My high school daughter rides her horse several times a week at a barn with other people who love horses just like her and she loves it! She does hunter jumping and cow sorting. Not a team sport but an individual sport that requires team work with a 1200 pound animal that can be unpredictable. She has learned patience, acceptance and perseverance. You can be on your game but your horse isn't or vice versa. She learns how to deal with disappointment that will prepare her for life. Not to mention the responsibility of owning an animal that requires you to be invested.
Oh Jamie, this came at the perfect time. Lately, I have been feeling guilty for not enrolling the kids in extracurricular activities that all the neighborhood kids seem to be doing. You’ve reminded me that we do plenty of other activities. We go camping, walk/hike, fishing, go rock hounding, ride bikes, they love helping dad work in the garage or on the yard. Thank you for reminding me that I am doing enough.
The school year before covid we were involved in sooo many extra curricular activities that it had me stressed out to the max. This current school year has been so much more relaxed due to staying home for obvious reasons. During this school year I've realized that all of those extras we were doing weren't necessary. Our co-op has announced that they'll be going back to normal classes in the fall which is absolutely wonderful, but we've chosen not to go back. We like being home, having fun together as a family, doing our thing as we want to. That is the beauty and freedom in homeschooling.
I have 4 girls. We've never done sports or music. We live on 5 acres inland on the Oregon coast . They love being outside and going to the beach and finding things! Extracurricular =family time at our house. Your boys and family sound amazing.
And I have to add how much this makes me feel much better about not keeping up with their private music lessons! It really is nice to let things go -especially if it’s not their passion!
Yes!! This is my 8yr old son too. He loves hunting, fishing with us, being outdoors riding his 4 wheeler...taking long bike rides on trails & hiking in Pa mountains. We are not a sports family either. All outdoor family. I love your videos & your encouragement as a only child homeschool mama boy ❤ I value our time with my son as he wants to be with family.
I always felt like the weird family because we don’t like what society says we should like. Lol! At 37, I finally don’t feel anxiety over being the “weird” people and I embrace it and am proud of it! ❤️
Likewise. I noticed that the older I get in age the more I'm confident in who I am and less concerned with others' views of me and my family. I'm 45 and homeschool my 5 and 7-year-old girls.
You have no idea how much I needed this!!! Our family sounds so similar to yours in our likes and dislikes. Society says they need those extras,, but that's just not us either. Put us in the woods hunting, gathering or playing and we are so happy!! We are homeschooling our 3 boys as well and it is the best adventure ever!!! Thank you for your words of wisdom!!!
YES! Most of my friends are scheduled to the max with extra sports and co-ops (as young as 1st grade)... We live in the city and a small apartment but I can relate nature is our favorite place to be... our tiny patio is overflowing with random plants, we spend a good Portion of the day on walking trails, poking around the common yard in front of our apartment exploring it all, and chatting to all the neighbors as they walk by. We hike every weekend because that’s what we love and where we love to be at this time of life ❤️ our only indoor “extracurricular” is church lol... Its simple but keeps us busy. I love the freedom we have and the adventures we have together.
“Find what your children love to do and pour into it” yes!!!! Each of my kids is so different; one loves sports, one loves the outdoors, one loves working with his hands and piano, one loves ballet, etc. but as a family we love the outdoors, period. Nature for us too!
This is so true! Our home school is a wonderful place for our children to learn and grow! My son doesn’t do sports or musical instruments either. He does videos and pictures of houses and ceiling fans. He works with his dad and installs ceiling fans and lights! He has the most popular ceiling fan channel on RUclips!!
This is so timely! I've been lying awake at night stressing about this and I know it's ridiculous. I LOVE that we don't have to be anywhere during the week and can make our own schedule. I've been dreading having to add extracurriculars to that. Sports wouldn't be such a big deal except that here in New Zealand it's always on a Sunday and therefore conflicts with church. :/ It is so refreshing to hear from an experienced homeschool mom who has this mindset. Thanks for sharing! :)
Amen I can agree with this so much. My boys LOVE mountain biking, its their love, hiking, swimming, and mountain biking, in addition to hunting and just being out in nature. This was a big reason we are fixing up our home to sell and buying an RV to travel the country and find a place for us that best fits my boys needs. Thank you for sharing, I've felt so guilty, living in the big city, that because my boys aren't in sports, or don't like them we where failing.
🙌🏼 I needed this so much! My husband and I are NOT sports people. Your video just spoke to me 100% because this is exactly how we operate as a family. My boys want to dig in the dirt for worms and go fishing. Practice shooting. Their eyes light up like it’s Christmas morning when they see an ATV. 😂 My husband is such an awesome teacher when it comes to outdoor safety and survival. He’s always teaching them valuable skills that they’ll use in life. Thank you for making & sharing this video. Even though sports and music are wonderful extracurricular activities, there are so many other activities out there that are rarely spoken of. I have one son who loves art, but also loves fishing and has recently expressed an interest in archery...my other son loves music and dirt bikes...my other son loves race cars and practice shooting...my other son loves the beach and anything water related. Each child is unique and we as mommas need to listen to & watch what they’re interested in and nurture those interests and not feel guilty that they’re not taking paid music lessons or signed up for little league. That’s how I want to connect with my boys. To show them that I see & hear them.
Love this 💕. Our family is similar. We live on a large acreage by the sea and their favourite thing to do is to be outside exploring, working on their treehouse and riding their four wheelers and fixing up their car and caring for their animals 🐐 and riding horses and family hikes, hunting and fishing. Mine are 11, 9, 7 and 2 and we did try soccer when they were interested but it didn’t last long and they did do music lessons when they were interested. My oldest loves art and is teaching herself piano and I’ve found that she spends way more time practicing piano than when she was forced to practice when taking violin lessons. Love all your videos. 💕.
Love this. I have been stressing over it a bit. I keep asking and he says he's not interested. This has given perspective on how I especially need to relax and follow his interests he's already shown us. Thank you
This was a very encouraging video! My kids are still young, my oldest is 5, and you definitely feel the pressure that you need to put the kids into all the activities otherwise they will be missing out.
