Jamie needs an auxiliary brain:
A few years ago I remember thinking, "If I have three kids in Scouts and three in soccer my head is going to pop off."
…My plan was to catch the last few minutes of Marty's game and warm him up with a cup of tea at the nearby Panera. Then I'd drop Joe off for his 11:30 game and let my husband take over, picking up Joe and getting Pete to his 2:00 game.
Except it didn't work out the way I planned. The 11yo's game was cut short on account of rain and humiliation (for the other team — Marty's crew won 8-0). Instead of seeing the last few minutes of play I found Marty alone, soaked and tearful. (FAIL FAIL FAIL. I reminded him that he could ask another parent to call me if something like that happened again, but still: FAIL.) He perked right up with that cup of tea, though, and I was feeling like things were back on track when Joe said, "How's Pete going to get to his game?"
…I'd brought the wrong boy. The 11:30 game was Pete; the 2:00 game was Joe.
It's been a while since I stirred up the waters of controversy, but I want to throw something out there and see what bites. It has to do with my theory about soccer.
See, soccer is a great sport for a kid. The equipment is cheap; kids all over the world live and breathe the sport; you can play a pickup game on almost any flat surface of any size with a number of players ranging from four to 40. Also, a kid who plays soccer runs. A lot. There's a good amount of physical activity in every soccer game for just about every player.
But based on everything I hear from parents of soccer players, however good soccer may be for a particular kid, I am convinced that soccer in its usual suburban-American form is a Very. Bad. Choice. for larger families. If you have four kids in soccer, then every kid is on a different team (unless you have a set of quadruplets all the same gender). That means every kid is on a different schedule. Frequently it means different fields at different places in town. I'm sorry, but that sounds like a logistical nightmare to me. I do not want to spend my life in the car.
So far I have been plunking my kids in physical activities where two or three kids are doing the same thing at the same time in the same place. Swimming lessons at the Y, for instance. There's also a swim team at the Y where all ages practice and compete at the same times in the same place; I tried to get the kids interested in that but they didn't bite, but maybe the younger ones will go for it. Martial arts: the Aikido studio up the street has "youth classes" where all ages and belt levels under 17 practice at the same time in the same place.
I know several larger families in which every child takes piano lessons. This strikes me as the epitome of an activity that is well adapted for large homeschooling families, at least the ones who have a piano. Especially if you can get the piano teacher to come to your house (which is, I hear, easier to do if your family is paying for a block of four or five lessons in a row). Efficient. Soccer strikes me as the polar opposite of this.
Am I right, or very, very wrong? Set me straight if you will…
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