Tri Your Best

photo: Jen's Art & Soul cc

School is back in session...and for those kids not in organized sports and/or getting themselves to school by foot or bike, racking up enough exercise can be a challenge. Enter the Applebee's-sponsored Kids Helping Kids Triathlon, scheduled for October 12 in Cary, N.C. Kids 7 to 12 can start their "training" now to participate and raise money for childhood-cancer research.

Untie the Knot

(photo credit eivindw via photopin cc)

How young is too young for marriage? 21? 18? Certainly most would agree that 12 is way, way too young. Yet it's not all that rare for a preteen or early teen girl to be forced into marriage in Malawi, where nearly half of all girls in Malawi are wed by 18, and less than quarter finish elementary school.

Far away in Chicago's north suburbs, teen girl basketball players from the elite Full Package team decided to do their part to chip away at the situation, setting a fundraising goal of $30,000 to fight teen marriage in Malawi through the UN's GirlUp program. For a quick but personal look at the problem and how teens--and others--can be part of the solution, check out this video.

And Speaking of Christmas Cards...

Need some kids-helping-kids Christmas card stamps for your MAC kids-helping-kids holiday cards? Sports fans will enjoy our latest efforts, benefitting Save the Children & featuring (like the MAC products) kids' artwork. Try this football stamp for your holiday mailing:

Or how about our new baseball stamp?

Not your style? Check out these other kids-helping-kids Christmas card stamps, with snowflakes, snowmen, mittens & other classic holiday themes.

Go Team

If losing builds character, well, my son's baseball team was oozing it last spring, with only 1 win all season. It was hard not to feel bad for the kids, who played hard and seemed confused by all the games that slipped away in the last inning or two. Still, there were highlights from a parent's perspective, and most of them involved shows of support between team members. Sportsmanship, after all, is easy when you're winning, not so much when you can't get a break.

A hunt for kid-friendly sportsmanship tips turned up this advice from kidzworld.com:

~"Show up on time to practice, work hard, and listen."

~"If you lose, don't freak out, and don't be a whiner. Don't blame it on the refs [or] your teammates. Think about what you can do to play better..."

~"If you win big, don't show off or rub the other team's face in it. It's fun to celebrate a victory, but don't overdo it."

~"Be willing to sit out so other [team members] can get a chance to play -- even if you think you're a better player. Don't whine to your coach about not playing enough while the game is still going on. [Wait until] after the game [to ask] what you can do to get some more playing time."

~"Always cheer for your teammates, even if you're losing bad. You may be able to inspire a comeback."

~"Don't argue with the ref or the ump. Even if they got the call totally wrong, don't worry about it. Bad calls are usually made against both sides, and things will even out."

Competitive sports are a learning experience, sure, but sportsmanship makes them fun. If every kid, coach & parent were to take a moment, find the most courteous kid on the field, and commit to following his or her example, everyone really would win.

Sibling Support

Over the past couple weeks I've been interviewing moms and dads on behalf of a local startup organization aimed at helping parents connect. Several have mentioned putting a priority on helping build relationships & support between their kids, which I just love.

One family has scaled down extracurricular activities to allow their kids enough time in the yard together. Aware that she and her husband won't always be around, this mom knows how important it is to give the sibs time now to bond, have fun, and learn to share and negotiate with one another--so that later on, if times get tough they'll have a foundation for mutual support.

Another mom re-entered full-time work last year and has four kids at home. The transition has pushed her to insist they help each other with things like homework, even implementing a policy whereby she won't assist unless they've tried more than once on their own, while she's at work, and asked a sibling for help. Depending on the kids' ages and personalities, this could be tricky, but I love the idea of making sibling support a standard operating procedure for homework.

A third parent talked about how the youngest kid in a family is often dragged around to older siblings' sports games and events, then when it's his/her turn on the field, nobody shows. In their family, the expectation is that the boys will attend as many of their brothers' events as possible. This was inspiring to me, as getting our 2 less sporty kids to their brother's ballgames has been a challenge. Something to work on.

(photo: parents.com)

Good Sports

As fun as it is to marvel at the physical feats that define the Olympics, I also love it when young athletes make the news for caring. Especially when it's directed toward a rival -- like the St. Joseph (Mo.) Benton Cardinals football team. Last September their normally fierce adversaries, the Maryville Spoofhounds, did nothing to stop Cardinals running back Matt Ziesel, a freshman with Down syndrome, from running more than 60 yards to put the Cardinals on the scoreboard. And both teams celebrated his moment of triumph.

Now if only those crazed, win-at-all-costs sports parents we keep hearing about would follow their lead.