Soccer Stars

Here are Collin and Alana's soccer pictures from this spring. They both really enjoyed their season and are ready for more this fall. I know I'm crazy, but I'm actually considering signing Dylan up for this fall as well. They let kids start as young as four. He just desperately wants to be like his big brother and sister. Plus, how cute will he be in a little soccer uniform!!

We are in all sports all the time mode right now. Collin has three soccer camps this month, and swim team, and baseball, and ballet class. Alana wants to do all the above as well, but she starts summer school next week. I don't think she will qualify for summer school next year, so I'm planning to sign her up for swim team and softball next summer. She wants to take ballet and gymnastics too, but I put the boys in those during the day and I just don't want to overload my evenings putting her in too many activities (we already have religious ed and soccer in the fall). Plus, they usually offer discounts (up to half price) for daytime homeschool classes, so it costs a lot less for the boys to do these activities. I'm still hoping to homeschool her after first grade and then they can participate together.

I've been reading a lot of great parenting books lately. "Hold On To Your Kids", "Siblings Without Rivalry", "How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk" and "Playful Parenting". I'm getting helpful information from each book, but "Playful Parenting" has probably had the biggest impact. I'm terrible about playing with my kids. When we do play, I like to play by the "rules". I'm learning to let that go and just play with them and let them lead. They make the rules and I just do as I'm told. It has been very therapuetic for us all.