I have a 5 year old that lives for competition gymnastics. I have a 12 year old that does competitive dance. They take up a ton of our time. If our kids didn’t love them there’s no way I would devote this much time to these activities. What you are doing for your boys is wonderful. They’re building life skills.
I love this video so much and I truly needed this. I have two boys, the older one (almost 10) plays hockey and it completely consumes our lives...right now he’s playing on 4 teams! He loves it so much and is so passionate about it. My younger son is 8 and also has ADHD and autism. We’ve tried so many things for him because I’ve felt like I “need” to have him involved in something. But you hit the nail on the head! He LOVES his legos and he LOVES being outdoors. We go hiking as a family and he leads the hikes and wonders off the path through the woods to explore (as long as he’s in eyesight). He also loves to fish so much. It’s difficult sometimes because patience is not a strength but boy does he love the “catching” part of fishing! I felt like you were speaking to me, thank you!
I’m going on my 3rd year of homeschooling. My oldest son is only 5, and he’ll be starting Kindergarten in August. I’ve already had a few comments about him doing sports. I’m not into pushing my kids to do sports and athletics. I would love for him to learn an instrument, but I’m not going to force him. This video is a huge encouragement because I am so big on the idea of my children, especially my boys, learning life skills that would better benefit them throughout their life.
Loved hearing from you! As someone on the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to sports with having kids who are super passionate about what they do and need them for mental and physical health. there’s no sense in forcing a child into something they don’t care about! Loved this peek into your cabin!
Our family is totally opposite too! Both of my oldest boys play very high level, competitive soccer so it’s hard for me to imagine not having that outlet and joy in our lives! But all families and kids are different!
I'm glad you made this video. I have 3 boys too! They are not into sports. My husband and I were never involved in sports, so we don't push our boys to do sports. They sound like your boys. They spend a lot of time outside camping, hiking, throwing tomahawks at targets, taking care of their rabbits and chickens. Their main extracurricular is 4H. They show their animals in fairs and participate in many activities. They have made many friends. Several are also homeschoolers. God bless you and your family today!
Oh, I LOVE this message! Life skills are so important. Family is so important. Nature and survival skills. Being each other's best friends. Everything in the video is such a great message! :)
Thank you for this and yes I thought you'd give a list but I love how it was an unexpected answer. This needed to be said. My goal is to lean into my girls' natural interests and spiritual bents in life. Just the encouragement I need to stay focused on who we are as a family.
This video is so inspiring. I've been just getting into learning about homeschooling and I'm struggling to get over the guilt of not sending them to school so they don't "miss out on school life." I would love to just be free and have them outside in nature to learn and dive into what they truly love but it's hard to get over the guilt.
I enjoyed this video! Thanks for sharing! Right now our extras look pretty normal. My girls dance and play tball, my son plays baseball and racquetball. They are all wanting to start pottery classes, which I'm hoping to do with them. As far as the definition of extracurricular I'd probably break it down to extra- "beyond" and -curricular "curriculum". Beyond curriculum. Things that aren't required of the student to graduate.
@@SimplyLivingIt we have a local business that just opened up for pottery classes instead of just painting! We were there a couple weekends and got to see someone making a bowl and they were mesmerized!
THIS!!! Thank you for the encouragement. My boys don’t do any of those things either. We are a get outside in the dirt, camping, beach going, off road racing family. I’m not alone! Really, thank you!
Thank you so much for posting this video! I struggle with this but yet relate to this video so much! I’m the one who usually pushes my son because he is homeschooled yet he has no desire, he would rather be camping, hiking, fishing, riding four wheelers and that’s totally ok!! Thank you sweet momma!!!
Love this Jamie!☺️🤓🙌 Very similar to us. Yes our boys tried a couple of sports early on, but it doesn’t stick. We’re not a big organized sports/extracurricular activities family either. Yes to being outside, hiking, going to places, etc. My boys have their interests and we just do life together. We keep it simple I guess ha!😄👌
Ugh I love this! Not getting lost in the hustle of all the "necessary" extracurricular activities is our desire. For us Homeschool is all about life lessons and learning as we do, not getting registered for the next sport or dance. This was incredibly encouraging!
I love the way you guys do y’all’s extracurricular activities together as a family and getting outside! It’s real life/life skills and even more it’s what they love! My kids don’t play a lot of sports, my girls dance.. and my son plays golf.. all by their choice and they’ve done these for years... but outside of that I try to let them do other things they enjoy, cooking, coding, computer skills. My husband is a computer guy so they take apart and rebuild or build new computers together and they love it.
Thank you for this video and encouragement. 🥰 Even though my sons aren’t interested in sports (been there, done that😜), I still feel pressure to do it because of the society “norms.” But, we’d rather spend our time with family. We love to go on vacations and spontaneous trips. We don’t like the idea of some other organization controlling our schedule. We also found that sports and extracurriculars often conflicted with our worship times and church events. And it also left us exhausted at the end of the day so, even though we had good intentions of family bible time, it often got pushed to the back burner because the extracurriculars left us all drained (this was also when we were in public school, so it was rushing from school, to homework, to games/practice, late nights then school the next morning). It’s been such a blessing to be okay with NOT doing sports. Between our decision to homeschool and not doing traditional extracurriculars, it has added so much peace to our home, closeness as a family, and a central focus on God. We are 100% in control of our schedule and activities and it’s been wonderful! We have time for spontaneous trips to the zoo. We have park days and adventures. My boys love to create, tinker, build, and play. And I’m okay with that. 😄
Wow I feel much better on not feeling like doing too many scheduled sports and so on. I also prefer doing field trips and having those experiences vs sports. Of course we’re open to change but we feel better about it.
LOVE this, my son is not into sports at ALL. He is into robotics and decided to put the money into that instead of "sports". Also I'm not teaching my kids to get into college, yes if my children want to go to college we are all for it but if they dont I'm ok with that as well. I'm more focused on building and teaching life skills. My 2nd year of Homeschooling will be looking different for us, bc it will look like Us!!!! I told my son this Morning that we are no longer Homeschooling we will be Home-Learning.
