Herding Cats

Have you ever been to a soccer game for 3 year olds? If not, I highly recommend it purely for the entertainment. I don't remember the last time I laughed that hard for that long. We knew it wouldn't look like a typical soccer game based on the past few weeks of practice and honestly, I am shocked that the kids did as well as they did! When I started this post, Micah & Archer had only had one game but now they've had 2. The second was pretty much exactly the same as the first. I originally wanted to post video but I think I'll wait until later in the season when it looks a little more like soccer.

The whole thing was a little like herding cats. For the entire game, you have parents and coaches running all over the place trying to

1) diffuse meltdowns due to the loud buzzer (I kid you not, the buzzer was so loud that the first few times it went off, every single kid went into meltdown mode and the other coach threatened to take his team off the floor if they didn't turn it off our down)

2) Guide the kids to kick the ball to the correct goal. Once they finally got it, half time came and they switched sides. I have no idea why they did that. Second game there was so switching and that went much better.

3) Teach the kids that played goalie that they were actually supposed to stop the ball. This is confusing to most of them because all they have heard to this point is "NO HANDS" and "KICK THE BALL INTO THE GOAL".

4) Convince kids that all the cheering and screaming is a good thing and that they aren't in trouble.

I think that the whole experience was more traumatizing than fun but every week on our way home, Micah says "I had fun at my soccer game!" so it must not be too traumatic!

Who knew that playing with the ball bag is actually more fun than the sport itself?

Ready for the pre-game team meeting 

 Micah and Archer's cheering section! Allison, Cason, & Madeleine came to cheer them on as well!

 Mid-game pep talk, post meltdown

 This was towards the end when both boys were just not even wanting to go in.

Smiles were hard to come by but at least they aren't crying!