u/Remarkable-Air3604

Any suggestions? My daughter is almost 9 and seems to have a knack for dribbling straight into opponents. She can usually pass before she loses the ball, but I think it’s a scanning issue. Maybe this just needs to develop with experience. I figured I’d ask here though in case anyone has advice.

Hi all - ok, so I start my practices with kids playing 1v1 or 2v2 as they come in on mini-pitches, then once everyone is there (usually 10 after), they get water and we do a quick skills session. Nothing complicated. Same thing every week. We quickly run through bells, toe taps, pull backs, bouncing the ball on the thigh, and sole roll from one foot to the other. I feel like these are basic, and by the end of the season, maybe they’ll all get them all. We also do one skill for them to practice every week (dribble around a cone, tap the ball with the outside of the foot back and forth, this week they’ll tap with the inside, then outside of right foot).

It takes me maybe 5 minutes, and my asst coach and I give pointers to the kids, and we move on. Half the kids are into it and are learning. Half goof off. If they goof off, frankly, I redirect once, then just let them and focus on the kids that want to learn. It’s way too distracting to try to chase down the kids that are goofing off and honestly, they’re kids and they’re there to have fun, so if for 5 minutes they want to tune me out, it’s ok. My personal belief is that too many kids come through rec with no foot skills (this was a problem w my daughter, and I was her rec coach so it was my fault - she caught up with privates and is in club now).

Would anyone handle this differently? I hate to scrap it, and I also don’t want to be that coach that yells at everyone to pay attention.

This is a team defined by their age being 6 on Sept 1, all 6 year olds. I’m a rec coach who never played, but this is my 8th team, 6th season, older kid plays club.

Had our first practice yesterday, ended with kids v parents - got 13 great little kids. However, everyone hates defense and it devolved into clustery ball.

Our games are 9v9 w goalie. This is always a struggle, especially at this age. I really flounder through positioning every season. Yes, I know it’s too many kids on the field. Yes, I’ve brought it up w the city many times. No, no one cares to change.

I think for games, I’m going to have 2 strikers, 3 midfield, 3 defense. In the past, I’ve tried to have kids play almost equal time in defense and offense.

My thought is to do a lot of 2v1s to teach passing and off ball movement, and scrimmage 5v5 (2-2-1) just to try to get them used to the different lines. For games, I’m going to try to keep kids on the same side of the field for the season (ie, 2-3 will be CM/CB, 2-3 RW/R “full back”, 2-3 LW/L “full back”, and I’ll just try to rotate everyone through striker and goalie). The math is always a challenge bc everyone plays 3/4.

Practice structure:

1. Arrival-15 min, 2 simultaneous games building from 1v1 as kids arrive
2. 15-30 min warm-up drills (toe tap, tick tock, juggling on thigh, pull back, sole roles, stopping a bouncing ball, dribble around the field)
3. 30-45 min: Small sided games splitting team w asst coach
4. 45-end: alternating 5v5 and kids v parents

Thoughts? I did this age group with my older kid and did too many games (like islands, sharks and minnows, clear the yard, etc) and not enough actual playing soccer, so they didn’t really understand the game come game days.

I also gave each of the kids two cones and I’m trying to send out a video of my older daughter doing one footwork drill each week for them to practice on the cones. I may ask them to show me their skills when they arrive for a treat, but I don’t necessarily want them to necessarily feel bad for not doing homework.

We shall see. My hope is that this is my best and most productive coaching season.

Trying to breed Apistogramma borellii to study the effect of temperature on sexual differentiation. Posted on this last week… it may not work out but we have 4 months for the fry to be sexable. If it fails, whateves. We have a backup project.

I have a 5 gallon tank per pair, rocky caves for privacy, some real plants for ambiance, and tons of dry sea monkey eggs.

So… am I really feeding these fish sea monkeys? 3 times a day? Like… how do I do this? Does the salt of the brine shrimp water negatively impact the cichlid water? Do I get a mesh or something to strain the shrimp from the water? How old should the shrimp be?

I’m also changing 10% of the water every week?

I need these fish to fall in love and fast.

Hi -

I read that when Apistogramma** **cichlids breed, the sex of the offspring is highly dependent on the temperature of the water. Does anyone have experience with this? Is it a significant effect?

Hi - I grew up in and returned home to League City to raise my family. My kids are currently in CCISD elementary school - Ferguson. I think it’s ok, but not great. I actually homeschooled them last year but returned them this year because they were lonely. We have a good friend group, but I’ve been debating moving to Friendswood, particularly in the area near Cline Elementary, for better schools. One thing that I haven’t liked so far is how reliant CCISD is on screens. It really bothers my daughter, who loves to read but hates so much reading on the computer screen. We are currently districted into a horrible middle school (Clear Creek Intermediate), so we need to move before my kids get to 6th grade - either to be put into a better middle school in CCISD or to FISD.

Any thoughts out there about difference in schools?

Also, as a random aside, we rarely see bats where we live in League City - but is it a problem in Friendswood? We had friends that rented a house in Forests of Friendswood and had to leave because the garage was colonized by bats.

Ok, so this will be season 8 for me coaching, second time around with the 6 year olds. I’m embarrassed to say that I learned way too late with my older kid’s team (now u9, but disbanded) the proper form for dribbling in a line - ie, with the pinky toe or top and outside of the foot (is that right??).

In the spring, for my u6 team, I mostly just let them dribble as they wanted to, but now - should I correct their form? It’s such an awkward motion but they need to get it down, right?

Also… I know this forum hates cone drills, but I just feel like if I can keep them in groups of 3 with my assistant coach (husband) and maybe a parent, isn’t it worth it to try to teach them how to use the inside and outside of their foot and sole rolls? Maybe some relays?