Love this! Our family is the same way. Hiking, fishing, camping & hunting are the main extra curricular activities. My boys (10, 5 & 2) don’t even know what the Super Bowl is. 😆😱
This meant a lot to me. My kids don't love sports but the Pressure to Use sports as socialization can be really frustrating. My kids get plenty of socialization doing the things we do as a family unit. So thank you for this video and your honesty around it.
This completely resonated with me! We aren’t into sports either. I’d rather spend more time teaching my boys life skills. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one not putting my kids into sports so this video really helped me and made me feel better. Thank you!!
I could not love this more! We are not a sports family either...hubby and I never played them, we don't watch them, and my 3 girls couldn't care less about them. We are an outdoorsy family too...our extracurriculars are hiking, splashing in creeks, catching bugs, etc. I wouldn't have it any other way!
And just wanted to add that we have never pushed extra curriculars because I was public schooled and put in every activity there was 🤪 and although it wasn’t all bad I never had time to explore things I really loved or were interested in because I was so busy. I can remember the joy I felt on an odd day that I didn’t have to be somewhere and I could take my book and sketchbook and just go to the seashore or hike to my favourite spots n the woods. So ,any children are missing out on the simple, carefree joys of childhood 🌷
I related to this very much, even though our lifestyle on a tiny island looks quite a bit different. Growing up homeschooled, my parents never pursued so much of extracurricular activities--when we got older, they said that we could participate in anything as long as we could get ourselves there and back home again. :) My main thing in high school was participating in theater and acting competitions. My parents simply didn't have a big desire to, with a big family, spend lots of money or invest lots of time into lots of extracurricular classes and teams. And...I envision something similar for my little family's future. I'm open to whatever passions my children develop, but I'm not planning on filling up our schedule. My husband has played sports his entire life and was a competitve runner on teams in high school and college...and HE thinks that the time investment is overrated, when he looks back at his time in cross-country, even though he enjoyed it and was good at it. The intense amount of training, which meant spending a lot less time with his brothers...he doesn't feel like it was 100% worth it.
I recently discovered your channel and have been watching all of your videos! I just love your videos and your views on things. This one especially! Our boys tried T-ball and Coach Pitch and they both disliked it. We never watch sports and none of us have any interest whatsoever in it. I just can't see forcing my kid to basically play a game they don't want to play :) The only thing we made them do was take swimming lessons. We felt that was a vital life skill and they both are so happy they can swim. Thank you for sharing these wonderful homeschool videos :)
Loved this!!! It felt good to this momma's heart as that was one of the things I felt bad about when leaving the states is knowing the boys wouldn't have any organized sports or extra-curriculars. However, it may look different here where we live now, it's beautiful to see them adapt. They ride their bikes, explore all over our area, play kickball and extreme frisbee with other kiddos in the area, play legos, rollerblade, dig in dirt, explore, hike up rivers and climb over huge rocks! They've been able to do more here but just not in a traditional sense...and I'm ok with that!!! :)
Looking back I played soccer my entire life, even through university. It was fun but our lives centered around soccer. I had anxiety attacks in high school over my high school soccer team. Literally my first ever panic attack and insomnia and depression I ever experienced. It was awful. I wish my parents had stopped me. I was determined to not quit because I didn’t want to disappoint my then. I wish they had taken my mental health more seriously. And we missed so many family events or other interests that I had. I LOVED church and I remember feeling bad that I missed church or activities over a soccer tournament.
We live in a dessert state (AZ) and in the city. I would LOVE to live out in nature to be able to do all that you and your family do. Seriously, it’s amazing that your extra curricular activities are just full on nature.
My uncle lives in Hereford, AZ and it’s so beautiful there! It gets cold enough in the winter where it snows but warm enough for the summer and it’s by some mountains so they go fishing and camping sometimes.
Yes, forget the labels. Stop trying to check the boxes. We don't have to be competitive with other parents about the list of activities our kids are involved in. Live a fulfilling life with your kids. That will look different for every family! Totally agree.
My family is 100% the same as far as organized sports go. They are in gymnastics & Taekwondo, and they love it. They also are in Boy/Cub Scouts, because they love it.
I love this so much! First, my husbands dream is to build a cabin or fix one up with my boys! Second, we always loved sports and my boys always played, and during the shut down my boys discovered skateboarding and it is their PASSION and so it’s a little weird not going to practices and games, but I actually love how much it frees up our schedule!!
So far, sports isn’t something our kids seem interested in and I am okay with that! Lol I like how you brought something different to this space because sometimes we just need to remember that what we have going on with homeschool and life really just may be enough. We do music and let them play and build things. They love it.
We are the same way. My boys would rather go fishing or camping or hiking, riding their four-wheelers or helping Dad build something. before playing a sport. We don't like loosing our summer with practices and games. We used to but got tired of it and always wanted to be doing something else.
My girls take a dance class once a week during the school year. Between that and church Wednesday nights we have no other extra curriculars. I see my friends taxiing around multiple kids to various teams and clubs through the week and it looks exhausting. My boy just turned two and I wonder if we'll get asked about sports more often with him because we hardly get asked with our girls. Also, yes to family time. We only keep our kids for a short time.
We did the dance, we do the piano, we have done Tball, swim lessons, run club, soccer. Slowly we got rid of the dance, taking this summer off piano lessons... we are taking the entire summer off of all organized activities and just enjoying. We may return to piano, we may not.
Yes! Thank you! Life skills over sports. So encouraging! So many times since we've begun homeschooling we hear others opinions about how our kids need to be in sports or activities "for socialization". But honestly, our kids don't enjoy those things. My 12 year old daughter is more like your boys - motorcycles and 4wheelers and hunting and fishing and hiking...why would I force her to play a sport or join a group she has no real interest in and have that constant battle? No thanks. We'll be in the woods if you need us.
