Lil' Strikers teaches more than just soccer skills

Lil' Strikers is more than just soccer lessons - the classes teach kids 18 months to 9 years coordination, listening skills and most importantly (to me) balance through fun games and activities with their parent/caregiver and/or peers. If you're looking for an activity for your kids this year when they are back in school, this could definitely be it.

You know how when you were younger your mom yelled at you, "One day I hope you have a kid just like you!" when you did something wrong or said something that upset her? My Mom never said that to me about my absolute worst fear - that Hannah will be as klutzy as I was am. (Although I do also fear all the times my Mom used that line in regards to my behaviour.)

When I was two, I walked into a wall. When I was 24, I found a letter from my paediatrician about the incident which stated I have a balance problem and injuries resulting from my lack of balance would plague me my entire life (or that's what she wrote in layman's terms). I don't know where that doctor is now, but she was correct. And maybe if Lil' Strikers had existed when I was little my parents would never had to go through that ordeal (or have a whole photo album of me looking like a raccoon).

This past weekend Chris, Hannah and I were able to attend an open house at the Lil' Strikers GTA at their Soccerworld (on Cherry Street) location. There was a clown who did face painting and balloon animals, a colouring station, obstacle courses and of course, the biggest pull, the chance to try out a class.

Hannah JUST squeezed in to their age requirements at 18.5 months. She was barely walking six weeks ago, so it was pretty impressive to see her running around in an uber cute soccer jersey, dropping then catching a soccer ball.

In our class, we had two coaches who were amazing with our daughter. They were friendly and upbeat and kept the class moving at a good pace, realizing the limitations of their players' attention spans.

We began by sitting in a circle, and after grabbing a ball, practiced holding the ball with one foot.

Then we moved on to a game of Red Light, Green Light to practice our running.

We pretended that the field dividers were a piano and a drum.

Afterwards, soft balls came out and we practiced our kicking.

Another kicking activity (and my personal fave) was the tower of cones. We helped Hannah build a tower as tall as her, but she didn't really understand she was supposed to kick it and sort of just pushed it down with her hands (Chris thinks she wants to be a goaltender).

It was then time for what was clearly Hannah's favourite part of the class - the parachute. The coaches and parents/caregivers gave the kids a ride on top of the parachute. With the look of happy entitlement on Hannah's face as we moved her slowly around, I seriously thought she might put her hand up and give a royal wave. She also really enjoyed running underneath the parachute as we held it up, running to different colours the coaches called out.

It was a fun class that engaged Hannah and left Chris and I sweating. As you can see, the class assisted Hannah with her balance (hooray!), coordination and listening skills as she moved from activity to activity. She practiced her colours, her motor skills and socialized with other children.

I can't wait to see how much progress Hannah makes this fall. (And it excites me to no end I can join her in a sport without having to get her out of a wet bathing suit at the end.) My greatest hope is that Hannah will have better balance than me, which might just be the case when she graduates from the Bunnies class!

Registration is open now and classes start Sept. 5th.

We received a free class for the purpose of this review. As always, all opinions on this blog are my own.

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