I'm going to take a minute to vent my frustrations on the matter of kids sports. When I was a kid everyone spent their childhood participating in a variety of activities as they tried out different things and figured out what they liked the most. Now days if kids aren't specialized and playing on club teams by the time they are seven they are behind in the game and there are few opportunities for them to break into that sport. I believe that kids should keep busy and be involved in things, but I do not think we need to be paying thousands of dollars and spending every waking moment on a single sport while kids are this young. What happened to the benefits of being well-rounded? Not to mention that since leaving the state of Utah it has been virtually impossible to find programs for my kids to participate in that don't involve Sunday play. Rant over.
For nothing more than journaling purposes here is a quick summary of the extra curricular activities the kids have been participating in the last year.
For nothing more than journaling purposes here is a quick summary of the extra curricular activities the kids have been participating in the last year.
Fall Baseball 2014
When we moved to Omaha in June, Mason's regular baseball season was cut short. He was thrilled when we signed him up to play fall baseball on his best buddy, Jack's, team. Unfortunately, we were only a week into the season when Ellie was hospitalized, died, and we went to Utah for her funeral, making Mason miss the majority of the season. His coach and teammates where nothing but understanding and supportive and really went out of their way to make Mason feel like part of the team when we came back, but he struggled. He was behind all of the other kids on his skills already, and he just never got confident enough to enjoy himself. When Spring rolled around Mason had no desire to play baseball anymore. I can't help but feel like he associates all the negative feelings he experienced in life during the fall with his baseball experience. I wish Mason had had more opportunities to play baseball before deciding he was done with it, but as I mentioned before, it feels like at only 7 years old he is too far behind to catch up, which doesn't make it very fun to play.
Piano - Mason has been taking piano lessons from my mom on and off over the last few years. Starting in second grade we really buckled down and started being more consistent with it. Moving from Utah where piano teachers are a dime a dozen I was shocked to find out the prices the few piano teachers in Omaha charged. We decided to continue our free piano lessons with Grandma Nancy via Facetime. It is a little trickier than traditional lessons, but it has been working out. My mom is always telling me what a gift Mason has for music. In all of her years of teaching piano lessons she says she can't remember a student who picks up on things so naturally. Now if we can just get him to apply himself a little more.
Piano - Mason has been taking piano lessons from my mom on and off over the last few years. Starting in second grade we really buckled down and started being more consistent with it. Moving from Utah where piano teachers are a dime a dozen I was shocked to find out the prices the few piano teachers in Omaha charged. We decided to continue our free piano lessons with Grandma Nancy via Facetime. It is a little trickier than traditional lessons, but it has been working out. My mom is always telling me what a gift Mason has for music. In all of her years of teaching piano lessons she says she can't remember a student who picks up on things so naturally. Now if we can just get him to apply himself a little more.
Basketball Nov 2014 - Feb 2015
Mason played his first year of basketball through the YMCA. Scott did a wonderful job helping coach the team. Mason made a lot of improvement and most importantly had fun doing it.
Cub Scouts
When Mason turned 8 he joined the cub scouts in our ward. As luck would have it, Scott was called to be the Wolf leader at the same time. This was great because they got to spend that hour each week together. Mason has already earned his Bobcat and is well on his way to earning his Wolf. So far Mason has really enjoyed scouts.
When Mason turned 8 he joined the cub scouts in our ward. As luck would have it, Scott was called to be the Wolf leader at the same time. This was great because they got to spend that hour each week together. Mason has already earned his Bobcat and is well on his way to earning his Wolf. So far Mason has really enjoyed scouts.
Flag Football-
Spring 2015
In the spring Mason tried out another new sport when he played YMCA flag football. He was lucky to be placed on a team with two very dedicated (and competitive) coaches. His team was full of talented players for him to learn from. At first it was frustrating for me because the coaches would not let him play offense because they already had a group of returning players who knew the plays. Mason had a great attitude about it and worked hard and by the end of the year was joining in on offense. His team went undefeated during the season. This ignited a love for football in Mason.
Swim Team-
Summer 2015
After doing several sessions of swimming lessons during the winter to work on stroke development I felt like Mason was ready to try out summer swim team. I signed him up for the Zorinsky swim team which turned out to be super low key and a great fit for Mason as a beginning swimmer. His favorite stroke was butterfly (probably because so few kids compete in butterfly in the 8 and under dision that he usualy got a ribbon) He improved from 4th place in his first meet to 3rd place in his second meet and first place in his last two meets. Too bad we were out of town for the City Championship meet or he probably would have gotten a trophy or medal in it.
Tennis -
Summer 2015
I found about a great little summer tennis program through the city at a nearby high school. They had lessons twice a week through the summer and it was the perfect addition to our summer days. Two boys from church, Austin Neeley and Carter McInelly also participated which made it extra fun for Mason.
Spring 2015
In the spring Mason tried out another new sport when he played YMCA flag football. He was lucky to be placed on a team with two very dedicated (and competitive) coaches. His team was full of talented players for him to learn from. At first it was frustrating for me because the coaches would not let him play offense because they already had a group of returning players who knew the plays. Mason had a great attitude about it and worked hard and by the end of the year was joining in on offense. His team went undefeated during the season. This ignited a love for football in Mason.
Swim Team-
Summer 2015
Tennis -
Summer 2015
I found about a great little summer tennis program through the city at a nearby high school. They had lessons twice a week through the summer and it was the perfect addition to our summer days. Two boys from church, Austin Neeley and Carter McInelly also participated which made it extra fun for Mason.
