Soccer

Soccer is one of those sports that I think some kids can really enjoy. Our local YMCA starts letting kids play at the age of 3. While it is pretty funny to watch "heard ball" at the age of three it is still very cute.

Luke started playing soccer at the age of three.

Here he is on his first ever soccer team.
While he wanted to play soccer, their was a lot more silly going on than playing soccer. Lots of grass and flower picking took place.
Even as Luke got older we still seemed to do a lot of grass picking on the soccer field.

Luke played on two orange teams. This one was in the fall of 2008 and Luke was 5. This was the season that dad coached and one of Luke's friends played on the team also. With the hope that having a friend would help him play better, we were so wrong. These two boys spent more time doing cart-wheels and bending over and looking between their legs at each other. Total silliness was taking place on the soccer field. It was at this moment we thought, he just isn't in to soccer and it is time to throw in the towel.
In the fall of 2009 Luke asked us if he could play soccer. Our first question to him was do you really want to play? Will you play? He said yes, so we signed him up.

This season it was 5 & 6 year old's and he got it. Finally we reached the point where we are not picking grass, etc...

This spring the age group changed. We signed up again but now it is 7 to 9 years of age. Luke is the smallest kid on his team. However he is the smallest he is still playing really well.
While I wouldn't call Luke a pro at soccer, not even close, he is out playing and having a good time. Plus he wants to play....

Just the other night he scored the first goal of the game. Then he got tired and ran out of steam but still did great.
While I love the character that the YMCA builds in kids and instills good sportsmanship. This will be our last time playing for the YMCA. This time they only had three teams so the kids just continue to play each other over and over again. In this area we have a city league for Soccer and it is much more popular with the older kids. Since we know Luke wants to play and we see hope in him we will be switch to the city league in the fall.

Now the big question, do we let Thomas play when he turns three? He already wants to get out and play with his brother at the games.

What age did or will you put your kids in group activities?