This and That

I was asked yesterday if I was wanting to work full time at the girls' school. The autism teacher said she'd love to have me working in her program. I don't have any desire to work a full time job. But I asked her about part time. She said there's a possibility that I could work with Buddy part time. Hmmm.... She wants me to think about it and let her know. Part time is about 15 hours per week and it would allow me time to write, do household stuff, and still volunteer if I want to. I think it would work and the regular fun money income would be super! I think that I will talk to the teacher about it some more. I guess the bottom line is that if I can work the hours I want with the child I want then I'll do it. If not, I'll stick with subbing. I'll keep you posted.

Guess what happens this weekend. It's a holiday weekend during soccer season so that means a tournament! Katie's team will play four games in two days and possibly advance to the finals on Monday. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend three of the four games. That's alright though. Ed's dad is coming into town and Katie will love having Grandpa Cook there. The next game Allison has will be against a team whose coach is quite intense. She's all about structure and rules and having preschool/kindergartners play like they're 12 instead of 4,5,&6. She likes to keep three defensive players at half field and three offensive down the other half. I don't do that. I tried it, but I found that my kids are more engaged in the game if they can run after the ball no matter which half of the field it is on. When I was playing with a defense they all stood there, scared to cross the line and not really sure what to do when the ball came at them. Forget it. Isn't the point to touch the ball as much as possible and be involved in the game? That's my philosophy. I've discussed this with the league director who supports my game style 100%. I wanted to make sure that my style was o.k. with him and he actually said he'd talk to other coaches and tell them to forget the defense/offense players at this level. I'm not sure whether he did or not but I have a feeling that this other coach won't care either way. So, I'm dreading the next game just a little. I'm pretty laid back out there on the field. I follow basic rules for out of bounds, like throw ins, corner kicks, and goal kicks. We also start with a kick off after each goal. That's about it. They'll get the other stuff as they move up in the program. They'll be ready for it then. And let's face it, the difference between a 3 or 4 year old and a 6 year old is pretty significant so it's important to do what works best for the whole team taking into consideration each players abilities and skills. Wow, that was a lot of blah, blah, blah!!!

I get to do another home visit for Labs 4 Rescue either today or tomorrow. There seems to be quite a few people in our area adopting from them! I'm psyched about that! It also seems that I'm the only one in our area able to do home visits - that's okay. I like being able to be part of helping a homeless lab find his new family :)

Time to get to work writing. Lots of ideas swirling around in my head - got to get them on paper!! Happy Thursday!