Adelaida was eligible to start soccer lessons in July, but with our traveling, Adelaida in school full-time over the summer, and various other excuses, we didn't get around to signing her up until last week. (Yes, I know those first four months of soccer lessons are crucial to future soccer stardom, but I am convinced Adelaida can overcome her late start and make a name for herself one day!)
Last Saturday was Adelaida's first soccer practice. We arrived early to register Adelaida for the session and Dale and Adelaida went out on the field (it is a parent-child class) while I tried to pay. I really, really tried hard to pay, but didn't exactly succeed. You see, the Lil Kickers' philosophy is that the first class for any child should be a free try-it-out-and-see-if-you-like-it class; only after a child has been through one class will they sign that child up for the rest of the season. Now, Adelaida was predisposed to love (and excel at) soccer both through her genetic makeup (Dale is a great soccer player) and by her environment (she sees Dale play soccer often and loves balls). I asked if the Lil Kickers staff would make an exception this one time and let me pay for the rest of the season before Adelaida's first class; they insisted that she try it out first, but told me I could pay for the rest of the season right after this first lesson.
Back on the field, Adelaida and Dale were enjoying the free play while waiting for the session to start. She was running, laughing, chasing the ball, even kicking the ball sometimes -- I was so proud!
I had decided earlier that the best way for Adelaida to learn that soccer is a foot-ball-contact sport (rather than a pick-up-the-ball-with-your-hands sport) is to teach her that from the very beginning, so when she squatted down to pick up the ball with both hands, I tried to get Dale's attention and have him take the ball out of her hands. Fortunately, he didn't hear me.All this had happened between the time the previous lesson ended and Adelaida's session began. Then the lesson began ... and Adelaida turned into a "Daddy hold me!" little girl. She loved kicking the ball around with her daddy, but the organization of the formal lesson didn't go over very well. Here are some of the pictures I took of the lesson:
The kids are getting ready to play "green light red light" but Adelaida screamed every time Dale put her down, so she was chauffeured through the game while all the other kids ran. (Adelaida is on the far right, in Dale's arms.)
Here the coach was describing how to build a cone-ball man. I don't think Adelaida could be any further back in Dale's lap! Her body language says it all.
All the other kids (and parents) are under the parachute; Adelaida preferred to stay a few steps back and watch the game with distrust.
In her first soccer lesson, Adelaida participated in exactly one activity: putting the cones away after building cone-ball men. She refused to run for "red light green light," she refused to step on the bubbles, she refused to practice headers with the squishy ball, she refused to kick the ball from cone-ball man, and she certainly refused to have anything to do with the parachute. She spent about half of the lesson in Dale's arms and ran to the sideline (me) five times with her arms up, begging me to pick her up.
When it was over, I walked up to Dale and abjectly asked if we should sign up for the rest of the season or leave quickly and pretend we had never been there.
We decided to sign her up and hoped that the next week would be better.
Today was her second lesson, and there were so many (small) victories! We again arrived long enough before her lesson started that Dale and Adelaida could run around on the field before the (scary) organized lesson began. The first thing Adelaida did on the field was run to a ball and pick it up excitedly -- and I didn't care that she was using her hands! Victory for Adelaida and victory for me! :)
The organized lesson started and the first activity was "red light green light." In this activity, all the kids and parents line up on the far side of the field, the coach says "green light" and they all run to the other side, stopping whenever he says "red light." You may recall that, last week, Adelaida did "red light green light" in Dale's arms because she screamed every time he put her down. Today, she did not scream when he put her down -- but she didn't run either. So Dale played "red light green light" while Adelaida stood by herself on the far side of the field, watching the commotion and not crying. A small victory, but a victory nonetheless! (That's Adelaida, in the far corner of the field all by herself.)That's Adelaida, waiting for everyone to run back to her during "red light green light."
The next activity was bubbles -- the coach blows bubbles and the kids are supposed to stomp on the bubbles on the ground. Adelaida didn't exactly stomp on any bubbles, but she did eventually stomp her feet near the bubbles. Another small victory.
The squishy balls came out next. I'm not sure what the kids were supposed to do with the squishy balls, but Adelaida loved playing with it! She would walk up to the ball, throw herself on it, and "surf" on the ball until she rolled off it, then do it all again. She was having so much fun with this that she didn't even care when Dale walked away from her to talk to another parent. A huge victory!Of course, one activity that Adelaida has always been good at is putting things away. When it was time to put the squishy balls away, she quickly put away not only her ball, but also another ball that seemed to be unclaimed by any other children.
Finally, the coach brought out the parachute. This was Adelaida's least favorite part of the lesson last week. The parachute play takes two forms: first, all the kids sit in the parachute while the parents spin it, taking the kids for a ride; then, they billow the parachute up and everyone gets under the parachute. This week, when the parachute was on the ground and other kids were running onto the parachute and sitting down, Adelaida followed them without even being prompted. She sat down and thoroughly enjoyed being spun in the parachute -- when the parachute stopped, she immediately signed "more." A great victory!
Adelaida still wasn't excited about getting under the parachute. She stood by it for a while while the other kids and parents got under the parachute, then decided she had had enough and ran to the sidelines, where she had spotted me. I didn't pick her up and she seemed content to stay on the field, and eventually she followed Dale back to the other kids for the end of the lesson. Another small victory.My dreams of a toddler who would walk on the field and immediately dribble the ball, with her feet, around other kids and take a beautiful shot right on the goal may have been a little far-fetched. But Adelaida certainly seemed to have fun today and is developing her gross motor skills and bonding with her daddy -- all of which are great benefits and more important than having innate soccer skills. Dale noted that she participated in more activities today than she didn't participate in, which is a great improvement over last week. So, we're going to keep her in the lessons through December, and if it continues to go well, we'll be signing her up for the winter session too!
Oh, and there is one benefit to Adelaida not being a soccer prodigy: she won't have to quit school at 15 to join the U.S. Women's National Team and travel all over the world playing World Cup qualifying matches. No, she will almost certainly be able to stay in school and play soccer for fun -- as a great way to get exercise and relieve stress, and without worrying about whether her corner kicks are perfectly placed or having soccer forced on her as a profession rather than a relaxing, fun activity. In fact, I am rather relieved to learn that my daughter is not a twenty-three-month-old soccer star!
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