sports

Since coming to Houston I've tried to get Calvin to sign up for sports. At first we put him in Karate since he was doing so great in Karate at school. Technically it's martial arts, not karate. After just a couple of weeks Calvin decided he didn't like it because it was too hot. I chose martial arts since it is an indoor sport and would have great A/C but  Calvin didn't even like the exercise heating him up!  Once you get warm in this town you can never cool off!

There is a challenger basketball league here probably much like the one we tried at home. I asked Calvin if he wanted to sign up and he said no. When I asked him why he declined to answer several times.   Finally when I asked him one time he told me that he doesn't want to be in basketball with all of the handicapped people. It is interesting that he expressed that. He has been going to school with handicapped people for a few years now, some kind of like him and some much more handicapped. The basketball group was made up of people with more profound disabilities, many being intellectually disabled. It is tough to find a place where Calvin "fits" since he can't keep up with healthy kids his own age and is a little too far advanced to hang with a grouping of handicapped kids. I'd love to help him advance so that he could be with typical kids but I'm not sure he'll ever catch up.   The best solution I've found so far is letting him hang out with patient kids who will help him out, adults who are patient or much younger kids (2-5 years old) who he is basically on par with.  He is happy in his niche as long as his sisters aren't driving him crazy.