It was the first soccer practice/game today. The way that U6 works is that we 'practice' for half an hour and 'play' another team for half an hour.

Where practice = attempt to capture the attention of six kids under six by changing drills every 5.6 seconds and game = attempt to funnel three children at a time towards a goal.

It was a blast and M. had a lot of fun. He (along with most of his team) hasn't quite figured out that the point is to take the ball from the other team. That would be, like, stealing! I almost felt bad teaching my son that it is ok to take the ball away from another kid.

The coach (I'm the assistant coach) would run with the kids, and I'd sort of follow along... then when our team got the ball, I'd yell, "kick it this way! kick it this way!" We did manage to score a couple of goals... mostly because the coach's daughter is a rockstar soccer player. She's watched her older brother play soccer and her mom (the coach) still plays. So she had it down pat.

I felt bad for the other team though... I heard one kid getting upset, "I can't play this way! I need a goalie!" It was kind of sad, I saw the other kids push ours a couple of times and had to remind myself not to get too upset, they'd have to learn to take care of themselves. The other team were all inches above ours, but still... I watched the coach's daughter demonstrate some awesome sportsmanship... a kid from the other team fell and she turned away from the ball (allowing the other team to get it) to ensure that he was ok. She wasn't even my kid and I was proud.

I can't wait for practice next Monday.