If you were to ask Grace how she liked soccer before she started her class today or even shortly after she would have said, "soccer is fun!" But if you asked her during class...she would probably frown at you and say, "I'm not having a good time." Grace attended her first soccer class this morning. It is a ten week program through the city that teaches young children the basics of soccer without being on a formal team. I think they do scrimmages after they learn the basic idea of the game. Everyone in her class is between 4 and 5, but I have a feeling she is the youngest one there.
Both Aaron and I went with her to watch and cheer her on, but Aaron ended up having to do more than just watch. Grace practically wouldn't let go of him. So, much of the time he was running along with her. Toward the end she was able to run around without holding his hand. Although by the time we were leaving she was in tears again. I think it was all very overwhelming for her. There were almost twenty kids running around in a herd and occasionally stampeding one another. Not to mention at least fifty adults and other family members watching the whole time. She probably would have loved it if there were maybe five kids instead of twenty. We talked afterwards and she said she will be "brave and strong" next Saturday. I'm sure it will get better. After all, she didn't want to participate in ballet class at first either.
