Monday, February 28, 2011

Super Riley!

Riley did a complete and total 180 this weekend at soccer. The first 10 minutes of his game he started fiddling but with enough positive reinforcement and Momma screaming like a lunatic he seemed to just click. I think a lot of his issues with the games is the chaos and the noise. He cant really hear any one thing clearly and its just a cluster of energy. He's played goalie before but he never really focused. This week his goal was right near where I was sitting so I was able to sort of coach him through the entire game. LOOK HERE THEY COME! STOP DANCING! (seriously he was doing the sixties go-go cage girl.) All of the sudden something just clicked. That ball came barrelling at him and he dove on it. He saved 12/15 goals and manned up. 

I'm so proud, I'm not thrilled he got kicked in the face (obviously) but the fact that he took it without blinking really showed that he was into the game, finally. Afterwards I could not tell him enough how proud I was. We praised him and as a result he said "you know momma? I'm proud of myself too! You we're right!" We took him to lunch and he got himself a dragon ball z game. Although I guess this could be seen as bribing I was just so amazed at how great he did. Last week his team got spanked in an awful way. It was seriously tragic. No one knows that score because it was just THAT bad. This week he had a sub coach that addressed Riley at his level and I think that also made a big difference. He doesn't focus very well in stressful situations, having someone look him in the eye makes all the difference. The team lost by only 1 point. Next week might be good, maybe they'll actually win? Not that it matters but maybe it will make them feel good. I never really understood the soccer mom thing. I kind of get it. Its nice to see a piece of you do good. Its easy to get caught up in the moment, most of all its so nice to see your kid doing something, being good at it and having fun. Now hopefully we can find something else for him to do for physical activity. Unfortunately I don't think public school sports allow homeschoolers to participate. When I was a kid it was township, which is a much better set up. Then again there was just an abundance of kids that participated. Now days it seems to not be so popular.

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