Introducing *YOUTH SPORT WEEKEND* (with linky)

Welcome to my new initiative! A blog meme to celebrate Youth Sports!

There are countless benefits to an active lifestyle for children. Even from a very early age, before organized sport becomes an option,  physical activity can be invaluable for a Childs development. And not just their physical development, but physical activity has benefits for a child’s social, and emotional well-being. I have written a little about this here and here.

I honestly believe that participation in physical activity, an active lifestyle and in organized sports has had enormous benefits for my children and my family.

A major goal for my blog this year is to develop a supportive, motivational and encouraging community for parents involved with youth sports and an active lifestyle. Because of the reach of the internet, this community has the potential to become world wide!

It is my hope that such a community would act to encourage each other in the participation of an active lifestyle and youth sports. Youth sports can be a very time consuming ,exhausting, and a lot of hard work for children and parents…I know! But the benefits for the children and families can be huge! At he very least, participation can teach children to, and give children the habit of, being involved in an active life-style for life!

In addition to encouraging each other, I also hope that a youth sports community could motivate and inspire other families  to take up a youth sport or add some extra physical activity into their lifestyle

One of the things I have enjoyed since starting my blogging journey is participating in blog link-ups. So, I thought that a really great way to develop a community of youth sports parents would be to host a blog link-up.

You will find the linky at the end of this post, (I hope J ..please let me know if there are any problems). I will aim to put up the linky weekly, on each Sunday. Please think about linking up with this post to share some photos, or a story about some physical activity you’re children  or your family have participated in this week-end or it's fine to link an older post too! It could be a synopsis of an organized youth sporting event, match or game. Alternatively, a post could be about any part of an active family lifestyle such as taking the kids to the playground, the pool, going for a bush walk, or the beach, or kicking the footy around in the back garden!

Even for kids too young to participate in organized sports, an active lifestyle is equally important. Teaching skills such as catching balloons, balls and bubbles, jumping on a trampoline, or even crawling after the cat. Photos or descriptions of these types of activities could serve to give other parents ideas about to how to incorporate physical activity into their lifestyles.

One other aspect I’d just like to touch on lightly is that of the ‘tall poppies’. This has been a problem for me and my children since we have become involved in youth sports. I also know from other parents I have ‘met’ online that this has been an issue for them as well. Wouldn’t it be great to have a community that is supportive and encouraging of youth sporting achievement, rather than disinterested,  jealous or even mean.

To create a supportive community, I’d like to invite you to link-up your youth sports or active lifestyle posts. I would also ask you to look  at the posts from any other participants in the link-up and add an encouraging comment. I understand this may take some time to develop, but please consider linking up a post as together we could build an exciting, and inspirational world-wide community. If we can inspire more families to be involved in an active life-style than ultimately, the families and children will reap the benefits.

As I’ve used enough words already, For my inaugural Youth Sports Weekend post, I thought I would share some photos I took today of my girls at a local Little Athletics Carnival. Both my girls Flash (8) and Muscles (7) had a fantastic time…… They did well in their events and even broke a couple of the meet records. However, one of the best parts of their day was finishing up by sucking on the quintessential Aussie ‘Sunnyboy’ (ice-lolly in a triangular package)….does anyone remember those??