For a while, we have been hearing variations of the following:
- A child can never learn about teamwork too many times, but how do I keep this fresh for the kids who were in the program last year?
- I need a way to have kids burn off some energy before we can start a discussion.
- Which book has the lessons for the Badges for Baseball program?
The 12 lessons in the Coaches Manual—leadership, sportsmanship, teamwork, respect, etc.—have been the cornerstone of our programming, including Badges for Baseball, since the first edition. In response to the need for fresh content, we have been creating various editions (or flipbooks) of Healthy Choices, Healthy Children on a variety of related topics.
However, the Coaches Manual had last been updated in 2009. It was time. The Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation is proud to unveil the new Badges for Baseball Coaches Manual:
What’s new, besides the look:
- Name is now Badges for Baseball Coaches Manual
- Activities (including warm-ups before each lesson)
- Stories of uncommon people and teams
- Instead of an Activity Scorebook, you can now download and print activity worksheets for youth at CRSFPortal.org/Materials
But these things haven’t changed:
- Core 12 lessons (We did rename “Avoidin’ Stinkin’ Thinkin’” as “Resilience, but the message is still the same and stinkin’ thinkin’ is still a concept we use with the kids!)
- Still the character education curriculum that Badges for Baseball participants complete
- All Healthy Choices, Healthy Children editions can still be used with the Badges for Baseball Coaches Manual to continue the conversation or they can be used individually
Check it out and let us know what you think! You can find it on our Materials page, under Badges for Baseball.