Sports

It's rare (at least in America) to find moderate attitudes toward sports. Either people are rabid fans, clothed in team colors with painted faces and deep hatred for "the other guys"; or they hate sports themselves, eschewing all teams equally, ranting about the meaninglessness of stats and the evil of an entertainment saturated culture.

The rabid fans are clearly misguided, but the sports-haters also miss the point: sports aren't synonymous with professional franchises and paid spectator events. Five kids with a baseball and a bat are able to play baseball fully just as much as the Atlanta Braves, and maybe more because they're playing purely for love of the game. It isn't multi-million dollar contracts or giant stadiums that form the essence of sports.

A dictionary definition of "sport" would say something like, "Sport is the pursuit of physical and/or mental struggle against individual opponents or teams according to predetermined rules yada yada yada......" But that's really boring and doesn't embrace the reality and innate joy of sweat and sore muscles and exertion and making an impossible shot and keeping the other side from scoring.

Sports have always been divisive. In the old days, knights in armor beat each other up with blunt swords and axes, and were often killed as a result of wounds incurred. Some people thought this was a great way to test manhood, while others thought it was an evil and a sin. In some ways, they were both right. But the ones without an excuse were the audiences who just sat there and watched the violence, cheering and stuffing food in their faces.

Man was not invented merely to sit around drinking beers and eating pretzels dipped in mustard while ogling images on a screen. But he also wasn't invented to be prim and proper all the time. We all have bodies, and we all need to do something other than work sometimes, and sports help us keep our bodies fit while relieving us of the stresses and drudgery of everyday life.

There's not even anything wrong with being a sports fan, as long as you're reasonable about it. Anything that takes up inordinate amounts of our time is an idol, and when we eat, sleep and breathe the Houston Astros (sorry these are all baseball analogies, it's just the best sport), we're not spending enough time eating and sleeping and breathing for Jesus Christ, who is the only reason we can enjoy and appreciate sports in the first place.

God isn't against sports, especially not when we play them amongst ourselves. A lot of homeschoolers put tons of emphasis on mental intelligence while physical improvement kind of goes by the wayside. Sports are a great way to teach character (and, for homeschoolers especially, teamwork) while simply letting kids have fun. They've also been a vital element of every culture throughout time, and we offer our modest collection of sports-related titles here without shame or embarrassment.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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27 Items found Print
All Aboard! Pacific Northwest
All Aboard!
by Kevin Meyers, Haily Meyers
1st edition from Gibbs M. Smith
for Nursery-Preschool
in Board Books (Location: PIC-BOARD)
$11.99
American Boy's Handy Book
by Daniel Beard
from Dover Publications
for 4th-9th grade
in Dangerous Books for Kids (Location: SS-DAN)
$12.95
American Boy's Handy Book
by Daniel Carter Beard
Centennial from David R. Godine
for 3rd-6th grade
in Dangerous Books for Kids (Location: SS-DAN)
$14.95
American Girl's Handy Book
by Lina & Adelia Beard
from David R. Godine
for 4th-9th grade
in Dangerous Books for Kids (Location: SS-DAN)
Anna Banana: 101 Jump-Rope Rhymes
by Joanna Cole
from HarperCollins
for 3rd-4th grade
in Game Books (Location: LOG-GAME)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Arts of the Sailor
by Hervey Garrett Smith
Reprint from Dover Publications
for 5th-Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Beginning Karate
in Physical Education & Fitness (Location: HEAL-PE)
Bob Toski's Complete Guide to Better Golf
by Bob Toski with Dick Aultman
from Atheneum
for Adult
in Hiking & Outdoor Adventures (Location: NAT-HIKE)
$35.00 (1 in stock)
Chapman Piloting
by Elbert S. Maloney
57th edition from Hearst Marine Books
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Complete Book of the Bow & Arrow
by G. Howard Gillelan
from Galahad Books
for Adult
in Hiking & Outdoor Adventures (Location: NAT-HIKE)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Draw 50 Athletes
by Lee Ames
Act from Watson-Guptill Publications
for 3rd-8th grade
in Draw 50 (Location: ELE-ARTD50)
$9.99
Experts' Book of Boating
by Ruth Brindze (editor), illustrated by Fred Wellbrock
from Prentice Hall
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Extreme Sports
Usborne Beginners Plus
by Emily Bone
from Usborne
for 3rd-6th grade
in Usborne Beginners (Location: SCI-USBREA)
Getting Up and Down
by Tom Watson with Nick Seitz, introduction by Jack Nicklaus
from Random House
Golf Techniques for Adult
in Hiking & Outdoor Adventures (Location: NAT-HIKE)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Great Moments in American Sports
Landmark Giant #24
by Jerry Brondfield
from Random House
for 4th-8th grade
in Landmark Giants (Location: VIN-LAN)
Hans Brinker
by Mary Mapes Dodge, illustrated by Hilda Van Stockum
from Capricorn Books
for 4th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
High Performance Cookbook
by Susan M. Kleiner and KarenRae Friedman-Kester
from Macmillan
for Adult
in Healthy Cooking and Diet (Location: COOK-HEA)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
How to Play Baseball
by Babe Ruth
for 5th-Adult
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
Manual of Celestial Navigation
by Arthur A. Ageton
from D. Van Nostrand Co.
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Olympic Games
by Charlene Notgrass with Mary Evelyn Notgrass
from Notgrass Company
for Kindergarten-8th grade
in Unit Studies & Lap Books (Location: HSR-METUS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Piloting, Seamanship, and Small Boat Handling
by Charles F. Chapman
from Motor Boating
for Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Quest for Personal Best: Individual Sports
by Lisa Greathouse
from Teacher Created Materials, Inc.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Physics (Location: SCI-PHY)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Real Book About Baseball
by Lyman Hopkins, illustrated by Bill McHale
from Garden City Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Real Books series (Location: VIN-RBA)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Real Book About Sports
from Garden City Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
Story of Baseball
Landmark Giant #4
by John M. Rosenburg
from Random House
for 4th-8th grade
in Landmark Giants (Location: VIN-LAN)
Story of Football
Landmark Giant #9
by Robert Leckie
from Random House
for 4th-8th grade
in Landmark Giants (Location: VIN-LAN)
Two Worlds of Damyan
by Marie H. Bloch
from Atheneum
Ukraine for 4th-7th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)