It's The Most Activity-Laden Time Of The Year

Summer vacation has arrived for the kids, much to their relief. Although they began their academic careers in a year-round system, they have adapted quickly to the more traditional rhythms of late spring, marked by the joyous cries of school children raised microseconds after the sounding of the final bell of the school year.

What better way to kick off these happy days of newfound freedom, then, than to pile on more activities? Michael’s 45-minute afternoon swim team practices have turned into hour-long morning workouts. Both kids also have 20-minute one-on-one lessons in the afternoon this week. Michael has swim meets this Wednesday evening and Saturday morning; I will be working as a timer at both events.

On top of all that, Michael started rec-league basketball this week. The neighboring city of Lafayette puts on a short basketball league that shows a keen awareness of the lives people like us lead around here. Practices are scheduled for Saturday afternoons specifically to avoid interference with swim meets, and games are Monday nights, sufficiently late enough that the teams will have full parental support. The teams are also large enough that they can absorb the vacation schedules of the players without resulting in forfeitures.

Michael has never played organized basketball before, but has spent a lot of time in the last few days practicing. He can barely get a regulation size basketball up to the rim, but that hasn’t stopped him from shooting all afternoon at the hoop at the swim club. The work paid off; he had a very good debut at his team’s first game last night, scoring two-thirds of his team’s points. Of course, he only scored four points, but the six points his team scored were enough for a tied final score.

Michael had a great time, and showed some innate understanding of the game. He usually brought the ball up the court like a proper point guard, even walking it up casually away the truly arrogant great players do. He made the first shot of the game off of a series of crisp passes from his teammates, and later (much later) made the last basket for his team on a swished 10 foot jump shot from the corner that was truly impressive considering his tiny stature. Michael also showed a tenacity and willingness to challenge the ball on defense, while still staying in his assigned zone position, that he seldom showed when playing soccer. When the other five person unit from his team was on the floor, he was so into what was happening that he couldn’t sit down. Overall, his team of second-graders-to-be showed a lot more interest in passing then I would have expected, and chaotic though it was, the game was a lot of fun to watch.

An interesting dynamic we observed was that the kids quickly developed a sense of comfort with certain other kids on their team. Some boys would only pass to certain other boys, whereas the tallest player on the team, a girl from Michael’s class, probably received more passes than anybody on the team because she was a very visible target. We are hopeful that as the season goes on, they will learn to distribute the ball evenly, rather than look past teammates they don’t know to force a bad passes to their buddies.

This team has reinforced for us yet again what a different and pleasant experience it is to live and play in this relatively small and self-contained community. Michael knows half of the kids on his team already from school, which gives us yet another chance to get to know the parents better. We will see them at school, on other sports teams, at the swim club, at church, at stores or at parks around town. After many years in which sports were merely an outlet for the kids’ physical activity but never a social event, the integration between the kids’ sports and the rest of our lives as an entire family is a welcome development, and has been a crucial factor in our quick and enjoyable adjustment to living here.

The kids still have some free time in their schedules somehow, though. We’d better figure out a way to fill it up. I hear there may be a lacrosse summer league, or maybe origami lessons at the community center. Stanford doesn’t take slackers!