FortKnox's Journal: My Saturday: Young kids soccer + rollercoasters....

I spent ALL DAY Saturday at a soccer game and King's Island with my wife and children, my sister-in-law, and her 3 kids. That's 5 kids, SIL's boys are aged 6,5, and 1, and Joey is 4, Jenna is like 16 months.

So we wake up for Joey's 9am soccer match. Let me put a 4 year old soccer match into perspective. They know to kick it in the right goal. That's about the limit. And they play 4-5 year olds, so you have 'experienced older kids' and 'completely clueless'. My son falls into the latter category. He kicked the ball twice. Once when there was an out-of-bounds kick.... for the other team. The other was after it was out of bounds. He chases the crowd instead of chasing the ball. The ball can literally be right on his toes, but he's more concerned with following his teammates, so he just walks away instead of kicking it. I tried soooo hard just to get him to kick the ball.... I didn't care if he kicked it the wrong way, or even scored a goal for the other team... but to see him get into the thick of things and kick the ball, or at least trip up some of the other players (What?? I'm a football fan, remember). Nope... what kinda summed up his playing is "Mommy! Look at the butterfly!"
I know I know... they say "next year, he'll understand it and get into it." I'm only doing this until he's old enough for peewee football (which he's already interested in).

After the game, we went straight to the amusement park. This is a pretty big thing for me. I hate rollercoasters. No, I'm not afraid of them or anything... I've been on the Millenium Force at cedar point and all that, I just don't get a rush from them... well, I guess I get a small rush, but its always killed by the 30 minutes queuing. They usually give me headaches, and I hate overcrowded amusement parks. But this was for my kids. So we spent all the time in the nick-jr land... anytime the two babies couldn't go on a ride, I volunteered to watch them. Then, after 8pm, I even offered to take all 5 home so the wife and her sister can go on the big rides. Took'm all home and put'm to bed. So give me some 'good father/uncle points'. I'll have to cash those in in November for a new Wii.... ;)

Soccer + KI on a fall weekend

[MacBrave]

Ahh youth soccer. I remember watching my oldest son playing at that age. There seemed to be this huge 'clump' of kids just following the ball all around. Quite funny actually. Now my oldest is 15 and playing high school soccer. How the time flies......

BTW, how is KI on a fall weekend? Very crowded?

Re:

[FortKnox]

It wasn't terrible, the morning was better than the afternoon, but after about 6pm, you start getting the influx of teenagers for fearfest. At about 7pm it gets REALLY crowded.

hey

[artifex2004]

at least he was out getting exercise!
Until he understands and wants to play a team sport, it really is a social thing more than anything else.
That'll be the approach I take with my kids, anyway. :)

Re:

[Iamthefallen]

I was just thinking about pee-wee sports the other day. Mercer's 2 and is starting to get the hang of throwing and kicking a ball, so it's something we'll try to pratice in the future. But when do you start finding teams for your kids? What's the lowest age that "sports"* begin?

* "Sports" because I tend to think it's more playing-with-a-ball than actually playing a game with rules.

Re:

[FortKnox]

4 for around here. Joey was very young for the soccer teams (turned 4 in May). PeeWee football was like 7 or 8, unfortunately.

Magnetball

[arb]

Watching the little tykes play magnetball is fun. Down here the AFL funs a program called AusKick to introduce the little'uns to football. At half-time during AFL matches, the AusKick kids get to play on the oval. (They usually have about 6-8 small ovals marked out with cones for the little kids, and one larger oval in the middle of the ground for the 14-15 year olds.) I think AusKick starts at about 4 or 5, and watching them run around, clumping around the ball is always fun. 8^)

Kings Island

[sielwolf]

Damn. The last time I went I had a sinus infection which is fine... until you get off the ride and need your ability to balance :( I solved that by just riding the Beast for about three hours on end. Love that rollercoaster. So classic.