Back to sports. Between my husband, my dad, and I we've managed to introduce our girls to two pretty expensive sports. They do love them though.
First snowboarding (and skiing). Sweet Pea LOVES all things snow and snowboarding. Bob took the girls to the mountain for the first time several years ago. Sweet Pea decided that she wanted to try snowboarding while Rosie Jane took to skiing. Rosie Jane will ski, if it's not too cold, the sun is out, and she's in the mood. She goes often enough that we rent skis for the season for her from the local ski shop. She was pretty reluctant to head to the mountain this year for some reason, then went one day and got a wicked sunburn. It was a beautiful day towards the end of the season, the sun was out, and it was warm....and I totally didn't think of sunscreen. After that day I made sure Sweet Pea had some in her gear bag.
Sweet Pea is the fanatic (said lovingly). She has loved snowboarding since the first time she went out. We rented her a snowboard for several seasons and bought her one last year for her birthday. She's finally stopped growing and has shown a continued interest so we knew it was a good investment. Last winter, we looked around for a snowboarding team and decided that the best one was the one at Massanutten Resort. Where we live, no ski area is close. The mountain she really wanted to go to has a ski team but no snowboard team. Massanutten has practice two nights a week plus both Saturday and Sunday. They only require attendance at one practice a week but we try to make it down to both weeknights plus Saturdays.
Last year was our year to figure out the snowboard team and also the competitions. She joined USASA, the snowboard association and competed in boarder cross. This year, we took another step and as she did well, she got invited to Nationals and competed there. She did well at Nationals and loved her extra day of snowboarding in Colorado. Looks like driving to snowboarding practice and competitions will be something that I'm doing for the next few years.
And then there's golf. This is Rosie Jane's passion. Many members of my family, including my dad and Bob, play golf. It's totally not something I'm interested in playing but she really does. A few years ago, I looked around for golf lessons and found that there's a First Tee Program here in our county. This is a great program because it combines teaching golf with life lessons. As the players move up through the program, the golf requirements get harder and the life lessons are deeper. Once they reach a certain level, and she's almost there, they can go to summer camp and get invited to tournaments.
Golf is one reason we thought about putting Rosie Jane into school for high school. Where we live if you homeschool, you can't be on the high school team. We've decided to keep her home, which means that it's going to be harder for her to play and get noticed by colleges. She's just going to have to work hard so she can go to the golf camps and tournaments sponsored by First Tee. One good thing is that there is plenty of money out there for female golf players for college. Now we just need to find her some (female) friends to play with so she'll keep her interest up.
So that's our sporting life, dance year round, snowboarding (and skiing) in the winter, golf in the spring/summer.
19 April 2013
13 April 2013
Driving
I'll get back to the sports later. Right now I've got driving on my mind. Sweet Pea is finishing up her behind the wheel class and will have her license TOMORROW! I'm really excited, for both of us. She'll be able to get to Bible study and work by herself, and for me it'll free up about 4.5 hours a week that I don't have to drive her anymore.
Right now I was hoping to find an easy Excel report card that I can use. I need to make up one so she can get the good student discount on her auto insurance. I don't usually give the girls report cards, I just tell them how they're doing and they have a pretty good idea anyway. I do tell them their year end grades. Anyway, I can't find anything useful for high school that I can just plug and go and email to our insurance agent. Guess I'll work on something this weekend so he can add her on Monday.
Here's to safe driving!
Right now I was hoping to find an easy Excel report card that I can use. I need to make up one so she can get the good student discount on her auto insurance. I don't usually give the girls report cards, I just tell them how they're doing and they have a pretty good idea anyway. I do tell them their year end grades. Anyway, I can't find anything useful for high school that I can just plug and go and email to our insurance agent. Guess I'll work on something this weekend so he can add her on Monday.
Here's to safe driving!
08 April 2013
Sports
Our family has never been big into the typical organized sports so I'm amazed at how much of our life revolves around the seasons and the sports that come with them.
Neither of our girls were much interested in soccer. I really enjoyed playing soccer growing up and played for a high school team so I hoped one of them would play. We didn't really encourage soccer when they were younger since the games were on Sundays, which is church and family time here. When they got a bit older and games were on Saturdays, they were busy with other interests.
Swimming is another sport that never took that I loved. I swam at our pool in the summer and for the high school team for four years. They both learned to swim at the homeschool swimming lessons at the county rec center and did well. For a few summers we belonged to a pool and the girls loved going and playing around but weren't interested in joining the swim team.
So what have they done instead??
