FFS: Family Friendly Soccer

This fall we joined a soccer league called Family Friendly Soccer.  It's an awesome program. There's a boy and girl team for each age group. All the teams meet at the same park at the same time on Saturday mornings. Half the time you do drills and the second half you scrimmage. There are no uniforms or travel costs or weekly practices. When I first told the kids that I had signed them up Kylee was pretty upset, but she has enjoyed it, as well as Cody and Olivia.

Somehow I got roped into being the Assistant Coach for the Pre-K B Girls Team (Liv's team).

Olivia

Kylee in orange

Kylee politely kicking her ball at her coach

Liv is standing next to me while I try to convince her teammate that sitting in the middle of the field is a bad idea.

Liv loves to make goals and dribble when we're doing drills, but when it comes time to scrimmage she doesn't like the chaos (hence the hands behind her back and her distance from the ball). Since the first day of soccer she is improving each time though...especially since we talked about listening to the coach and working hard.

We're also seeing Kylee improve. We keep telling her that she's allowed to be feisty on the field. How do you teach your child to be polite and kind off the field and be aggressive on the field?

Cody loves soccer and is doing well. His favorite position is Defender.

His coach is our home teacher (in the green shirt on the right) and he does a great job of teaching them on the field while their playing.

The younger teams get finished earlier than Cody's team so the girls dribble on over to the other fields and then we get to watch the big boys play.

It's easy to spot Cody in his blue soccer socks.

Teaching the 4 year old girl team is lots of fun. They are giggly and silly. If the coach gives them the choice between sitting in a circle and talking and anything else they will always pick talking. One time we were sitting in a circle and the coach asked them to name some rules of soccer. 

The girls shouted out:

"Don't use your hands!"

"Don't run away!"

"Try to make a goal!"

"Don't bite people!"

Then one girl sighed and said, "There are so many rules!"