...my kids are both athletic and very tall and strong for their ages; they are also very kinesthetic...
They play sports because it makes them feel good, and for the challenge and the teamwork. After 5 years of playing hockey on boy's teams, which is wher my daughter wnats to play, my daughter said..."y'know mom, when I'm older I think I'll be able to work with just about anybody..." LOL
Seriously though, if kids have good coaches who are really teachers and mentors, the sports experience can be very positive. My kids have been fortunate in that they'e had good coaches...They are playing sports for themselves, not for me, not for my husbnad...We love to come to their games, but we do NOT, as I stated above, become overly involved. In fact, we are "hands off" as far as we never complain about ice time, for example in hockey.
openminded1....exactly....your degree from Stanford does NOT automatically qualify you to teach anyone anything. I don;t have an education degree, for example, and I do not claim to be equally well-versed in all subjects. I am absolutley positice that the latter sentence would apply to you also. My Master's degree is not in mathematics either...I sure as hell want my kids having people teach them who are specialized in a subject and have the education credentials. You are fooling your self to think that you are automatically qualified to teach. Also, there are some pretty severe problems with homeschooled students vis a vis socialization and proper behavior that I' m not even going to go into here.
To get back to the topic of this thread, I am STILL waiting for you to find a mainstream child psychologist, educator, whatever, who touts child pageants as the wonderful thing you think they are...