Soccer

**sigh**


I don't know what to say. This fall we found out that the township had a indoor soccer class for 3 and 4 year olds starting in January. B and I were so excited. L loves to run around kicking a ball and goodness knows that child has tons of energy, so we thought soccer would be a perfect match for him. Did I think he was going to be a natural or something... absolutely not. He still doesn't have great coordination, but I thought he would love it.


Lets just nicely put it with the fact that he didn't love it.


It started out well enough. The teacher was familiar - she had taught R's swim class this past fall. There were lots of kids his age. He was very excited about his new ball and had a good time kicking it around Friday night with B and I. We were trying to teach him to not use his hands and that is where the problems began.


When we got there, L stood in the circle and stared at the teacher. He didn't stretch with the other kids. Then they moved on to trapping the ball. They did it about a dozen times. L did it once.


Then they played a sort of musical chairs with the balls. That is where everything went to shit.


He started crying and screaming. Holding his arms out to me. I had him calmed down enough to put him back to the circle and walk away and then they moved to the one end of the gym to start dribbling. It was OVER then.


Out of a class of 30 kids my kid is the ONLY one who freaked out. My kid is the only one who wouldn't do anything. My kid was the only one who had to cry and whine about soccer. LOVELY.


So we ended up sitting in the blechers while the rest of the kids played. He watched and I hope he learned something. We are going back next week and going to try it again. And again and again.


I know I could explain this away by blaming his sensory issues. He hates change. Resists it with every fiber of his being, but I am pretty unsympathic with it. He needs to learn to live in THIS world... it isn't going to change for him, so I can only help by teaching him that change isn't bad. But I can't say that it doesn't bother me.

I don't understand it in the least. I don't have a shy bone in my body and I don't think I ever did. I prefer being around people I know, of course, but I can make do pretty much anywhere. B isn't shy either. Although he has a lot harder time in new groups. How do you teach a child to not shut down and be overwhelmed though in a new/large group? That is my primary focus.