The Swamp

Daughter is a rising junior... While she plays a pretty high level of travel soccer, her high school team is pretty ridiculously stacked and she could see the writing on the wall. A number of her friends play field hockey, and when she said she wasn't going out of for soccer, they kind of jokingly said she should try fockey... So... She did.

We sent her to 3 camps this summer, got her synced up with a trainer about 6 times, and she went down to the park and worked out 4 or 5 times a week. This was all over a span of about 2 months.

Final cuts were made last night. The Girl is a varsity field hockey player.

Proud doesn't really do it justice. Kid is a baller.

Nonlinear FC wrote:Daughter is a rising junior... While she plays a pretty high level of travel soccer, her high school team is pretty ridiculously stacked and she could see the writing on the wall. A number of her friends play field hockey, and when she said she wasn't going out of for soccer, they kind of jokingly said she should try fockey... So... She did.

We sent her to 3 camps this summer, got her synced up with a trainer about 6 times, and she went down to the park and worked out 4 or 5 times a week. This was all over a span of about 2 months.

Final cuts were made last night. The Girl is a varsity field hockey player.

Proud doesn't really do it justice. Kid is a baller.

That is great.

Nonlinear FC wrote:Daughter is a rising junior... While she plays a pretty high level of travel soccer, her high school team is pretty ridiculously stacked and she could see the writing on the wall. A number of her friends play field hockey, and when she said she wasn't going out of for soccer, they kind of jokingly said she should try fockey... So... She did.

We sent her to 3 camps this summer, got her synced up with a trainer about 6 times, and she went down to the park and worked out 4 or 5 times a week. This was all over a span of about 2 months.

Final cuts were made last night. The Girl is a varsity field hockey player.

Proud doesn't really do it justice. Kid is a baller.

Good deal, congrats!

Nice!

My son scored a goal in his middle school team's first game of the season tonight. He's played soccer since he was 5 or so, and I'm pretty sure this is his first goal since they added goalies back in like U7 or so. It wasn't pretty (I actually thought another kid put it in off a rebound), but it counts.

I know this thread is for us to crow about our kids and all the great stuff they do. It really is one of my favorite threads in this place. Allow me to crow about someone else's kid for a change. My son, Max, started playing soccer today. There is an organization called Pipeline Soccer that runs a program called TOP Soccer where kids from the Pipeline program work with and buddy up with kids with disabilities to give them a chance to play soccer also. I'd never signed up my kid for it before because...soccer, but I thought he'd like it and I wanted him to try it. He loved it, but that's not the point.

Tennbengal's son is a mentor/buddy in this program. I know him because he goes to the same school as my oldest, so I watched him interact with his buddy tonight. I know his buddy, Burke. Sweet kid, but can be challenging at times. You'd never know it by watching TB's boy run around and work with the kid. Burke had a blast, was smiling and even hugged TB2 on the way off the field. I don't know if they get service hours to do this program or not, but I know when people are just going through the motions with my kid. I can tell when somebody truly wants to be with my son or is just doing it half heartedly and TB2 was a great example of how people should treat others with disabilities. He showed Burke respect and friendship and kindness and that was reflected in the way Burke reacted to him. I know Burke's dad and he was grateful that his son had a great Sunday afternoon playing soccer with a great kid. So, kudos to TB, Mrs. TB and to TB2. You're raising a mensch and that is a good thing. The world needs more mensches.

Brilliant.

That's awesome. Hug your son for us, TB.

Nice

Fantastic

Aw geez, that's nice to read Neal. Thanks for that. Next time he is driving me crazy like 15-year-olds do, I will count to ten and think back on this.

Yeah, that's great. Nice work, TB. And thanks to BFJ for posting.

I'm not ashamed to admit it got a little dusty in here reading that.

Giff wrote:I'm not ashamed to admit it got a little dusty in here reading that.

Cosigned.

Giff wrote:I'm not ashamed to admit it got a little dusty in here reading that.

Totally dusty. I can only imagine how much it means to Burke to have the attention of an older(?) skilled boy willing to take the time and play with him. Props to you TB, and I hope your son understands how much his caring meant to Burke. As I become more involved in my town's travel program, I am going to make sure we have something similar. What a great program.

The Sybian wrote:

Giff wrote:I'm not ashamed to admit it got a little dusty in here reading that.

Totally dusty. I can only imagine how much it means to Burke to have the attention of an older(?) skilled boy willing to take the time and play with him. Props to you TB, and I hope your son understands how much his caring meant to Burke. As I become more involved in my town's travel program, I am going to make sure we have something similar. What a great program.

Yup. Dusty here too. That's great to read.

So Dusty, and great work TB, TB2, and bfj.

So nice to read about the good people.

Pruitt wrote:So nice to read about the good people.

Even if his dad is a Bengals fan.

