Jerry Johnson wrote: > I was worried about my 5 year old nephew (and his 4 year old cousin) until > this summer due to his preference for videos and TV than for anything else. > But this summer, they blossomed into outdoor kids. I got to his house > Saturday morning at 7:10 am, and he was already outside playing in the yard. > When my parents drop by with their 2 Labradoodle puppies, you can't get Zeb > into the house even to eat. > He loves taking walks out in to the woods (with his father or me), swinging, > playing hide and seek, and just running around screaming at the top of his > lungs (airplane, fire engine, train, motorcycle, cattle stampede. anything > loud and fast moving.) > A normal kid. > He also has talked my sister into a membership at a local nature center, > because he loves walking in the woods on the nature trails and reading all > the signage. And climbing up the rocks ledges. He knows about 20 types of > trees by their bark and leaves, and a number of birds by sight and sound. > I think it was the autonomy and freedom he is allowed in the yard that opened > things up for him. > > But I will admit he knows every logo, theme song, and pitch line by every > product on TV and radio. And he watches all of the "Coming Attractions" > previews on every video he gets before watching the real thing. And he knows > every movie trailer on On Demand, and how old he needs to be to watch each > one.
I don't have kids, so I may be a bit out of touch. But I think the the difference between the jocks and non-jocks is growing. Growing up, I wasn't a jock. But I wrestled on the HS team and played as much pick-up basketball as I could. We usually played on a different court then the varsity basketball players. The point being, the non-athletic kids played sports together too. Now I see kids with 3 different types of video game consoles. I rarely see any kids riding their bicycles and I live in suburban NJ. The other difference I see is how seriously kids are taking sports too. A friend has a daughter that plays basketball year round. She plays for at least 2 different AAU teams as well as her middle school. She is either running drills or actually playing a game. His son, drills for football year long. You should see all the driving the parents have to do to shuttle their kids from practice to practice. The boy is only in 4th grade. The father has already told me that he is going to send the boy to football camps as soon as possible. I don't have any evidence, but if I had to point to one of the causes it would have to be money. -- 2004 - The year $184M couldn't buy a pennant. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Special thanks to the CF Community Suite Gold Sponsor - CFHosting.net http://www.cfhosting.net Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:137369 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
