TheBanyanTree: Scheduling Kids

[smack58 at nycap.rr.com]

That's so cute!  I can just picture the dog and his supervision and then the wolfing!  

My kids did the same.  They played outside or in the playroom we had fixed up in the basement.  Tea parties and paper dolls were two of the girls' favorites...and the boys?  Well, they did boy things--bikes, playing ball, etc (we didn't have a dog--we had a kitty though but they just don't play the same).  The boys played Pop Warner football and then went on to play in high school.  One (the oldest) did track when football season ended.  He won the Western Mass Championship.  It was pretty exciting.  After high school he joined the Coast Guard.

The other joined a band and played what he loved best--his drums.  I did get him lessons with Randy Kaye who once was a back-up player for Jimmy Hendrix until he left and went to college, etc.  Wah-la...teacher, and he was a good one.  Randy played with his jazz band at Blue Note on several occasions and Patrick went with him and the band and got to meet several drummers from the various bands at Blue Note.  He loved that.  He now plays guitar, keyboards as well as the drums and sings wonderfully.  He has written numerous songs and is in process of putting CD's together to send to Dave Matthew Band's manager whom he recently met.  This summer he will fly out to LA to meet with him again re his music.  The guy thinks Patrick is really good.  Can you tell--so do I (lol).  Randy has passed away but Patrick remembers one thing he said during his lessons with him and that is, "Don't be a drummer--be a musician."  Hence Patrick went to college here at the Community College and learned to read music, play guitar, and keyboards as well as the drums.  He took singing lessons for a year and all this after the age of 21.  Yes, the kid (young man) is good!

My girls played softball and soccer and that was about it.  We were too poor at the time (they are the oldest) to afford much more but they were happy and I loved going to all their games through the years.  The used to call my youngest daughter "Killer" because she was such an aggressive player in soccer.  Now her daughter plays soccer 365 days a year--indoor and outdoor.  But Jen (her mother) seems to be one of those modern day mothers in that she has both her son and daughter doing a lot of activities.  But Jen has that kind of energy and expects a lot from her kids.  Her oldest, her son, just turned 18 and has signed up for the Navy.  Pretty scary, pretty awesome.  We are all proud of him.

But now they are grown with families of their own except my boys who are yet to be caught. (smile)

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---- TLW <tlwagener at gmail.com> wrote:
 
I am happy to report that not all kids are over-scheduled.  That's a class
issue, I believe.  The three kids who live in the house in my fourplex's
backyard are out playing in the yard and riding bikes and throwing the ball
for my dog for a couple of hours every afternoon.  Joel has a tutor twice a
week, and Genesis takes piano on Wednesdays, but otherwise, they are out
playing make-believe and having tea parties and setting out picnics and
pretending to be zombies, just as kids should.

Jasper (my dog) left them each a box of conversation hearts for Valentine's
Day.  To thank him, they decided to make him a Dog Food Casserole.  They
pounded Charlie Bear treats to a powder with a mallet, then mixed that with
a banana and peanut butter and pressed it into a lovely bone shape.  This
project took them well over an hour.  Jasper supervised, then wolfed the
thing down.

A fine success for all involved.  :->