walked a half mile to school when he was in elementary, and he dribbled a ball on the way there and back for a coupe of years. The key thing is to learn to dribble with both hands while looking up. If you want to speed up the process, buy some of those plastic goggles that block the bottom of the kid's field of vision -- then they won't be able to sneak looks at the ball. Once kids can dribble, you can work on them using their off hand to protect the ball. Get a foam bat and try to knock the ball away while they are dribbling -- they can use the off hand to deflect the bat. Move from dribbling stationary to walking then to running. Have them learn to retreat dribble and work on pounding the ball really hard for part of their practice (makes ball harder to steal).

For shooting, your kid can learn basic mechanics (which will put them ahead of 95% of elementary kids) from YouTube. Google the "swish method" and follow it. Also -- when practicing shooting, your kid should be making 70-80% of their shots. If they aren't, they are too far out and they are making themselves worse or at best wasting time.

HTH.