Swimming and Tennis and Football, Oh My

We kind of went a little crazy this fall in terms of extracurricular activities for Madi (at least in my opinion). They've all finished now and I have to say it's a nice break to not be shuffling to her activities regularly (and I can't imagine the craziness that will happen when all three are involved in extracurriculars!)

Masi had swimming on Mondays, tennis on Thursdays, and football (soccer) on Saturdays. She enjoyed all of them and had good/bad days of course, but we are trying to narrow down where she should focus in the spring because I don't think we want to have her doing all three activities again unless she chooses that.

Swimming

This was definitely our most challenging extracurricular activity, most likely because I think I encouraged her to do it. She went from barely wanting to be in the water over the summer to spending hours there so I wanted her to get some basic lessons so she'd be more comfortable and it would be easier to take all the girls to the pool. She's improved dramatically in terms of her stamina in the water, holding her breath, kicking her legs and moving her arms, and jumping in the water. I'm hoping that she chooses to continue with lessons, but I've decided not to push if she says she doesn't want to continue them. 

Tennis

I have to admit we were both a bit skeptical when we thought about a 3 year old playing tennis. However, she went from missing the ball entirely to actually being able to hit it sometimes off of a bounce! Her teacher was incredibly patient and good with the students and the sessions were small (only three kids) so more manageable and one-on-one. 

Football (Soccer)

We were disappointed to find out there were no English-speaking football teams for Madi's age and so we decided to start one ourselves! We called the team Baku Blasters and held practice every Saturday for kids ages 3-6 years at the football pitch in our compound. We had anywhere from just a couple up to 8 kids every Saturday and Jason worked really hard to prepare fun drills and games for the kids to play each weeks. The twins tagged along as well, but towards the end of the season it was next to impossible to keep them off the field since they wanted to participate as well! We are hoping to organize the Baku Blasters again in the spring.