Basketball Camp {A "meh" experience}

 First off, I'm not sure why my pictures are fuzzy.  Grrr!

Okay, anyway, in an effort to keep us busy this summer, and expose Kate to different things, we signed her up for a few camps through our local rec center.  Earlier she took gymnastics, and swimming lessons.

Mike and I suggested she do a basketball camp since she's shown interest in it once or twice.

We were excited for her to try something new, and to get out of the house on these hot summer days.

It didn't exactly go as planned.

Kate is a very shy person by nature, so the first day was tough for her.  She cried and didn't want to go out and warm up with the other kids.

Granted, the class consisted of six boys ranging in age from 5 to 10, a 13 year old girl and her.  I wouldn't have felt comfortable either.

I don't know WHY they lumped all those age groups together.

Also,  the child-size hoop was broken, so these little kids were trying to shoot into a 10 foot-professional-scale hoop.  Hello!  Talk about setting them up for failure.

 However, despite these obstacles, Kate seemed to enjoy herself (post freak-out).

She really took to dribbling, and was even determined to make a basket.

 We returned on Tuesday, and waited for the rest of the class.  And waited.  And waited.

Turns out the other parents weren't too thrilled with the structure of the camp either, and nobody came back.

Well, except for the 13 year old girl and her 10 year old brother who, by the way, were really really good.

So here was Kate with these two older kids and a coach who left the court for several minutes at a time.

It was weird.

Kate's class in its entirety

 Kate was a really great sport (for the most part) and dutifully dribbled around the court, and tried her darndest to shoot a basket while the coach and the older kids played games.

But there's only so much dribbling and shooting that a six year old can do for three hours each day.

She spent a lot of time on the bench with me, feeling kind of sad and out of place.

I don't blame her one bit.

To his credit, the coach did teach her some things and was a nice enough guy, but there was a lot of sitting around.

By Wednesday we called our losses and left early.  And didn't go back yesterday or today.

Am I instilling bad habits in my daughter by allowing her to quit early?

Probably.

But seriously, I can watch her dribble a ball on the back porch... for free!

And yes, I plan to call and complain to the rec center about this camp.

It was just not executed very well.

And that's too bad.

But we're not going to stop working with her.

I think she's actually got a little bit of talent in this area!

P.S.

Dylan was enthralled with the whole thing!  The first day I tried my best to keep him off the court while the class was going on.

But the second and third day, I just let him run around with everyone.  It's not like there were tons of other kids in the way, right?

I can't wait to get him involved in sports too!