try all the sports

Bida started a 12 week rotational sports class yesterday. All of the soccer groups were full on the weekend so we were left with an "olympian" class. I think this rotational set up is probably more beneficial in the long run because it will give her an opportunity to pick which sport (or sports) she likes most for the future.

I didn't hesitate to sign her up but I was a little nervous the morning of her first class because she's on the young side of the age range and a girl. Luckily we quickly noticed that the majority of her class was close to 3 years old, about half the class were little girls and they don't actually play with each other. Bida isn't always the most outgoing in new situations, neither particularly bad nor good but a simple observation, so we sort of pre-planned our reactions as to try to encourage but not force her to participate.

My best advice is to set low expectations and don't push. As much as I wanted Bida to participate and rush across the field when instructed to do so… sometimes she stood still twisting her hands together, the way she does when she's a bit overwhelmed. One of us would run back to her and hold her hand as we ran together across the field. We tried not to make a big deal and we certainly didn't give threats because if we'd of said "participate or we go home" we would have been out of there within the first 5 minutes. The whole story changed at about 20 minutes in though when she became comfortable enough to follow the teacher's lead.

It also didn't hurt that we've already played soccer with her a bit. We bought a soccer ball recently and she immediately fell in love with kicking her little size 3 ball around. Next week we'll try out t-ball, wish us luck!