Find what they love to do... yes ! We love baseball here because my hubby grew up playing it and the boys grandad too ... my boys are learning to appreciate it so much more now that they are good at it but it wasn’t like this last year, sometimes pushing through is necessary too ... especially when there’s talent. i felt this way about music because my family was pushing us to do it but we are not into that as much as we are into baseball or handy work. 👍🏼💜
@@SimplyLivingIt my kids are young (7, 4, and 2) and my family is still not super supportive of homeschooling. They keep suggesting all these things I should put my oldest in to make sure she's "socializing" 🙄. My daughter is a flower child ❤️. She just loves her siblings, being outside about 5 hours a day, and making art. To me, that's how childhood should be. Not all this push, push, push. It's refreshing to find like minded parents out there.
Love this! Can you talk about how your boys make friends if they are not involved in organized sports? My son is very social and he doesn't have any brothers so I would fear that he couldn't make friends homeschooling.
I have the same mindset. I love the freedom we have in our life because of homeschooling and the adventures we can partake in in real life and real time as a family. We are building and strengthening the family relationships that we will have the rest of our lives versus " friends" they have for the season of the sport. I do have a question.. when someone ask you about extracurriculars..and you say my kids do not so sports and they pull out the what about socialization card... How do you handle/respond to them?
My oldest is only 10 and we have yet to find their "thing". We try things of interest of course looking for it but I am trying to let go ans just live in the moment.
Yes we have done a few sports n the past but this year we haven’t done much with sports. I agree with you so much on this!!! We hunt, fish, go camping, and lately the kids have been doing archery with daddy. I really don’t like the idea of being overly busy with sports either especially when a lot of sports consist of traveling and spending hundreds of dollars on hotels every weekend. Just wouldn’t work for us. Would rather spend money on things like investing for the future:))
Love this! We are totally not a sports family, my daughter is almost 10 and has no interest in group activities with other kids lol. She’s really into baking so I might see if there’s something she can join around that. My other two are only 4 and 2 so I’m not even thinking about it yet. We do stuff as a family, too.
We do extra curricular activities. I have a boy who loves basketball but he plays wiv my brother’s son so they go together. Wen we Travel our kids love playing in the ocean and water sports. I agree they need their things. Hunting and fishing are sport just not formal sports. We watch sports at home. We are moving to the beach and I bet my kids will surf more as they age as we are a surfing family. I have a kid who hates playing music. Our field trips are wen we travel and show them sights where we are and the conferences we go to. We have a rule in our house that we need to be active in some way, it doesn’t need to be a formal sport tho if they aren’t into it.
Your family sounds like ours! My boys have tried soccer, t-ball and basketball, but the interest just didn’t seem to be there. Give them a bike or a four wheeler, and they’re in hog Heaven! Like you, I’d rather encourage their actual interests than push them to play sports they don’t care anything about!
I feel I am a minority here but my kids (2) love their sports! We go to a swimming pool together twice a week as well. I will agree it’s a lot of work for me and very time consuming (driving). We also do a lot of outdoor activities almost every day😅
Are you in a homeschool community group? I just got the email for mine in town (first year homeschooling) and it honestly seemed kinda overwhelming lol. We're in a small town in Idaho, so I thought the group might be good for making friends, seeing friends regularly, etc. but idk something about it just doesn't sound great to me. My son does love sports though, he's in jiu jitsu, and he's starting soccer then hockey soon.
My daughter loves playing her piano. My son.....he just wants to read read read all the time. I can't think of any extracurricular things for him. He just rejects anything I suggest. He just wants to read. Not that I'm complaining.
This type of video is on my to do list! Haha bc I just can’t do all the things and have my life revolve around extra curricular sports. Lol call me selfish or more so just broke! Haha but taking care of our home and how we provide for our family is more important for my kids to learn than play football or soccer, let alone all the wasted time (for me) running all over the place. So we shoot BB guns, ride our horse, plant and reap the garden, process deer, help daddy or mommy build, fish and hunt! Real life skills! However we did get my son into martial arts, it’s sat mornings, it’s something he is really interested in AND it’s help him gain confidence. But if at any moment he doesn’t want to do it, I’m not going to make him. YES OUR WHOLE LIFE is our extra curricular activity! Totally follow the interests yes for sure! We craft all the time! My daughter really wanted to start a RUclips channel! Hey sure!
Thank you for this! The only extra curricular activities that I want to put my kids in is karate for self defense and swim classes. I see them as essential in their lives.
🌼What do extra curriculars look like in your home, friend?!!!
Let's chat about it below!!!!
Have a lovely day!
We are exactly the same in this area! We do the same! Haha who even played in the last super bowl? 😆
Jesi Davis Life RIGHT???!!!!😂🤷♀️😂
My high school daughter rides her horse several times a week at a barn with other people who love horses just like her and she loves it! She does hunter jumping and cow sorting. Not a team sport but an individual sport that requires team work with a 1200 pound animal that can be unpredictable. She has learned patience, acceptance and perseverance. You can be on your game but your horse isn't or vice versa. She learns how to deal with disappointment that will prepare her for life. Not to mention the responsibility of owning an animal that requires you to be invested.
“Sports are over-rated” 👏👏👏I could not agree more! If they feel passionate about it I’ll try it again, but otherwise ok totally good with it!!
Oh Jamie, this came at the perfect time. Lately, I have been feeling guilty for not enrolling the kids in extracurricular activities that all the neighborhood kids seem to be doing. You’ve reminded me that we do plenty of other activities. We go camping, walk/hike, fishing, go rock hounding, ride bikes, they love helping dad work in the garage or on the yard. Thank you for reminding me that I am doing enough.
Sweet mama, you are doing an amazing job! ❤🌼
The school year before covid we were involved in sooo many extra curricular activities that it had me stressed out to the max. This current school year has been so much more relaxed due to staying home for obvious reasons. During this school year I've realized that all of those extras we were doing weren't necessary. Our co-op has announced that they'll be going back to normal classes in the fall which is absolutely wonderful, but we've chosen not to go back. We like being home, having fun together as a family, doing our thing as we want to. That is the beauty and freedom in homeschooling.
