Basketballin'

Bryce and Thane recently completed another season of basketball. 

I've realized that one downside of homeschool is less opportunity for them to have small team sport practice opportunities. Their public school counterparts often play soccer or basketball with their friends during recesses. Individual recesses might not be long, but added up over days, weeks, and months, it can result in a significant practice advantage. I could try to do a better job of getting them to a basketball hoop or arranging additional pick-up soccer opportunities, but it just hasn't been a priority yet.

Both boys enjoyed their teams and had fun playing, which is really the bottom line goal at this stage. Bryce played in a 3rd/4th grade division, and Thane played in a 1st/2nd grade division. It helped that they were the older kids on the court. They both had the same coaches who were unfailingly kind and encouraging, which we truly appreciated. 

Bryce, who has played a few seasons now, made tremendous progress in his understanding of the game and his ability to play and contribute to the team.

His defensive skills especially improved, though he did make his first couple baskets and take a lot more shots this season.

Thane was much more hot and cold. Sometimes he was fully engaged - dribbling, passing, shooting, and playing defense. Other times, he put his hands behind his back and walked around the court as a spectator. Still other times he would get an idea in his head (for example, that he wanted to be the one who got to pass the ball into the court) and focus only on that desire (in the previous example, that meant that he would station himself underneath the opposing teams net so he could grab the ball when they scored and be able to pass it in).

Both boys would agree that the best part of basketball season this year is that they got to be on the same team with their good friends Jordan (on Bryce's team) and Colman (on Thane's team). The boys had back-to-back practices, so while their sibling was practicing, they had an hour to play with their buddy. Bryce and Jordan usually practiced more basketball, while Thane and Colman usually played Legos. When basketball season ended, they weren't too sad about the end of playing ball, but they were super sad to not have an extra, built-in weekly play date.