This is a wonderful story. Good work, TB, raising such a fine young man.

As some of you on Facebook have already noticed, my daughter's 7th grade team won Volleyball City Championship (B team, 8th graders are A team) last night. There are no regional/state tournaments for Middle School volleyball, so this is the best they could have done. We struggled a bit during the season and ended up as the 7th seed, but ended up beating the #2, #3 and #4 teams en route to the title.

She also got to sing the National Anthem with 3 teammates before game.

She didn't play a whole lot, but was announced in the starting lineup and mostly did her job as a middle blocker, which is not a glory position. Made one mistake, but overall she was more than pleased to get the win. She is a tremendous teammate and I think with the right club coaching this winter (this is the first year they get positional training in addition to team practice) she can make some big strides. She's already wanting to jump higher, so we are doing the post it note thing inspired by a commercial where the girl says "tomorrow I will jump higher" and sticks a note on the wall. We are doing some basic leg exercises to get more jumping stamina (the middle blockers do a shitload of flat foot jumping) and maybe some extra vert, too.

My Trump supporting parents were in town last week and were watching the debate in a different room. My 5-year-old, unprovoked, went into the room and yelled "I'm with her! Go Team Hillary!"

Congrats to lil AB!
Atta girl lil Giff!

My son has started a business with a friend of his.

Watch accessories, funky socks, groovy cuff links. It may not go anywhere, but he is getting those all-important job skills in place!

https://www.1701accessories.com/

Id take a pair of Sweden socks. Need more wallets.

This weekend my youngest finished a 3 hour long evaluation at Lindamood-Bell to assess his reading deficiencies. When he finished the eval, he was allowed to pick a toy out of a huge toy box. He went right for the box of 48 crayons, but told me "these are for my brother, for his birthday!" This is a big deal because he was thinking of someone else's wants/needs and not just his own. Big step for him.

His brother turns 16 today and my youngest was so excited to give him the crayons. He helped me wrap them, signed a card and waited for my oldest to get home from school. At present time he presented his gift to his brother. I had no idea how my oldest would react. He's a moody teenager, so there was a chance there would be eye rolling, rude comments, etc. NOPE!! He acted as if they were THE gift he'd been waiting for his whole life. He raved about how he loved the gift and all the colors and how he couldn't wait to color with his brother. He could see how much it meant to my little one to give him this gift and his reaction made my little one so happy and pleased. He stepped up, as I hoped he would.

So that right there is a double crow! Nice!

Great story, BFJ. Doubly proud papa.

That's awesome. Good sibling stuff is really good.

That is really great to read. Fantastic.

So great.

Great story BFJ!

That's awesome, bfj.

This seemed like a good enough thread pick: Anyone have any experience telling a kid a teacher at her school died?



(She understands and accepts death, probably didn't know the teacher, but it will be addressed in class tomorrow and she always does better with more information and warning.)

Nevermind shitheads, handled it myself.

Read her the Giving Tree and tell her the teacher is now a stump?

If she has a solid understanding of death, there's little for you to do. If you believe she likes warnings rather than experiencing potentially shocking things without it, then talking in advance is a good idea. Otherwise, no big deal.

My youngest doesn't really understand death. A high school classmate died last week; she knew him as they were part of the school play cast. He was hit by a car crossing the street to school. That's one of our worries about her; so far we've eliminated the risky by driving her to and from.

For several days she asked questions about her classmate that indicated she didn't really get it. Things like, "Will he be back?" "Where is he now?" "Does he miss his parents?"

Very sad.

We decided it would be best for her not to attend his memorial service. Too many chances for her to say something that would stigmatize her among classmates, many of whom knew him better and are quite upset by his death. If she had a better understanding of death, we'd have encouraged our daughter to attend the memorial. Coming to grips with death is certainly an important developmental step for kids.

Yup, we're as honest and straight-forward as we can be without adding any burden. We weren't going to mention it up front if the school wasn't planning on addressing it out of concern she'd be the one being too honest with other kids who weren't prepared. Its not a good thing our dog died, but its certainly helped her processing situations like this.

If you don't mind me switching to a lighter story:

My yungins love Uno, so we play every Friday night. Ava (8) hits Leo (5) with a skip.

Leo: Fuck!

I play it off like I didn't hear it. A little while later after another skip:

Leo: Fuck!

Me: Leo! We don't use that word. Where did you hear that?

Ava: Mommy yelled it out last week.

(Never rat on your friends and always keep you mouth shut, Ava)

Me: Well, Leo, we're gentlemen. We don't use that word if there are better options available. If your sister skips you, there are better options available.

A little while later, another skip.

Leo: THUCK!

Me: Leo, what did I just say?

Leo: Dad, I didn't say it. I used the better option.

Good parental thinking. And good point about one of the values of owning pets. Further, they offer a rehearsal for how they'll treat us in our final years.