Wednesday, November 10 (AKA Picture Day) was also the last Soccer Shots day of this season. I remember that Caleb & I had fun playing that morning, but I don't remember for the life of me what we did. Since it was Joshua's last day of soccer, I wanted to make sure to get there on time to see the whole thing, so Caleb & I arrived pretty early. It was a beautiful day, so we sat on the grass as we had done most of the soccer season to watch the different games, drills, practice, etc. I gave Caleb a lollipop, which he loves, thinking it would help keep him busy. He still spent most of the time rolling down the big grassy hill, then rolling back up to go back down.
Finally the boys and girls came out, and they started by stretching. Joshua has been showing Caleb and I different exercises he's doing at preschool, including a jumping jack with his hands clapped which he calls "scissors" and then jumping back to straight position with his hands by his sides which he calls "pencils." Then he'll stretch up high, then touch his feet, then he'll stretch to the side and say "doesn't that feel good" and he puts his hands on his oblique muscles that he's stretching. It cracks me up! Then he and Caleb will get their little steps and go up and down, then they start jumping off them, then they look for higher things to climb and jump off of, and then eventually mommy ends our exercise time and we find something else to do before we all get hurt.
After their stretching was over, they began doing their footwork. You can see the cones in the above picture, and they were told to each knock one down using just the ball. I laughed out loud (thankfully the Bean couldn't hear me since we were pretty far away) as he kept kicking his ball, which would tap the cone and the cone would stay up. He'd kick it from another angle, and the same thing happened. Finally, after several times of this, he kicked the ball hard enough to knock the cone down, and he was so proud!
In the above picture he's modeling "control." He learned things like dribbling, pull backs, control, and much more! He loved the different games they played. One they did this time was red light, green light, with a 'yellow' light to go slow. Joshua always moves at his own pace, so as the other kids raced their balls to the front on green light, he barely got moving until it was red light and time to stop. It was so cute to watch!
They each got to score a goal, too, which they love. They chant one another's names as they take turns going up and scoring the goal. I think this is his favorite part. They also typically have a scrimmage where they break up into teams to play against each other. There was one child (and no, it wasn't the Bean) who was AMAZING at soccer already and always managed to get the ball and score the goal for whichever team he was on. But, the other kids didn't seem to care one way or another. They all were having fun!
At the end of their time together, the Coach handed out little certificates and gave them each stickers for participating in soccer shots. You can see Joshua with his in the above picture, literally dancing because he needed to go potty. I asked Joshua if he was sad that soccer was over. He said "No, I'm not sad. I had fun! I'll see coach again next week and play more." Once again, I told him that it was all done for the season, but he didn't seem to comprehend that it was finished. That said, he didn't ask about it today, which would have been the first Wednesday since soccer ended.
Here's a picture of Joshua's certificate from "Coach Heather" (who he adored!). It says "This hereby certifies that the following player JOSHUA has completed a full season of Soccer Shots, displaying determination, excellence and a great attitude while learning skills such as dribbling, passing, trapping, turning, scoring and team play." I'm so glad that Joshua highly enjoyed soccer this year. I think it was a great experience for him!
No comments:
Post a Comment