Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain
Sailing is not hard. Sailing demands discipline and alertness, qualities that few schools or after school activities can really teach children today. When sailing, a child learns to appreciate and respect the forces of nature and see how the earth really works, and understand how we, as humans, must protect it.
Children learn to rely on and cultivate their common sense, and immediately draw upon skills that they learned along the way: how to calculate distance, how to read the weather, how a sailboat works, how to identify landmarks and sea life.
Kids who learn how to sail will be developing teamwork and decision-making skills, among others. It’s also a great way to get them outdoors and away from the TV, tablets and video games. Sailing requires just a medium level of fitness (to move around the boat, position the sails and manage the ropes), but kids should know how to swim. Sailing can also be appropriate for kids with special needs.