James will start preschool in September. This is something that makes me anxious. As the middle child he has a free spirit, to put the description of his character mildly, so confirming to rules and following instructions, I fear, are not his strong suit. So when Little Kickers contacted me about taking James, who will be three next month, to a few weekly classes, I knew it would be the perfect opportunity to ease him into the world of education, independence and group play. The fact that he got a kit with a t-shirt and his name on it was just icing on the cake.
I discovered Little Kickers, the world’s biggest and most successful pre-school football program, 8 years ago when Georgie was a toddler. He went to his first class when he was 18 months old, which is the youngest age a child can start attending. Those classes are called Little Kicks and are specifically designed to help 18 month old to 2 and a half year olds improve cognitive and social skills through play. I vividly remember Georgie just running around randomly, kicking the odd ball and collecting colourful cones. All the little ones were doing exactly the same thing. I instantly clicked with the positive no-pressure group environment.
I love how the coaches interact with the kids, greeting them with a big smile and always by their name, high-fiving them and acting silly to the point of ridiculous. Those little ones are laughing their heads off, you can tell they love every minute of the coaches’ funny animal imitations and pretend confusion of the placement of our nose, eyes and mouth. James is a reserved child but he couldn’t control himself once he started laughing and getting into it.
The 45-minute class includes two main activities and the kids’ favourite one, the penalty goals at the end. Between the activities, which I will get into shortly, they do warm-up sessions. We all sit in a circle and copy whatever the three coaches do like rub a football on your belly or tap it with your foot. Activities are designed with the purpose of learning through play and every week it’s something different. For instance, standing in a line, we await instructions to collect all the yellow marker cones placed on the floor and put them on the traffic cones of the same colour. In another activity, which was James’s favourite and the first time he let go of my hand, we run to and from four different-coloured circles pretending to go to bed or wakeup and wash up and eat breakfast. He loves the ball collecting part, careful to separate between the small balls and the bigger ones when placing them in the big black bags the coaches are holding, pretending to be crocodile mouths.
Notice I use the word ‘we’ alot. That’s because within James’s age group ( 2 and a half to 3 and a half) it’s entirely ok if your child isn’t ready to let go of your hand and head into a pitch with people he or she doesn’t know. So you, the parent or guardian, are encouraged to join in. James has completed six weeks of Little Kickers classes and loved every one of them because I was there with him, right beside him, running, jumping and kicking. It hasn’t been easy for me, as a mum of three. Arranging babysitting for the others or often bringing them with me plus another adult to watch Danny, who is 16 months old, has been totally worth it. Without even planning it, I got to spend time with my middle child, just him and me and do some serious bonding that does happen as often as it should.
Back in 2015, Georgie started weekly Little Kickers classes, soon after we enrolled him in preschool. He was four years old. We would go every Thursday to a LK class after picking him up from school and taking him out for a quick lunch. We would go somewhere different every week. We did that up until I became pregnant with Danny, baby boy number three, and Georgie was seven years old. He has such fond memories of those classes and still loves playing football AND is actually really good at it too. You can read more about our experience back then here.
Georgie played his way from Mighty Kickers, the 3 and a half until 5 year old group, to the Mega Kickers group, 5 years old until 7th birthday. By the end, he was playing 15-minute games and feeling proud of himself. I know he would have loved to have had the quarterly badges that all kids now receive to show the key physical, cognitive and football skills they have learned. Such a confidence booster to be able to show to family and friends. James looked forward to the stamps and stickers all the children get at the end of the lesson. I will never forget the look on his face when he got two golden stars for helping to tidy up after class one day.
Without meaning to label my child, earlier in this post I used the word ‘reserved’ to describe James, to get a point across. That point being that it takes alot to get a reaction from him especially a truly fantastic one. He has never participated in weekly classes for anything so to have his first experience be such a positive one, makes me so happy. Thank you Little Kickers for this opportunity, truly.
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To find out more about Little Kickers and where you can find a class near you click on to their website.
You can also find them on Facebook and Instagram.
This post was sponsored by Little Kickers Cyprus, a small business I fully support.
