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.