Adventures in T-Ball

As I mentioned a month or so ago, this is the Pirate's first year of T-Ball. He was initially very excited to be signed up for it and took great pride in showing off his new cleats.  We had a handful of practices that were a bit of a struggle for him (and  Mike, who is coaching.) His attention span isn't quite ready for an hour or so of paying attention, and we've really been struggling to get him to participate. The first game went ok and we were encouraged. The second game was a disaster of epic proportions.  Saturday we had our first day game and it was terrific. We praised and praised and praised him for doing the most basic of participating, and in the end he still said it was "too long" but the game went well and there was no daisy picking in the outfield.

We have five games remaining and I suspect it will still be a struggle to get him motivated for all of them but the season is blessedly short and I am optimistic. He's a little young yet for the stern "you signed up for this and you'll finish it!" speech (plus, I signed him up without really asking him!) I'm hoping that next year, after a year of Kindergarten under his belt, that things will be easier for him.

And one of the Bug chilling with his uncle Joel at the game, cause he's too cute to leave out.

What do you do to motivate your kids to do something they aren't thrilled to be doing? Something that SHOULD be fun for them? Does this change if your child is very young? The Pirate just turned 5 last month!  Do you stick it out or do you wait and try again next year?  Do you have a problem praising your child for something that every other kid is doing willingly in order to get them fired up?  (In general, I am not a huge fan of praise for the sake of praise, but it worked here.) Did you ever allow your kid to abandon something halfway?

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