I mentioned in my previous post that I'm not much of a sports guy, but I definitely want my kids to like sports - both son and daughters. One thing I did last year and a couple years before that was to coach my daughter's soccer teams. The first year I was the head coach and the second year I was the assistant coach.

I literally went on Google before hand to look up the rules of soccer, and to get some ideas for some drills to practice. I was that clueless. But we're talking 7-year olds here guys, and you can get away with just about anything at that age as long as you have a positive attitude and work hard to help the kids have a fun time.

The other thing I did last week was take my kids to Joe's to buy a bat, a few balls, and mits for everyone. I thought they'd be really excited about the new gear, but it was the baseball cards that drew all the excitement. And not just the gum inside. They divided the packs up evenly between them and read each player's stats; then they traded and did it all over again, and then they started fighting over who got which one... you get the picture. They had a new set of sports heroes and they were crazy about 'em!

The next day I saw my son showing off his baseball cards to his neighborhood buddies, and I could tell he thought they were SO cool! Of course, if I could actually force myself to sit down with my kids and watch a few games together, I'm sure they'd get even more excited about baseball.

My friend Tom and I are also planning a Beaver's game or two with all our kids as soon as the weather sunnies up a little more. I think seeing the players in action will get them even more hooked on sports.

Why do I think it's important to get them interested in sports?

There's a language that a few of my friends speak than I can't interpret. It's the language of sports. They can rattle off stats from a recent game to each other and speculate on who will make the all star team, and it's like they're speaking in code to each other. I swear there's some sort of hidden message in between each sentence that connects men in a way that no other topic can achieve.

And for my girls I saw a level of confidence develop in each of them when they played soccer - especially my 4th grader since the game gets pretty competitive at that age. She had a good coach who challenged her and helped her improve her skills, and she got really good! She did very well and grew close to her team mates along the way. That's great stuff for kids, and good character building material too!

There are numerous life lessons that can be taught and learned on the field, and getting my kids interested in sports will help ensure that they stay involved in sports. That's really what it's all about at this age - getting them interested enough to stick with it while they develop their skills and get good at it.

Along the way it'll give me the chance to play ball, kick ball, shoot ball, and stay in shape with them - not to mention getting the chance to build a deeper relationship based on time spent together working towards a common goal.