Today you asked me every ten minutes if it was time to go to soccer. You have been very excited about starting soccer and you have been marking off days on the calendar leading up to your first day of practice. Since we got your uniform last week you have been trying it on and playing with your soccer ball in the house. You have not wanted to take your new soccer ball outside because you wanted to keep it nice and clean until the first day of practice.
On our way to practice we stopped by your school to check out the posted list for "early bird" and "late bird" schedule. We found your name on the late bird list. This means that you will be going to school on the midmorning schedule 10:15-1:35. We had been hoping for the early bird schedule so that we could walk with the neighbor kids to school and be home early but I am sure we will find this schedule will work just as well.
When we arrived at the soccer field it was a bit chaotic and there were over a hundred kids for the U5 division there. It was a little overwhelming even for me. When we finally got situated and were able to get you into your drill group you were starting to feel nervous and anxious. You participated some in the drills but once your team started playing a scrimmage game you got very upset and came running over to us. When we asked you what was wrong you told us that you didn't win and weren't getting a chance to score a goal. You played a little more but couldn't seem to get in to the practice and in the end left very upset.
We had long talks tonight about winning and losing, about having fun and being a good sport. By the end of the night you were sad about the frustrating practice, but you seemed very excited about getting another chance next week. I hope that next week is a better practice for you and for us.
