We played our first soccer game and won!  The score was 6-2--Purple Power wins!  Yes, we do keep score!  I say that because it seems that some parents of children at this age (the kids are 5) think we shouldn’t keep score or tightly follow the rules because the game should be all about having fun!  Well, I’m all for fun, but at what point do we start instilling in our children discipline and a healthy competitive drive?  Do you really want your child to grow up thinking life is one big play date and everything will be handed to them on a silver platter???  I think those are critical skills that we have to teach and CAN be taught while still having fun! 

When we played our first game, I played coach and game referee.  Every time the ball went out of bounds, I blew the whistle, the game momentarily stopped and a player had to kick the ball back in to re-start the game.  Well, as you can imagine, with 5-year-olds who don’t have a lot of ball control skills yet, the ball crosses the line quite often and there are many stops and starts. 

At some point, a parent from the other team said something to the effect of, “we just kind of let them keep playing when it crosses the line.”  The comment immediately made me feel like I was somehow being a bad referee and perhaps a little too strict (that certainly wasn’t the intention of the comment, but that’s how I obsessively internalized it).  So, I eased up a bit.  But, guess what???  About five minutes later, I stopped and thought, “Wait a minute!  If we start eliminating rules and easing up on things now, how are the children ever going to learn ball control and the rules of soccer?”  More importantly, how will they learn discipline and how to follow the rules of life?  I know, perhaps I was thinking a little TOO deeply, but seriously, life is not a cupcake!  So, I put the clamps back down and returned to blowing the whistle for every out-of-bounds. 

My point is this, if the children get tired of all of the stops and starts, maybe they’ll work harder to keep the ball in bounds and then Presto!—they’ve learned ball control skills!

So, this week in practice, we worked precisely on that skill.  We talked about how much better the game will be if we can learn to stop the ball from crossing that white line all of the time.  They looked at me with blank stares and the practice continued.  Something tells me there will still be plenty more stops and starts during our games…but you know what?  We’ll still have fun in spite of that as we continue to learn the game of life… er, I mean soccer! ;-)

Peace, love and Joy!

Carrie