E started soccer last week.  He seemed to really like it and he caught onto the direction he was supposed to kick the ball.  It's so cute to see the little kids trying to figure out their coordination.

E has taken several sessions of swimming lessons, he has done skiing, and he did one session of Sportball (each week has a different sport theme), but now that he's in soccer, I feel like he is "in the system" of team sports.  We're on the snack schedule and Dave has volunteered as the assistant coach.     I didn't grow up playing team sports so this is all new to me.

There are so many opportunities for kids' activities in Toronto.  Every sport, dance, music, theatre, art, language, film making, scouts, cooking classes, circus acrobats, etc.  This is, of course, on top of actual school (although if you want a specialized school, those are available too), and church, if you're so inclined.  Plus aren't kids supposed to be playing too?  It becomes overwhelming when you think of all of the things you can introduce to your children, and of course you want to give them every opportunity.  

I would love if E found a sport that he loved so much that could take him to the Olympics or the PGA Tour (haha, kidding not kidding).  I'd like him to ski so we could do it as a family (but I'm scared to death of ski racing).  I don't want him to play hockey.  I'd like if he could play the piano.  But really these are just things that I like to do, so am I just "forcing" him to do what I like?  Probably.  Dave grew up playing baseball, basketball and golf and I'm sure he'd like E to be interested in those things too.

So what about everything else out there?  How do you give your kids the opportunity to explore new things without over programming them?  Sure, eventually they will know what they like and if you listen to them then you can sign them up for whatever it is.  But what if you've missed the opportunity to be "elite" at something because they didn't start when they were 3 years old?

There are no easy answers to these questions, and probably since I'm not elite at any sports, nor do we have unlimited resources (in both time and money), then these problems are not really ours.  I guess we'll just keep signing E up for different things, try to keep him somewhat well-rounded, and we'll figure out what he's really interested in.

I'll just keep my fingers crossed that I'll be at Augusta for the Masters one day.