Someday I Will Miss This Chaos: Spring Hockey

I don't even know who all is still reading along, but if you do, I appreciate it.

Back in the fall, we signed J up for a hockey class. We were blessed last year with an instructor named Coach Gus. He coached J in the afternoons twice a week, and he would let the boys skate on the ice for an extra hour at no cost. J and I would hang out at the rink from 1-3 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and he really learned a lot. Unfortunately, Gus only taught kids who weren't in school in the afternoons. Since J would be in all-day kindy, and Phil and I both felt that school was more important than hockey, we lost out on Gus. The class J was enrolled in during the fall was...remedial. He didn't really learn a lot, and most of the time he just stood around on the ice. He said to me after one practice that he wanted to quit hockey. That nearly broke my heart.

I told him to hang in there, and we'd sign him up to be on a team. You should've seen his face light up. So in January, he joined an in-house team. There were about 70+ kids enrolled, with ages ranging from 4-9. Teams were decided, and J was the youngest kid on his team (I don't know how they divided up the kids). The downside (for parents) was that the season was 14 straight Saturdays AND Sundays. That made for a lot of rescheduling and shuffling of plans. We didn't really have any issues until these last two weeks when his practices were at the same time as Riley's soccer games.

All in all, Jeremy had a blast. We're taking a break from hockey over the summer, much to his discontent. He burst into tears when we told him that we're taking a break. (We just want some freedom over the summer since games and practices are only on the weekend...and hockey is expensive!) I'm sure he's already thinking about the next session in the fall. I'm glad he loves it--we just have to work on him not being offsides! Oh, and in his last game, which was yesterday, he was goalie. Seeing him in the full gear was so exciting..even if it was difficult for him to get up when he fell on the ice.