Kids in Sports | Character Building | JBM Thinks

You are Invited Google Reader is closing. Details here. If you follow JBM Thinks with Google Reader, you won’t get news from me anymore. I’d miss you and you’d miss me, right? So I’m inviting you  to get my posts through: Signing up for email update Follow me on Facebook   If you want to [...]

There’s a lot of good parenting advice available. But I think there’s one thing that often gets overlooked; it’s something we all could stand to do a little more of–Let’s do a little more dancing. Dancing is good for the spirit. You can’t dance and be despondent. Dancing is good for the mind. You can’t [...]

Kids who play youth sports spend hours and hours practicing and playing the game.  If you step back and look at life as a whole, do you see sports for kids as a waste of time? One old guy who came into my husband’s work place does. His comment to my husband in one of [...]

Have you heard about the move to do away with scoreboards in youth sports? Richard Way, the project lead for Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) with Canadian Sport for Life, says competitive sports do nothing to build self-esteem and positive sportsmanship. He feels that if we remove the focus on winning, players will stay engaged longer. Read [...]

We have gone very techie with our picture taking, snapping away with our phones or digital cameras at our kids’ youth sports events. Putting those pics on Facebook or Instagram is a fun and quick way to share, but sometimes you just gotta have the real thing. That’s why Groovebook is so awesome. This free [...]

Today is Earth Day and a good time to remember that we can look for ways to go green in youth sports. Cut down on water bottle waste by buying a sturdy,  stainless steel reusable water bottle and refilling it. Fill up a Gatorade cooler with water and let the kids fill their bottles. If you [...]

  What kids activities do you have planned for your weekend? I recently read about a man who loved Saturdays and wondered how many he had remaining in his life. He bought a glass jar and filled it with marbles. Every Saturday, he opened the jar and took one out. This was a reminder to [...]

    What do you say to a 10-year-old in youth sports if that 10-year-old is you? The makers of this video challenged people to write a letter to their 10-year-old self. Their remarks enforce the fact that hindsight is very 20/20.   If you had to write a letter to your 10-year-old self, the [...]

Saving money in youth sports is something I firmly support. That being said, remember that you get what you pay for, and sometimes getting the less expensive option is not always the best investment. For these five items, cheaper is not always better: Athletic shoes. You don’t have to go for the Air Jordans or [...]

  Many sports parents will reluctantly agree that maybe, just maybe they are guilty of doing things to annoy their athletic children. But the truth is, the annoying doesn’t stop there. Parents do things that annoy coaches too. Continue reading to find out what they are.             Get my free [...]