Preach!🙌 Love this so much! Why do we as a society continue this mindset that we need to schedule our kids out to the max?? #bringbackchildhood 💕💕
YESSSSSSSS!!!!!🌼🌼🌼
I have 4 girls. We've never done sports or music. We live on 5 acres inland on the Oregon coast . They love being outside and going to the beach and finding things! Extracurricular =family time at our house. Your boys and family sound amazing.
Oh girl....if we lived near the beach....YES!!!!!!!!😍😍😍💗
This was SO ENCOURAGING! As someone who does not want to get wrapped up into the business of extracurriculars this makes me feel not alone.
You are NOT alone, mama!!!!!!!💗💗💗
And I have to add how much this makes me feel much better about not keeping up with their private music lessons! It really is nice to let things go -especially if it’s not their passion!
Yes!! This is my 8yr old son too. He loves hunting, fishing with us, being outdoors riding his 4 wheeler...taking long bike rides on trails & hiking in Pa mountains. We are not a sports family either. All outdoor family. I love your videos & your encouragement as a only child homeschool mama boy ❤ I value our time with my son as he wants to be with family.
I always felt like the weird family because we don’t like what society says we should like. Lol! At 37, I finally don’t feel anxiety over being the “weird” people and I embrace it and am proud of it! ❤️
Sara, YES GIRL!!!!!!!! I love this so much! I am with you 100%!!! ❤
Likewise. I noticed that the older I get in age the more I'm confident in who I am and less concerned with others' views of me and my family. I'm 45 and homeschool my 5 and 7-year-old girls.
YES!!! We are right there with you! xo
You have no idea how much I needed this!!! Our family sounds so similar to yours in our likes and dislikes. Society says they need those extras,, but that's just not us either. Put us in the woods hunting, gathering or playing and we are so happy!! We are homeschooling our 3 boys as well and it is the best adventure ever!!! Thank you for your words of wisdom!!!
Mama, you are doing a great job!!! 🌼🤗💗
YES! Most of my friends are scheduled to the max with extra sports and co-ops (as young as 1st grade)... We live in the city and a small apartment but I can relate nature is our favorite place to be... our tiny patio is overflowing with random plants, we spend a good Portion of the day on walking trails, poking around the common yard in front of our apartment exploring it all, and chatting to all the neighbors as they walk by. We hike every weekend because that’s what we love and where we love to be at this time of life ❤️ our only indoor “extracurricular” is church lol... Its simple but keeps us busy. I love the freedom we have and the adventures we have together.
Yes!!! Our family is the same way! Learning life skills is so much more important than sports!
Thank you thank you thank you for this video!! I just took a huge sigh of relief.
“Find what your children love to do and pour into it” yes!!!! Each of my kids is so different; one loves sports, one loves the outdoors, one loves working with his hands and piano, one loves ballet, etc. but as a family we love the outdoors, period. Nature for us too!
This is so true! Our home school is a wonderful place for our children to learn and grow! My son doesn’t do sports or musical instruments either. He does videos and pictures of houses and ceiling fans. He works with his dad and installs ceiling fans and lights! He has the most popular ceiling fan channel on RUclips!!
That's so awesome, Kathy!!!!
@@SimplyLivingIt his channel is called Fans, Houses, etc some of his videos have millions of views! lol
This is so timely! I've been lying awake at night stressing about this and I know it's ridiculous. I LOVE that we don't have to be anywhere during the week and can make our own schedule. I've been dreading having to add extracurriculars to that. Sports wouldn't be such a big deal except that here in New Zealand it's always on a Sunday and therefore conflicts with church. :/ It is so refreshing to hear from an experienced homeschool mom who has this mindset. Thanks for sharing! :)
Thank you so much for doing this video!!! 👏 I love how y'all roll ☺ Totally agree with everything you said 100% 👏
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Amen I can agree with this so much. My boys LOVE mountain biking, its their love, hiking, swimming, and mountain biking, in addition to hunting and just being out in nature. This was a big reason we are fixing up our home to sell and buying an RV to travel the country and find a place for us that best fits my boys needs. Thank you for sharing, I've felt so guilty, living in the big city, that because my boys aren't in sports, or don't like them we where failing.
🙌🏼 I needed this so much! My husband and I are NOT sports people. Your video just spoke to me 100% because this is exactly how we operate as a family. My boys want to dig in the dirt for worms and go fishing. Practice shooting. Their eyes light up like it’s Christmas morning when they see an ATV. 😂 My husband is such an awesome teacher when it comes to outdoor safety and survival. He’s always teaching them valuable skills that they’ll use in life. Thank you for making & sharing this video. Even though sports and music are wonderful extracurricular activities, there are so many other activities out there that are rarely spoken of. I have one son who loves art, but also loves fishing and has recently expressed an interest in archery...my other son loves music and dirt bikes...my other son loves race cars and practice shooting...my other son loves the beach and anything water related. Each child is unique and we as mommas need to listen to & watch what they’re interested in and nurture those interests and not feel guilty that they’re not taking paid music lessons or signed up for little league. That’s how I want to connect with my boys. To show them that I see & hear them.
Love this 💕. Our family is similar. We live on a large acreage by the sea and their favourite thing to do is to be outside exploring, working on their treehouse and riding their four wheelers and fixing up their car and caring for their animals 🐐 and riding horses and family hikes, hunting and fishing. Mine are 11, 9, 7 and 2 and we did try soccer when they were interested but it didn’t last long and they did do music lessons when they were interested. My oldest loves art and is teaching herself piano and I’ve found that she spends way more time practicing piano than when she was forced to practice when taking violin lessons. Love all your videos. 💕.
LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!
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Love this. I have been stressing over it a bit. I keep asking and he says he's not interested. This has given perspective on how I especially need to relax and follow his interests he's already shown us. Thank you
This was a very encouraging video! My kids are still young, my oldest is 5, and you definitely feel the pressure that you need to put the kids into all the activities otherwise they will be missing out.
