Watch out, World Cup

FINALLY, JPD's doing soccer for real.  He LOVES it--so much better than tee ball for him.  Way too much standing around going on in tee ball, of course, and in soccer he gets to run run run the whole time.

 

 

 

I love watching the pre-K league, where the players' biggest challenge is remembering for which goal they're supposed to be aiming.  In addition to that complex athletic concept, JPD tends to disregard the other players' team affiliation--as in, he will steal the ball from any other player, any time, even his own teammates, including knocking them down whenever necessary.  Who knew soccer was a full-contact sport?

JPD's league is all pre-K, so it includes 3-year-olds as well as 4-year-olds.  Some of the players in the league are so tiny, they look more like MPD than JPD--honestly I think some of them might be wearing pull-ups on the field!

Now, I am certainly quite guilty of over-scheduling my kids in organized activities.  As this blog clearly shows, there is hardly any shortage of extracurriculars around here.  And I couldn't wait to sign my first child up right away...I remember being so frustrated with the sports options for 3-year-olds back in Lake Forest.  When MRD was born, I decided that 16-month-old WWD needed "his own thing," so I forced Bill to take him to parent-tot swimming lessons early on Saturday mornings.  They both hated it!!

Of course WWD did not need "his own thing" when his little sister was born, especially not his own extracurricular thing.  Now my vast mommy wisdom on this subject is that when it comes to extracurriculars, less is more, especially when they're little.  The value of little kids sports is really just social--kids to meet friends and parents to have fun with parents.  This is good stuff, but is it more valuable than just sharing family time at home with your mom and dad, hanging around the house, doing domestic stuff, going on impromptu Saturday outings, reading books together, and all that stuff that organized sports replaces?  Well, yes and no, of course--each family must decide this for themselves, and for each child.  My take on it now, at child #5, is certainly different than it was for child #1.  After 10 years and 5 kids, we're much more settled with friends and schools, and there's a lot more going on at home for the little ones that when we were only a party of 3.  But still I say less is more...the years go by so fast....so much fun stuff, so little time, right?