Soccer Girl

It was hard to narrow down the extracurricular activities for Elina this year. It's always hard to tell what kids are going to like and what they're going to be good at...and what you can actually afford. Plus, I didn't want to make myself crazy chauffeuring Elina to different places. Luckily, we live in a neighborhood with lots of talented and willing parents who like to teach kids. (This also means the costs aren't as high either.)

One of the new things that came up this season was soccer. Some of the dads decided they wanted to coach 4-6 year olds at the elementary school 2 minutes from our house. They are going to meet for an hour once a week. During the first 30 minutes they work on drills and during the last half hour the kids have a scrimmage. The best thing is that the whole thing is free. Yup, free. That's the best price ever!

We weren't sure if soccer would be Elina's thing. She doesn't like big groups of people and she's not particularly coordinated. B was really hesitant, but I told him that Elina would never be able to try out soccer for free. So we decided to let her try it out.

First, I asked Eilna if she knew what soccer was and she ran and brought back a book with a picture of a boy kicking a soccer ball. All I told her was that kids run around after a ball and they can only kick it with their feet. (Some lesson, huh?) I also had to make it clear that kids would run into her, but that it was ok. She seemed ok with it. She was even kind of excited to learn to play.

We had to buy Elina her first pair of real sneakers and some shin guards. She and L bought matching shin guards with bright pink socks. They were pretty excited that they matched! So we got Elina geared up and she looked so cute. She's really growing up!
This past Thursday was the first practice and it went so well. When the kids first arrived, one of the coach's older sons taught Elina how to kick and trap the ball. He was very sweet and patient with Elina. He was even cheering her on.

Then the kids ran a lap to warm-up and stretched. Then the kids had to kick a ball to a partner to learn to trap (stop) the ball and then kick it. Elina was actually really good at trapping the ball. She always remembered to trap it and didn't try to kick the ball while it was still in motion. We were pretty impressed. She and L were partners (of course) and they did a great job kicking the ball to each other.

After this the kids were split into 2 groups and the coaches had 2 scrimmages going. Elina and L spent a lot of time looking at each other's name tags, admiring each other's outfits, and playing with the dirt. There were times when everyone would be running after the ball and the 2 of them would just be smiling and looking at each other. Cute, but not helpful. The funny thing is, when we shouted to them to chase the ball, they would run like the wind and really track that ball down. We were surprised! They really got into the mix and followed the ball. I think they just forget their main purpose while they're out on the field and need a little reminder once in awhile. When we were walking back to the car, Elina said that her favorite part was the running. By the time we got home, she was asking when she'd be able to play soccer again. Who knew she'd be so excited about soccer?