I have a 5 year old that lives for competition gymnastics. I have a 12 year old that does competitive dance. They take up a ton of our time. If our kids didn’t love them there’s no way I would devote this much time to these activities. What you are doing for your boys is wonderful. They’re building life skills.
I love this video so much and I truly needed this. I have two boys, the older one (almost 10) plays hockey and it completely consumes our lives...right now he’s playing on 4 teams! He loves it so much and is so passionate about it. My younger son is 8 and also has ADHD and autism. We’ve tried so many things for him because I’ve felt like I “need” to have him involved in something. But you hit the nail on the head! He LOVES his legos and he LOVES being outdoors. We go hiking as a family and he leads the hikes and wonders off the path through the woods to explore (as long as he’s in eyesight). He also loves to fish so much. It’s difficult sometimes because patience is not a strength but boy does he love the “catching” part of fishing! I felt like you were speaking to me, thank you!
I’m going on my 3rd year of homeschooling. My oldest son is only 5, and he’ll be starting Kindergarten in August. I’ve already had a few comments about him doing sports. I’m not into pushing my kids to do sports and athletics. I would love for him to learn an instrument, but I’m not going to force him. This video is a huge encouragement because I am so big on the idea of my children, especially my boys, learning life skills that would better benefit them throughout their life.
Loved hearing from you! As someone on the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to sports with having kids who are super passionate about what they do and need them for mental and physical health. there’s no sense in forcing a child into something they don’t care about! Loved this peek into your cabin!
Our family is totally opposite too! Both of my oldest boys play very high level, competitive soccer so it’s hard for me to imagine not having that outlet and joy in our lives! But all families and kids are different!
I'm glad you made this video. I have 3 boys too! They are not into sports. My husband and I were never involved in sports, so we don't push our boys to do sports. They sound like your boys. They spend a lot of time outside camping, hiking, throwing tomahawks at targets, taking care of their rabbits and chickens. Their main extracurricular is 4H. They show their animals in fairs and participate in many activities. They have made many friends. Several are also homeschoolers. God bless you and your family today!
Oh, I LOVE this message! Life skills are so important. Family is so important. Nature and survival skills. Being each other's best friends. Everything in the video is such a great message! :)
Aw, thank you, beautiful! 💗🌼
This was super encouraging! Thank you!
Thank you for this and yes I thought you'd give a list but I love how it was an unexpected answer. This needed to be said. My goal is to lean into my girls' natural interests and spiritual bents in life. Just the encouragement I need to stay focused on who we are as a family.
This video is so inspiring. I've been just getting into learning about homeschooling and I'm struggling to get over the guilt of not sending them to school so they don't "miss out on school life." I would love to just be free and have them outside in nature to learn and dive into what they truly love but it's hard to get over the guilt.
Love your family time at the cabin!
I enjoyed this video! Thanks for sharing! Right now our extras look pretty normal. My girls dance and play tball, my son plays baseball and racquetball. They are all wanting to start pottery classes, which I'm hoping to do with them.
As far as the definition of extracurricular I'd probably break it down to extra- "beyond" and -curricular "curriculum". Beyond curriculum. Things that aren't required of the student to graduate.
A pottery class sounds like so much fun! 😃
@@SimplyLivingIt we have a local business that just opened up for pottery classes instead of just painting! We were there a couple weekends and got to see someone making a bowl and they were mesmerized!
THIS!!! Thank you for the encouragement. My boys don’t do any of those things either. We are a get outside in the dirt, camping, beach going, off road racing family.
I’m not alone! Really, thank you!
Thank you so much for posting this video! I struggle with this but yet relate to this video so much! I’m the one who usually pushes my son because he is homeschooled yet he has no desire, he would rather be camping, hiking, fishing, riding four wheelers and that’s totally ok!! Thank you sweet momma!!!
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Love this Jamie!☺️🤓🙌 Very similar to us. Yes our boys tried a couple of sports early on, but it doesn’t stick. We’re not a big organized sports/extracurricular activities family either. Yes to being outside, hiking, going to places, etc. My boys have their interests and we just do life together. We keep it simple I guess ha!😄👌
Ugh I love this! Not getting lost in the hustle of all the "necessary" extracurricular activities is our desire. For us Homeschool is all about life lessons and learning as we do, not getting registered for the next sport or dance. This was incredibly encouraging!
I love the way you guys do y’all’s extracurricular activities together as a family and getting outside! It’s real life/life skills and even more it’s what they love!
My kids don’t play a lot of sports, my girls dance.. and my son plays golf.. all by their choice and they’ve done these for years... but outside of that I try to let them do other things they enjoy, cooking, coding, computer skills. My husband is a computer guy so they take apart and rebuild or build new computers together and they love it.
Thank you for this video and encouragement. 🥰 Even though my sons aren’t interested in sports (been there, done that😜), I still feel pressure to do it because of the society “norms.” But, we’d rather spend our time with family. We love to go on vacations and spontaneous trips. We don’t like the idea of some other organization controlling our schedule. We also found that sports and extracurriculars often conflicted with our worship times and church events. And it also left us exhausted at the end of the day so, even though we had good intentions of family bible time, it often got pushed to the back burner because the extracurriculars left us all drained (this was also when we were in public school, so it was rushing from school, to homework, to games/practice, late nights then school the next morning). It’s been such a blessing to be okay with NOT doing sports. Between our decision to homeschool and not doing traditional extracurriculars, it has added so much peace to our home, closeness as a family, and a central focus on God. We are 100% in control of our schedule and activities and it’s been wonderful! We have time for spontaneous trips to the zoo. We have park days and adventures. My boys love to create, tinker, build, and play. And I’m okay with that. 😄
Thank you
Wow I feel much better on not feeling like doing too many scheduled sports and so on. I also prefer doing field trips and having those experiences vs sports. Of course we’re open to change but we feel better about it.
LOVE this, my son is not into sports at ALL. He is into robotics and decided to put the money into that instead of "sports". Also I'm not teaching my kids to get into college, yes if my children want to go to college we are all for it but if they dont I'm ok with that as well. I'm more focused on building and teaching life skills. My 2nd year of Homeschooling will be looking different for us, bc it will look like Us!!!!
