In a Pickle

I am not one to over schedule kids or keep them too busy in extra-curricular activites. On the other hand, I think it is important for kids to have something. An area to develop, explore interest, gain social skills etc. Obviously there needs to be a balance. We started off slowly in adding activites to our schedules. Last Fall, while still in Ontario, we introduced the boys to a 10 week period of swimming lessons which was positive, not to mention the church activites they were involved in.

This year, we have added more but it is balanced out by not having the same church involvements. Besides all taking swimming lessons, Jacob is taking drum lessons, Julia ballet and Joel hockey.

So here's the dilema;

Joel is undeniably gifted in sports, especially hockey. Not only is he good, he is very passionate about it. During his two years in Kindergarten (JK & SK), his teachers spoke to us about his talent, gave him above average marks in phys. ed. and encouraged us to give him the opportunity to let him develop his gift, aka organized sports.

We just proudly said "thank-you" and went on our way.

After watching hin with a stick and ball over the summer we gave it some thought and looked into "little tikes hockey". Although a bit expensive, with tweaking our budget, it would be managble because of his young age. Jacob, who also wanted to play, and is quite a good goalie I might add, cost 2 1/2 times more than Joel (we defered him to drums where he is more gifted anyway. He keeps saying, "remember how good I was on Matt's drum at Madawaska?").

We decided to take the plunge and sign Joel up in hockey for a one year trial. We took him to "Play it Again" and got him outfitted, and Steve took him skating a couple of times to get used to skates since he has never been on them before (yes, he mastered it).

He's all set to go except for one little problem which, being new to all this, we didn't think of. 35-50% of his games will be on Sundays. To anyone else this would be no big deal, but to us (considering we are pastors and work every Sunday), it is a problem. If they are at 6 am or in the afternoon, we'll be fine but that is not too likely.

Now we are left with decisions to make.

Do we pull him out all together, lose money on the non-refundables and deny him this opportunity?

Do we keep him in where he will only be able to play up to half the games?

You see, this is when you need an uncle, or grandpa close to fill in the voids.

I think we'll end up doing the half season thing. Such is life.