We have started a soccer class with Lil’ Kickers for Jack and Ben this summer.

It’s one of the sports that Jack is perfect for. Lots of running, not a lot of rules.

For someone that can be painfully shy, he took to the class surprisingly well. Besides his love of running, he has a competitive side that bodes well for this sort of thing.

At his level they actually scrimmage. It’s so neat to see what happens with sports after the age of 5. The classes are no longer a bunch of bubbles, parachutes and singing disguised as whatever (swimming, gymnastics, you name it). It’s real. It actually resembles the sport it’s meant to be.

Ben on the other hand is still in his own world. And it’s not the world of bubbles, parachutes and singing that his coaches are in. I feel sorry for the teacher that gets him next year! He would much prefer to pull up pieces of grass and stick them in the shoes he’s just taken off then do whatever the rest of the class is doing.

He’s lucky he’s the second kid. I now have the wisdom that this stage will pass. He will eventually follow instructions and be engaged. Unlike my first child, I suffer no embarrassment or feel personally to blame when he flops on the ground or runs wildly out of class for no apparent reason.