I told my son this Morning that we are no longer Homeschooling we will be Home-Learning.
Love this! Our family is the same way. Hiking, fishing, camping & hunting are the main extra curricular activities. My boys (10, 5 & 2) don’t even know what the Super Bowl is. 😆😱
This meant a lot to me. My kids don't love sports but the Pressure to Use sports as socialization can be really frustrating. My kids get plenty of socialization doing the things we do as a family unit. So thank you for this video and your honesty around it.
This completely resonated with me! We aren’t into sports either. I’d rather spend more time teaching my boys life skills. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only one not putting my kids into sports so this video really helped me and made me feel better. Thank you!!
I could not love this more! We are not a sports family either...hubby and I never played them, we don't watch them, and my 3 girls couldn't care less about them. We are an outdoorsy family too...our extracurriculars are hiking, splashing in creeks, catching bugs, etc. I wouldn't have it any other way!
And just wanted to add that we have never pushed extra curriculars because I was public schooled and put in every activity there was 🤪 and although it wasn’t all bad I never had time to explore things I really loved or were interested in because I was so busy. I can remember the joy I felt on an odd day that I didn’t have to be somewhere and I could take my book and sketchbook and just go to the seashore or hike to my favourite spots n the woods. So ,any children are missing out on the simple, carefree joys of childhood 🌷
I related to this very much, even though our lifestyle on a tiny island looks quite a bit different. Growing up homeschooled, my parents never pursued so much of extracurricular activities--when we got older, they said that we could participate in anything as long as we could get ourselves there and back home again. :) My main thing in high school was participating in theater and acting competitions. My parents simply didn't have a big desire to, with a big family, spend lots of money or invest lots of time into lots of extracurricular classes and teams. And...I envision something similar for my little family's future. I'm open to whatever passions my children develop, but I'm not planning on filling up our schedule. My husband has played sports his entire life and was a competitve runner on teams in high school and college...and HE thinks that the time investment is overrated, when he looks back at his time in cross-country, even though he enjoyed it and was good at it. The intense amount of training, which meant spending a lot less time with his brothers...he doesn't feel like it was 100% worth it.
This was so NECESSARY to hear. And perfect timing. Thanks for all your content 🙏
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Our life is an extra curricular! lol Perfect :)
Hahahaa! It works...doesn't it? Hahahaha!
I recently discovered your channel and have been watching all of your videos! I just love your videos and your views on things. This one especially! Our boys tried T-ball and Coach Pitch and they both disliked it. We never watch sports and none of us have any interest whatsoever in it. I just can't see forcing my kid to basically play a game they don't want to play :) The only thing we made them do was take swimming lessons. We felt that was a vital life skill and they both are so happy they can swim. Thank you for sharing these wonderful homeschool videos :)
Loved this!!! It felt good to this momma's heart as that was one of the things I felt bad about when leaving the states is knowing the boys wouldn't have any organized sports or extra-curriculars. However, it may look different here where we live now, it's beautiful to see them adapt. They ride their bikes, explore all over our area, play kickball and extreme frisbee with other kiddos in the area, play legos, rollerblade, dig in dirt, explore, hike up rivers and climb over huge rocks! They've been able to do more here but just not in a traditional sense...and I'm ok with that!!! :)
YES, mama!!!!👏👏👏💗
YES! This is so timely for me to hear. Thanks!
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Looking back I played soccer my entire life, even through university. It was fun but our lives centered around soccer. I had anxiety attacks in high school over my high school soccer team. Literally my first ever panic attack and insomnia and depression I ever experienced. It was awful. I wish my parents had stopped me. I was determined to not quit because I didn’t want to disappoint my then. I wish they had taken my mental health more seriously. And we missed so many family events or other interests that I had. I LOVED church and I remember feeling bad that I missed church or activities over a soccer tournament.
Certainly helps me!!
We live in a dessert state (AZ) and in the city.
I would LOVE to live out in nature to be able to do all that you and your family do. Seriously, it’s amazing that your extra curricular activities are just full on nature.
My uncle lives in Hereford, AZ and it’s so beautiful there! It gets cold enough in the winter where it snows but warm enough for the summer and it’s by some mountains so they go fishing and camping sometimes.
Yes, forget the labels. Stop trying to check the boxes. We don't have to be competitive with other parents about the list of activities our kids are involved in. Live a fulfilling life with your kids. That will look different for every family! Totally agree.
My family is 100% the same as far as organized sports go. They are in gymnastics & Taekwondo, and they love it. They also are in Boy/Cub Scouts, because they love it.
(They want to be Ninjas. 😂😂)
I love this so much! First, my husbands dream is to build a cabin or fix one up with my boys! Second, we always loved sports and my boys always played, and during the shut down my boys discovered skateboarding and it is their PASSION and so it’s a little weird not going to practices and games, but I actually love how much it frees up our schedule!!
Girl, look! This all lead to your boys finding something they are passionate about! BEAUTIFUL! 💛
So far, sports isn’t something our kids seem interested in and I am okay with that! Lol I like how you brought something different to this space because sometimes we just need to remember that what we have going on with homeschool and life really just may be enough. We do music and let them play and build things. They love it.
That's so great, friend! Something they love and enjoy doing is where it's at!!!!!
We are the same way. My boys would rather go fishing or camping or hiking, riding their four-wheelers or helping Dad build something. before playing a sport. We don't like loosing our summer with practices and games. We used to but got tired of it and always wanted to be doing something else.
My girls take a dance class once a week during the school year. Between that and church Wednesday nights we have no other extra curriculars. I see my friends taxiing around multiple kids to various teams and clubs through the week and it looks exhausting. My boy just turned two and I wonder if we'll get asked about sports more often with him because we hardly get asked with our girls. Also, yes to family time. We only keep our kids for a short time.
I needed this! It's so expensive trying to pay for activities when you have 3 kids. This took pressure off of me. 😊
We did the dance, we do the piano, we have done Tball, swim lessons, run club, soccer. Slowly we got rid of the dance, taking this summer off piano lessons... we are taking the entire summer off of all organized activities and just enjoying. We may return to piano, we may not.
