School & Soccer

Monday was quite eventful for Andrew. He started Pre-K and U5/6 soccer.

I skipped Sophomore Orientation last Friday (I didn't have sophomores in my advisory/homeroom) to take Andrew to Open House. He has his same teachers from pre-school last year, but is in Room 2 this year instead of Room 1. He barely spoke to his teachers on Friday, but played with cars amidst the other kids who were visiting the classroom. Two of his classmates were there while we were there: one boy from last year and a boy he hadn't met yet who also liked playing with cars. I found out that instead of science this year, he will have PE instead. On Monday, my mother-in-law took him to his first day of Pre-K. He's doing MWF instead of Tu/Th. He seemed happy, but didn't tell me much about it. All I know about his day was that he worked on a paper with the words "I took a tour of school and saw the piano in the music room" (or something like that). He scribbled below the text with orange, which I suppose was an attempt to draw the piano or music room. I'm sure his day went well.

It's still a little strange to me that soccer is co-ed now. When I played, I distinctly remember my team being all girls. I know I have a few pictures to prove it, too. I'm not sure why there was the need to change it, but maybe it was the participation level in the organization as a whole leading to less kids. There are only two girls playing on his team, though, so I'm somewhat intrigued as to the overall distribution of teams, which I'll find out whenever games start up. I'm not very concerned, but it was surprising to me. 

Regardless, Andrew had a blast. On Sunday, we went to Sports Authority and Target to purchase shin guards and socks. (I think God reminded me as I was pulling into Target's parking lot, because the goal of the errand was to buy diapers for Patrick and Lucy). I attempted to buy cleats, but Andrew doesn't fit them yet. The smallest size at Sports Authority was a 10. Andrew wears an 8 or 9 athletic/play shoe and a 9 dress shoe. I'm glad he doesn't actually need cleats and they were simply recommended. Monday evening, I piled all three kids into the car and then unloaded them minutes later at the field. I stood there, looking for a group with not too many kids because we were early and the other three groups looked as though they'd been playing for a while. Another mom came up with her two boys (soon to be three! though I'm not sure if she's having a boy or girl) and we introduced ourselves and our kids. She seemed more outgoing than I was and she took the initiative to ask the man who turned out to be Andrew's coach as he started walking to the field. Once everyone was there, he introduced himself to all of us, explained the goals of practice, and got started. They practiced kicking the ball with both of their feet, kicking the ball and "keeping the leash on the puppy," passing the ball back and forth with a partner, and eventually played "red light, green light" and touching a particular body part (elbow, knees, belly, foot) to the ball at "red light." In the middle of practice and after practice, Andrew was so proud of himself. He wanted to show me everything he was doing and had so much playing with the other kids. He showed a lot more interest at practice than he had with me when we bought a ball a year ago.

He went back to school and soccer on Wednesday and enjoyed both.