Playing with Kids: Soccer
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We're not huge soccer fans at our home, but finding things to keep us busy and active are always at the top of our list.
Whether or not you go to the park, getting out of the house is important on a regularly basis - especially when you've got young children in the home. One of the simple activities that we fill our time with is soccer.
No, soccer isn't some unknown game that people play - it's the most popular sport in the world. However, it's also really easy to overlook the simple activities for more complicated ideas - there's no reason to though.
No matter the weather that you have, there are ways to play soccer. Of course, nice weather is the best for kicking the soccer ball around.
We have a nice soccer ball that stays out of the snow and wet. We also have an older soccer ball that we use if the weather isn’t so nice. I find it’s much more enjoyable to play around when you have a good ball to use.
Playing soccer outside
We bought this cheap little goal that we’ve setup outside and it makes for a good time. Put the kids in front of it and just drive the balls at them as hard as you can - it really helps to destress (sarcasm if that’s not clear).
Seriously though, our kids have liked to play a lot more since we got the net. They like to both score and to stop their parents from scoring.
The other thing that we like to play is a good game of keep away. I’ll keep the ball away from the kids for a bit and then I’ll let them each have a turn. This helps to teach them a little bit of coordination, and learn to control a soccer ball.
Finally, we like to stand a ways away from each other and work on passing or kicking the ball to each other. This helps to teach them to play as teammates a little bit more and practice their kicking motion (which is generally straight on the toe).
Playing soccer inside
Make sure you have a soft ball to kick around, and that you’re not worried too much about anything. This can be a little more dangerous, but it can be fun.
We have two ways that we like to play. The first way is that we like to set a doorway as a goal and we try to kick the ball into that goal as many times as we can. We take turns with each of the kids to make sure they’re learning a little bit of sharing.
The other way we play soccer inside is a good game of keep-away. This is where things get a little dicey sometimes. One of the kids in the middle and then we kick the ball to the other player on the other side - this could be played outside as well.
Conclusion
While we’re generally not huge soccer players, we’ve been having a lot of fun getting out of the house when weather permits to get some much needed fresh air and exercise.