Love this so much!! We do our “extracurricular” activities together as a family too❤️❤️
@@heidi6544 unfortunately not, very small family❤️
Yes! Thank you! Life skills over sports. So encouraging! So many times since we've begun homeschooling we hear others opinions about how our kids need to be in sports or activities "for socialization". But honestly, our kids don't enjoy those things. My 12 year old daughter is more like your boys - motorcycles and 4wheelers and hunting and fishing and hiking...why would I force her to play a sport or join a group she has no real interest in and have that constant battle? No thanks. We'll be in the woods if you need us.
Find what they love to do... yes ! We love baseball here because my hubby grew up playing it and the boys grandad too ... my boys are learning to appreciate it so much more now that they are good at it but it wasn’t like this last year, sometimes pushing through is necessary too ... especially when there’s talent. i felt this way about music because my family was pushing us to do it but we are not into that as much as we are into baseball or handy work. 👍🏼💜
This is my most favorite video of yours ❤️.
Awww! Thanks friend! 🤗 Any particular reason why?! Just curious! ☺
@@SimplyLivingIt my kids are young (7, 4, and 2) and my family is still not super supportive of homeschooling. They keep suggesting all these things I should put my oldest in to make sure she's "socializing" 🙄. My daughter is a flower child ❤️. She just loves her siblings, being outside about 5 hours a day, and making art. To me, that's how childhood should be. Not all this push, push, push. It's refreshing to find like minded parents out there.
YES!!!!!! 🤗💗
Wish you lived closer!! We would make good friends!!! Haha
Yes, yes, yes, YES! 🙌🏼
Love this! Can you talk about how your boys make friends if they are not involved in organized sports? My son is very social and he doesn't have any brothers so I would fear that he couldn't make friends homeschooling.
I have the same mindset. I love the freedom we have in our life because of homeschooling and the adventures we can partake in in real life and real time as a family. We are building and strengthening the family relationships that we will have the rest of our lives versus " friends" they have for the season of the sport. I do have a question.. when someone ask you about extracurriculars..and you say my kids do not so sports and they pull out the what about socialization card... How do you handle/respond to them?
My oldest is only 10 and we have yet to find their "thing". We try things of interest of course looking for it but I am trying to let go ans just live in the moment.
Yes we have done a few sports n the past but this year we haven’t done much with sports. I agree with you so much on this!!! We hunt, fish, go camping, and lately the kids have been doing archery with daddy. I really don’t like the idea of being overly busy with sports either especially when a lot of sports consist of traveling and spending hundreds of dollars on hotels every weekend. Just wouldn’t work for us. Would rather spend money on things like investing for the future:))
YES! And yes to archery, girl! Life skills! ☺❤
Love this! We are totally not a sports family, my daughter is almost 10 and has no interest in group activities with other kids lol. She’s really into baking so I might see if there’s something she can join around that. My other two are only 4 and 2 so I’m not even thinking about it yet. We do stuff as a family, too.
We do extra curricular activities. I have a boy who loves basketball but he plays wiv my brother’s son so they go together. Wen we Travel our kids love playing in the ocean and water sports. I agree they need their things. Hunting and fishing are sport just not formal sports. We watch sports at home. We are moving to the beach and I bet my kids will surf more as they age as we are a surfing family. I have a kid who hates playing music. Our field trips are wen we travel and show them sights where we are and the conferences we go to. We have a rule in our house that we need to be active in some way, it doesn’t need to be a formal sport tho if they aren’t into it.
Playing with other children that homesch❤❤❤ool
Your family sounds like ours! My boys have tried soccer, t-ball and basketball, but the interest just didn’t seem to be there. Give them a bike or a four wheeler, and they’re in hog Heaven! Like you, I’d rather encourage their actual interests than push them to play sports they don’t care anything about!
Yes, very similiar! My boys have played sports, yes...each one of them! But, we now give them the option and they say, "nah!" 💙💙💙
We are trying to decide between martial arts or swimming lessons
I feel I am a minority here but my kids (2) love their sports! We go to a swimming pool together twice a week as well. I will agree it’s a lot of work for me and very time consuming (driving). We also do a lot of outdoor activities almost every day😅
You are not a minority, mama! It is beautiful because it works for your family! 💕
My son has tried sports, but it’s really just not his thing.
Hey mama...never know until you try, right?! 💗
my 6 year old yearns to play minecraft all of the time. i wish we lived some where where i could have him outside all of the time
Are you in a homeschool community group? I just got the email for mine in town (first year homeschooling) and it honestly seemed kinda overwhelming lol. We're in a small town in Idaho, so I thought the group might be good for making friends, seeing friends regularly, etc. but idk something about it just doesn't sound great to me. My son does love sports though, he's in jiu jitsu, and he's starting soccer then hockey soon.
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My daughter loves playing her piano. My son.....he just wants to read read read all the time. I can't think of any extracurricular things for him. He just rejects anything I suggest. He just wants to read. Not that I'm complaining.
This type of video is on my to do list! Haha bc I just can’t do all the things and have my life revolve around extra curricular sports. Lol call me selfish or more so just broke! Haha but taking care of our home and how we provide for our family is more important for my kids to learn than play football or soccer, let alone all the wasted time (for me) running all over the place. So we shoot BB guns, ride our horse, plant and reap the garden, process deer, help daddy or mommy build, fish and hunt! Real life skills! However we did get my son into martial arts, it’s sat mornings, it’s something he is really interested in AND it’s help him gain confidence. But if at any moment he doesn’t want to do it, I’m not going to make him. YES OUR WHOLE LIFE is our extra curricular activity! Totally follow the interests yes for sure! We craft all the time! My daughter really wanted to start a RUclips channel! Hey sure!
Thank you for this! The only extra curricular activities that I want to put my kids in is karate for self defense and swim classes. I see them as essential in their lives.
Yes, absolutely! 💞
Socialicing