Although he enjoys swimming, gymnastics, diving and other similar sports, Pace has never shown much interest in team sports.
But we keep trying…
Our local community centre has a “Give It A Try” program where kids can try different activities every Friday night – broomball, yoga, floor hockey, ju-jit-su and possibly others as well.
Friday was the first one and after some initial resistance (when is there not initial resistance with Pace?) ;-), we went over for the first activity of the series, broomball.
And…Pace LOVED it!
Whereas the last time we had him in a team sport, he spent most of his time wandering around the sidelines looking at the sky or picking dandelions, he was totally in to this. Better yet, he scored BOTH of his team’s goals in a 2-1 victory (of course, the other team scored their only goal when he decided to hand me his broom and take an unplanned water fountain break!) 😉
A few other comments…
– he later told me the only reason he tried so hard was because he thought he’d win a prize if he scored!
– when I was playing ice hockey at Pace’s age, my dad used to give me a dollar for every goal I scored and $0.50 for every assist (hmmm, in hindsight, making a kid into a puck hog probably isn’t a good strategy!) So I gave Pace two dollars and we hit the nearby convenience store on the way home for treats.
– the instructor started by telling all kids that one of the main rules was to keep their broom down so they didn’t hit anyone. Pace was in “not listening” mode and immediately started spinning his broom like a ninja master getting a quick rebuke from the instructor.
– he also managed to pop another kid in the nose during the game although this was accidental, mainly due to Pace’s follow-through after shooting the ball and the kid probably leaning in a bit too much.
– also very much like Pace, after the initial resistance, he later commented “That was the best game ever! I can’t wait to play broomball again!”
– one of the other kids registered for the class was a girl who was in Pace’s class last year and whose name I recognized as the only girl who had read more books than Pace. I inquired to the girl’s grandma is this was her claim to fame and she replied, “Yes, she just loves to read! We go to the library every single Wednesday night, you know!” I sheepishly admitted that I actually go to the same library they go to EVERY SINGLE DAY! 😉
