Water Fairies and Yellow Dragons

It's soccer season here in AZ. Most of our Friday nights and Saturdays are spent at the soccer field. The kids are having a blast. Actually let me be more specific.

Lizzy loves her team. She is on the same team as her best friends Jessie and Megandee Welch. There are 6 girls on the team and Liz is one of the oldest. Her competitive spirit has arrived this year. She wants to win and has scored a lot of goals. Sometimes she fights over the ball with Jessie (who is also good and competitive) but we are working on teaching the girls teamwork and passing. She loves soccer and is excited for the Frozen Water Fairies games each week.

 Jackson has struggled. His coach is great and very encouraging but the kid does not care about soccer or have any idea where the ball is most of the time. He wanted to play because he thought he would get on the same team as some of his friends but unfortunately he e is a on a team with 8 new boys he has ever met. I try to explain it is a great opportunity to meet some new kids and he has but it is tough when you only see the kids 2 times a week for 8 weeks. I think his main issue is he doesn't know where to go. His team plays 6 on 6 and is much more organized than the U6 league Liz plays in. The last game of the season he played goalie. I thought this would be a good place for him because he doesn't have to chase the ball and he knows where he needs to be. The first half was tough, he forgot he could use his hands and the defense kept letting kids get through to the goal. He stopped 3 balls but got scored on 3 times. At the half I could tell he was feeling pretty defeated poor kid. But we explained that he could use his hands and he cheered up. The second half he blocked 2 goals and didn't get scored on at all. It was a Yellow Dragon (that was his team name) victory and Jackson felt much better about his soccer skills.

 It was a fun season and we were happy to celebrate with our new friends when the season ended.