Just before T was born, J took an 8 week soccer class that met weekly, but had no formal games. He enjoyed it and we figured we would let him do it again sometime.
15 months later, sometime arrived. :)
Last Monday, J had his first soccer practice with the Upwards Soccer Program. We didn't know much about it except that it was a Christian league and his friends were playing (with their dad as a coach). After his first practice, I am really impressed with the program! It has an element of competition, but the emphasis is on sportsmanship, values, and life skills. He'll even be memorizing some Scripture verses that are applicable! There is one hour long practice each week and one game each Saturday, so the time commitment is doable. Here are a couple of pictures from his first practice. (He's the one in the camo shirt.)
But J is not the only one with an extra curricular opportunity! For a long time, we have thought that the girls would enjoy a gymnastics class. However, we didn't know where to start looking and never really felt like the time was right... until now!
About the same time we found out about the Upwards Soccer opportunity for J, a post came through a homeschool email loop about trying to organize a homeschool gymnastics class at a (somewhat) nearby gym. I checked into it (as did many other people) and the gym ended up giving us a great deal (about half off normal prices!) if you committed to a semester. (Good timing since baby #6 will be coming early next semester and things get rather crazy around here then.)
So last week was their first class, a free trial. Oy. For this mama of 5, it was exhausting both emotionally and physically. It was a completely new experience for all of us and one of the girls had a rather rocky time of it last week. She did cheer up by the end of the class, but it was somewhat torturous to watch from the lobby wondering if this was really as good an idea as we had originally thought. I took these pictures before the class last week, but never had the heart to blog about it. (Aren't they cute?!)
To add to that, T was NOT his usual, cheerful self. He was grumpy. And P was anything but pleasant. (He was fussing, whining, and pulling on me the entire hour.... *sigh*) On the upside, J was great and quietly watched the whole practice from the lobby windows.
Big J and I talked about it, prayed about it, and talked to the girls about it. We still felt like it was something we should continue with and felt like both the girls would do much better since they had some idea of what was going to happen.
So today we went again and had a MUCH better time. Yeah! The girls both did great and had a wonderful time. I came prepared with snacks, books, paper/pencil, and a few cars to try to occupy the boys and it mostly worked! I also met another mom there who had 2 girls in the program and 2 children in the lobby with her - one a boy just a bit older than J and another little girl b/w P and T's ages. The older boys got to talking and drawing together, so that was great and the other mom and I visited some while trying to keep the little ones under control. I wouldn't say it was smooth or easy by any stretch of the imagination, but it was doable and I left today feeling much better than after last week's class.
So there you go, folks. The Lapful Family's introduction to the world of extra curriculars. Never a dull moment, right? :)
15 months later, sometime arrived. :)
Last Monday, J had his first soccer practice with the Upwards Soccer Program. We didn't know much about it except that it was a Christian league and his friends were playing (with their dad as a coach). After his first practice, I am really impressed with the program! It has an element of competition, but the emphasis is on sportsmanship, values, and life skills. He'll even be memorizing some Scripture verses that are applicable! There is one hour long practice each week and one game each Saturday, so the time commitment is doable. Here are a couple of pictures from his first practice. (He's the one in the camo shirt.)
But J is not the only one with an extra curricular opportunity! For a long time, we have thought that the girls would enjoy a gymnastics class. However, we didn't know where to start looking and never really felt like the time was right... until now!
About the same time we found out about the Upwards Soccer opportunity for J, a post came through a homeschool email loop about trying to organize a homeschool gymnastics class at a (somewhat) nearby gym. I checked into it (as did many other people) and the gym ended up giving us a great deal (about half off normal prices!) if you committed to a semester. (Good timing since baby #6 will be coming early next semester and things get rather crazy around here then.)
So last week was their first class, a free trial. Oy. For this mama of 5, it was exhausting both emotionally and physically. It was a completely new experience for all of us and one of the girls had a rather rocky time of it last week. She did cheer up by the end of the class, but it was somewhat torturous to watch from the lobby wondering if this was really as good an idea as we had originally thought. I took these pictures before the class last week, but never had the heart to blog about it. (Aren't they cute?!)
To add to that, T was NOT his usual, cheerful self. He was grumpy. And P was anything but pleasant. (He was fussing, whining, and pulling on me the entire hour.... *sigh*) On the upside, J was great and quietly watched the whole practice from the lobby windows.
Big J and I talked about it, prayed about it, and talked to the girls about it. We still felt like it was something we should continue with and felt like both the girls would do much better since they had some idea of what was going to happen.
So today we went again and had a MUCH better time. Yeah! The girls both did great and had a wonderful time. I came prepared with snacks, books, paper/pencil, and a few cars to try to occupy the boys and it mostly worked! I also met another mom there who had 2 girls in the program and 2 children in the lobby with her - one a boy just a bit older than J and another little girl b/w P and T's ages. The older boys got to talking and drawing together, so that was great and the other mom and I visited some while trying to keep the little ones under control. I wouldn't say it was smooth or easy by any stretch of the imagination, but it was doable and I left today feeling much better than after last week's class.
So there you go, folks. The Lapful Family's introduction to the world of extra curriculars. Never a dull moment, right? :)
No comments:
Post a Comment