Sexy Neck and I both have Physical Education/Human Kinetics degrees, so when our poor first child was born we had lengthy conversations about which activities we felt were essential for a North American lad.

We decided that the athletic skills that are a challenge to learn, but provide a solid foundation for other sports had to be first.

The WINNERS ARE:

• swimming (plus we didn’t want our children to drown!)

• skating (I used to teach adults to skate – yikes, I saw a few broken bones!)

• Gymnastics (Don’t we all wish we could fly and one day flip through the air?)

Every year our children will take a lesson, from a “professional” in each of these pursuits. I realized tonight that the boys did all of these things this week! I love being intentional about something and seeing it happen.

I must admit, besides the lessons, there is also an awful lot of living room skating, bedroom gymnastics and tidal waves in the bathtub! I now completely understand the making of Jackass the Movie.