Brynn-
Gymnastics-
Jan 2015 - May 2015
Brynn started up Gymnastics at Metrostar gymnastics where she quickly advanced out of the beginning level. After several months she was well on her way to passing the next level when she decided she wanted to take a break from gymnastics and try something else for awhile. I think this had less to do with her being tired of gymnastics and more to do with the 40 minute drive each way making gymnastics take up her entire afternoon every Wednesday which happened to be early out day. We decided to take a break for the summer and re-evaluate when school started again in the fall. While she definitely has missed gymnastics she has decided she would rather take tumbling with several of her friends from school where they focus more on the aspects of gymnastics that were her favorite anyway. We'll see how it goes.
Jan 2015 - May 2015
Brynn started up Gymnastics at Metrostar gymnastics where she quickly advanced out of the beginning level. After several months she was well on her way to passing the next level when she decided she wanted to take a break from gymnastics and try something else for awhile. I think this had less to do with her being tired of gymnastics and more to do with the 40 minute drive each way making gymnastics take up her entire afternoon every Wednesday which happened to be early out day. We decided to take a break for the summer and re-evaluate when school started again in the fall. While she definitely has missed gymnastics she has decided she would rather take tumbling with several of her friends from school where they focus more on the aspects of gymnastics that were her favorite anyway. We'll see how it goes.
Piano-
Per her own request, Brynn also started taking piano lessons from Grandma Nancy during Kindergarten. Reading music doesn't come as easily to Brynn as it does Mason and it's not unusual for her to have a good pout when things get tough during each of her lessons and while practicing, but I am proud of her for always sticking with it and love the Grit I see her developing.
Swim Lessons-
Jan - Mar 2015
I prefer to sign my kids up for their swimming lessons during the winter to break up those long and generally uneventful months and then leave our summers open for fun swimming. I enrolled Brynn in swimming lessons at the YMCA and we really lucked out and got an amazing teacher who really helped Brynn overcome her hesitancy in the water and take the next steps in her swimming skills. She mastered floating and became an independent swimmer. While she is completely capable of swimming on her own she will still only do it when she knows she can touch. This summer we will have to work on her confidence swimming in the deep end. Overall I couldn't have been more please with Brynn's improvement through a few sessions.
Tennis-
Summer 2015
Brynn participated in the same summer tennis lessons as Mason. As with everything she does in life she loved every second of it.
Miles-
Swim Lessons-
Jan - Mar 2015
As soon as Miles turned 3 and was old enough I signed him up for his first swimming lessons at the YMCA. He was super excited, but as it turns out he was all talk and when it actually came time for his lessons he screamed and cried and refused to go with his teacher. It had absolutely nothing to do with him being afraid or uncomfortable in the water, and he isn't usually hesitant with new people the way Brynn is, so it was just a really random and frustrating thing. For nearly the entire first session he spent all of his lesson refusing to go with his class. Then as soon as his lesson was over he would run around and happily play in the water with Brynn. She eventually ended up doing all the things with him they would do during his lessons like blowing bubbles, putting his face in, practice kicking, etc. He was more than happy to do it with Brynn which made me wonder why I wasn't paying her to teach him. Thankfully the second session went much smoother and Miles decided that swim lessons were pretty cool after all.
Jan - Mar 2015
As soon as Miles turned 3 and was old enough I signed him up for his first swimming lessons at the YMCA. He was super excited, but as it turns out he was all talk and when it actually came time for his lessons he screamed and cried and refused to go with his teacher. It had absolutely nothing to do with him being afraid or uncomfortable in the water, and he isn't usually hesitant with new people the way Brynn is, so it was just a really random and frustrating thing. For nearly the entire first session he spent all of his lesson refusing to go with his class. Then as soon as his lesson was over he would run around and happily play in the water with Brynn. She eventually ended up doing all the things with him they would do during his lessons like blowing bubbles, putting his face in, practice kicking, etc. He was more than happy to do it with Brynn which made me wonder why I wasn't paying her to teach him. Thankfully the second session went much smoother and Miles decided that swim lessons were pretty cool after all.
Mommy Preschool -
Feb - May 2015
As I started looking into which preschool I wanted to sign Miles up for in the Fall I was feeling kind of disappointed by the options and shocked at the outrageous price tags that went along with them. Michelle Cook and I started toying around with the idea of organizing a co-op preschool for our boys and possibly some other friends. We decided that maybe we should give it a trial run first. So we set a schedule and once or twice a week one of us would take the boys for a couple hours and attempt a very simple little lesson and activity with them. We had a lot of fun doing it, but it didn't take long for me to realize that this was not going to work for Miles. I am not worried about him learning his letters and shapes as much as I am wanting him to learn how to follow the structure and rules of a classroom and that wasn't going to happen in this environment. So I bit the bullet and signed him up for Imagine and Explore preschool for the fall and we just enjoyed our scheduled playdates with kids in the meantime.
Feb - May 2015
As I started looking into which preschool I wanted to sign Miles up for in the Fall I was feeling kind of disappointed by the options and shocked at the outrageous price tags that went along with them. Michelle Cook and I started toying around with the idea of organizing a co-op preschool for our boys and possibly some other friends. We decided that maybe we should give it a trial run first. So we set a schedule and once or twice a week one of us would take the boys for a couple hours and attempt a very simple little lesson and activity with them. We had a lot of fun doing it, but it didn't take long for me to realize that this was not going to work for Miles. I am not worried about him learning his letters and shapes as much as I am wanting him to learn how to follow the structure and rules of a classroom and that wasn't going to happen in this environment. So I bit the bullet and signed him up for Imagine and Explore preschool for the fall and we just enjoyed our scheduled playdates with kids in the meantime.
