"Bob's message is a must for all parents and coaches. He challenges adults to understand their effect on youngsters, and that kids' needs have to be met first." Bob Trupin, Westport, CT This is not just another book touting improved sportsmanship and better coaching to remedy the violence in youth sports today. Just Let the Kids Play is the first book to identify the youth sports systems as the cause of the problem, and offers practical ways to rebuild them so they better serve the physical and emotional needs of children. First-round NBA draft pick, part-time NBA scout and youth coach Bob Bigelow joins journalists Tom Moroney and Linda Hall to put youth sports under harsh review. They explain the controversial belief that elite traveling teams at young ages should be abolished and replaced with equal playing time, team parity and shortened seasons, among others. Focusing on soccer, basketball, baseball and hockey, they highlight ten programs nationwide where these principles are working, and offer ways to integrate them into existing programs without sacrificing a child's chances for success. Soccer moms and hockey dads will discover that it really is possible to sleep in on Saturdays without sacrificing their child's future!

Do you remember playing sports as a child? In Nancy Hoehl Shapiro's anthology We Had a Ball...The Indelible Influence of Youth Sports on the Game of Life contributors reflect on their time playing sports as children, and the impact this has had on them as adults. The memories provide humor, nostalgia, and lessons from their experiences. These captivating life stories are balanced by the views of current sports and medical specialists who have provided excellent insights into today's issues in youth sports, as well as guidelines for creating a safe and happy environment for children.

'Children's Play' explores the many facets of play and how it develops from infancy through late childhood. The authors discuss major revolutions in the way the children of today engage in play, including changes in organised youth sports children's humour, and electronic play.

WHAT OTHER COACHES SAY ABOUT IRV LEIFER Irv is a positive influence on the young people he works with and has a great ability to communicate with and motivate them. With Irv you are getting a guy who coaches for the right reasons: the day-to-day involvement with young people and the opportunity to watch them improve. MIKE BREY, HEAD BASKETBALL COACH, NOTRE DAME I have two sons, and Irv is one of a handful of coaches that I would trust to coach my own. STEW MORRILL, HEAD BASKETBALL COACH, UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Irv Leifer prepares his players as well as anybody in the country. BOB SCHERMERHORN, HEAD COACH, HOLY CROSS COLLEGE

Now in its third edition, Nature and Young Children promotes the holistic development of children by connecting them with nature. It offers practical advice on how to set up indoor and outdoor nature play spaces as well as encouraging environmentally responsible attitudes, values and behaviour in your early childhood setting. With fully revised chapters in line with recent developments to policy and practice, and brand new material covering Early Childhood Education for Sustainability, the power of pro-nature poetry and philosophical discussions, and children living in urban environments, this book reveals just how important nature play can be in the development of young children. The user-friendly chapters offer guidance on: alternative settings for nature-focused programs culturally sensitive approaches to nature play in early childhood the role of the adult in nature-based learning using nature play for cross-curricular learning environmentally appropriate practices integrating nature education and peace education health, safety, and risky play. Highly accessible, detailed and now extensively updated, Nature and Young Children will provide all early years practitioners, teachers and students with a wealth of ideas on how to foster creative play and learning in nature-focused environments while also encouraging positive connections with nature.

This book offers an expert examination of the ideology and motives behind the privatization or the nationalization of an industry, based on real case studies. Is it always more effective and less expensive to use taxpayer dollars to engage private companies rather than have the government run enterprises itself? Do consumers always benefit from the privatization of services? What happens when privatization stops being an abstract, theoretical debate and is actually put to the test in the real world? Privatize This? Assessing the Opportunities and Costs of Privatization is the place to find out. Privatize This? provides a clear, easy-to-apply model for evaluating the pros and cons of the privatization process and then puts the model to work in examining nine real-world case studies—ranging from Spain's privatization of its cigarette industry to Pennsylvania's "state store system" for selling liquor. Throughout, the book focuses on the central issues of privatization—profit versus public good, protection from fraud and waste—while also showing how the recent economic upheaval has changed public opinion and public policy on privatization.

Beyond an occasional sports-inspired sermon illustration, sports are generally regarded as having little relevance to the Christian faith. More often, they are viewed as a welcome and safe reprieve from politics and religion. Quietly, however, as they avoid the discerning eye of the church, sports are slowly overtaking families and overwhelming parents. Under the labels "elite," "select," and "travel," a new experience of sports has taken root in American culture demanding financial burdens, time commitments, and heightened pressures never before seen. Community leaders from various public sectors have criticized many recent trends in youth sports, but, alas, where has the church been? This new "elite" expression of youth sports is quickly building an intimidating front against the church. As church attendance declines, "elite" youth sports participation is on the rise. This book ventures into the challenging, controversial, and powerful world of youth sports. Young people participate in sports more than just about any other activity, and the church has neglected its role in providing a voice of discernment for what participating in sports should look like. Christians are desperately in need of a manifesto for helping them wrestle with the complex, exciting, and often exhausting world of youth sports.

Nicky Palmieri, self-conscious and resentful over the scars left from cleft-palate surgery, learns lessons about life, death, friendship, and family over the course of one baseball-filled summer.

The way I remember it. Barb and her sister Kitty leave husbands home and take their collective gaggle of eight young children from Florida and Mississippi all the way to California for their summer vacation. These two thirty-something moms and their off spring wander into harms way more than once in this fun action filled adventure. There is plenty of suspense and mystery, there's witch craft and UFO's, western folk lore and even a little romance along the highway as they camp across America in a homemade camper In the summer of 1975. Things were different then.

NOT Only in the Deep South is Dr. Hines' attempt to validate the damaging practices she unknowingly engaged in early in her career and adamantly fought against later in her career while working in several different public school settings that are located above the Mason-Dixon line. Her heartfelt account is designed to serve as both a memoir and a primer that will present a clear call to action for those educators and school stakeholders who are committed to equitable student outcomes to satisfy not only their moral obligations but also to help extinguish generational poverty and blight that continues to plague many communities that lack not only privilege but also advocacy.