Dance Both girls started dance when they were little. Sweet Pea took ballet, then added pointe when she was old enough. She really enjoyed it but had to quit when she started having ankle problems. She went to the chiropractor for her ankles and they finally decided that it was best if she quit. She still misses dancing. Rosie Jane started with a ballet/tap class, as she got older, it was just ballet, then she added jazz, then she dropped jazz and took Irish dance for a few years. She was really good at Irish dance but didn't want to practice but at the level she was getting to, she really needed practice outside of class. So she dropped that, at our insistence, and went back to ballet, adding jazz again and lyrical. As she got a few years older, she's added modern and pointe. I really like the studio they've danced at, it focuses more on dancing for the love of dance rather than competing or building professional ballerinas or dancers.
Horses Sweet Pea has loved horses since she was very little. When she was about 2 she wanted to learn to ride horses. That's a bit too young, but when she was 5 we started looking around for lessons for her. The stable that's down the street from us took students when they were 9. I really wasn't sure I'd be able to hold her off for that long and was fortunate to find somewhere else that would take her at 5 years old. The preschool she went to took a field trip to a local farm and the owner was doing lessons. I talked to her and in the spring, Sweet Pea started riding. She started taking lessons one day a week, we later added a second day as she got older (and her legs were actually long enough to reach the horse and not just the saddle), then came an opportunity to buy the horse that she was using at the time for her lessons. She still owns that horse and loves it; they both can be stubborn so they're a good fit for each other. She eventually stopped taking lessons (the owner moved on to other things), but still rides two or three days a week and now works at the barn two afternoons a week to help pay for the board. She loves her horse and did one or two local shows but has decided competing on horses just isn't for her. I have to agree. She doesn't really fit into the horse world. She wants to preserve her love of horses and is afraid if she has to work so much and deal with the pressure of competing that she would lose her love of riding. She wants to be able to enjoy having a horse, jumping on it and enjoying the ride.
Next time, snowboarding and golf, the seasonal sports that they love.
Neither of our girls were much interested in soccer. I really enjoyed playing soccer growing up and played for a high school team so I hoped one of them would play. We didn't really encourage soccer when they were younger since the games were on Sundays, which is church and family time here. When they got a bit older and games were on Saturdays, they were busy with other interests.
Swimming is another sport that never took that I loved. I swam at our pool in the summer and for the high school team for four years. They both learned to swim at the homeschool swimming lessons at the county rec center and did well. For a few summers we belonged to a pool and the girls loved going and playing around but weren't interested in joining the swim team.
So what have they done instead??
Dance Both girls started dance when they were little. Sweet Pea took ballet, then added pointe when she was old enough. She really enjoyed it but had to quit when she started having ankle problems. She went to the chiropractor for her ankles and they finally decided that it was best if she quit. She still misses dancing. Rosie Jane started with a ballet/tap class, as she got older, it was just ballet, then she added jazz, then she dropped jazz and took Irish dance for a few years. She was really good at Irish dance but didn't want to practice but at the level she was getting to, she really needed practice outside of class. So she dropped that, at our insistence, and went back to ballet, adding jazz again and lyrical. As she got a few years older, she's added modern and pointe. I really like the studio they've danced at, it focuses more on dancing for the love of dance rather than competing or building professional ballerinas or dancers.
Horses Sweet Pea has loved horses since she was very little. When she was about 2 she wanted to learn to ride horses. That's a bit too young, but when she was 5 we started looking around for lessons for her. The stable that's down the street from us took students when they were 9. I really wasn't sure I'd be able to hold her off for that long and was fortunate to find somewhere else that would take her at 5 years old. The preschool she went to took a field trip to a local farm and the owner was doing lessons. I talked to her and in the spring, Sweet Pea started riding. She started taking lessons one day a week, we later added a second day as she got older (and her legs were actually long enough to reach the horse and not just the saddle), then came an opportunity to buy the horse that she was using at the time for her lessons. She still owns that horse and loves it; they both can be stubborn so they're a good fit for each other. She eventually stopped taking lessons (the owner moved on to other things), but still rides two or three days a week and now works at the barn two afternoons a week to help pay for the board. She loves her horse and did one or two local shows but has decided competing on horses just isn't for her. I have to agree. She doesn't really fit into the horse world. She wants to preserve her love of horses and is afraid if she has to work so much and deal with the pressure of competing that she would lose her love of riding. She wants to be able to enjoy having a horse, jumping on it and enjoying the ride.
Next time, snowboarding and golf, the seasonal sports that they love.
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