I know these younger ages are all about fun, and I always played all the games with the kids, but frankly, because I didn’t know what I was doing, my older kid’s team lost so much, it wasn’t enjoyable for the kids. I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know until my older kid went to club. When her team was 6, though, we got a lot of attrition and crying at games because of losses. Our league also allows teams to stay together, and parents to pick teams, and like 3 of the other coaches played div 1 or some high level soccer so those teams are impossible to beat. I’m just a parent, just coaching because league needs volunteers.

Yet another year though, I’m trying to figure out how to do things better. I think dribbling drills/games, maybe shooting drills/games, and a lot of 3v3 and 1v1 is my plan.

We get 1 mandatory practice per week. I usually offer Sunday practices too, but these are rarely well attended.

We’ll see.

Thoughts? Advice?

Thanks so much in advance.

Hi guys - I post a fair amount during soccer seasons. I coach rec but my daughter, who is now u9, plays club and will (for the first time!) be on someone else’s rec team.

She’s a super athletic kid, and coaches generally love her. She’s played soccer since she was 5, but was always our goalie on rec. Consequently, she was a little delayed in developing on the field, but caught up last year. When she moved to club, she cycled between goalie and defense (7v7), but they tend to put her in defense more, even though she’s better (I think) at goalie.

Anyways, although she does very well in technical drills, when she plays on the field, she just gives up too easily or satellites too much. I think part of this is that she doesn’t like contact, but the other part is she just doesn’t have an aggressive mindset. If she recognizes the ball is coming to her side of the field, she usually gets it out, but she tends to pass quickly and avoid dribbling. If the ball is in the middle, she tends to hang back and let her co-defender get it. Idk. I think it’s a mindset issue. It’s frustrating to watch because I think she could be a better player, and she really likes soccer, she just doesn’t really like to get in the scrum and quickly gives up under pressure.

Thoughts? Am I just being too whiny?

Hey guys

I just got a bunch of tapestries from dharma but I’m a little bummed that they’re kind of taupe.

Can I bleach them to white? Will that ruin the fabric somehow? Do I use OWB? Bleach?

I also have blank tapestries from Amazon that are white, but the material feels stiffer and I don’t know that I trust them… my last tapestry was an Amazon one, but idk if it took the dye as well as I hoped.

Also - can/should I stitch on corner hangers to sell these things?

I wouldn’t care but I want to do a really intricate design that’s going to take me a long time to tie… just trying to mitigate disappointment

Hi internet strangers - looking for thoughts here.

This is inspired by someone else posting that as long as there is family helping parents stay in their home, they won’t leave. I realized I am that family.

I’m 42, married w 2 kids, md by trade but currently working as a consultant and not practicing. I work from home with a good income and decent savings.

My parents are 74. My mom went through treatment for 2 advanced cancers, and surprisingly does pretty well. My dad had a stroke 3 years ago that took out his memory center. He rallied for a year or two, but now is having progressive dementia and mobility issues. He can get very mean. Walker dependent. My mom cared for her own mom through her cancer treatment, until my GMA died at 96. Culturally, we look down upon putting people in nursing homes.

From the time my mom got her first cancer diagnosis 8 years ago, we were very involved in her and my dad’s life. My job then was 5 hours away, and we drove home w my daughter (who was a baby) every weekend or every other weekend for 5 years for moral support.

When I left my practice, I moved my family in with my parents while I got settled in my new role, and have been trying to wait out the housing market prices and interest rates, but frankly, I think they are what they are. Sadly, as time has gone on, I’ve become more nervous about moving out and leaving my parents, even to move to another house in the same neighborhood (truly I think we’d move about 30 min away to a better school district). My mom hires “helpers” to do all sorts of stuff for her - odd jobs, keep my dad company, lawn care, pool care, pet care, etc. We temporarily moved out after a fight once, though, and she hired this drug addict to be her 40 hr/week gopher. I chased that lady out and moved back in.

I don’t really know what to do. My husband (and I) are concerned that my parents needs are eclipsing my kids’. It helps a little bit to not have a mortgage, but not enough to compromise the kids childhood. As my dad has gotten worse, I’ve gotten nervous that one day he might do something that hurts the kids. The scariest things have been like… ignoring a large dead possum in the garage near the outdoor freezer where they kept food. I didn’t go out there for weeks then finally went and immediately recognized something large was dead. They insisted it was just a dead rat and I should just let it “dry up.” I called an exterminator who pulled it from behind a workbench and disposed of it. Then my mom took tools from said workbench and put it in a kitchen drawer. My husband is full time SAH, so he ends up being a “helper” too and somewhat keeps an eye on them.

Idk. I feel like both they and us would be a little lonely if we moved away, but I don’t want my kids getting hurt by living with a dementia patient. There have also been terrible, terrible fights. My parents have also had health crises every 6 months that my husband and I navigate. My gut is that once we leave, they have 2-3 years tops in this home. Really, they should downsize. It’s 5,000 sqft, and before we moved in, they had allowed a horrible rat infestation to overtake the attic.

It’s such a mess.

It’s even worse bc we wanted to raise our kids in New England, but instead we’re in Texas. I actually told my husband we would only live down here for 5 years, and that was 8 years ago.

Hey guys - has anyone tried this? I basically want a few bright lines in the dye, so my thought was to batik wax the lines, tie dye as per usual, then boil off the wax and probably dye over the lines with a bright color.

This should work, right? I know some ppl boil their dyes to remove all excess dye… I personally use really hot water as a final wash.

Hi homeschool friends - you guys helped me last year and I had a great academic year homeschooling my kinder kid and 2nd grader. Socially though, they got lonely so I let them go back to our public school for the last month of school to play with other kids.

It’s time again for school to start up. I’m very conflicted.

3rd grader - already an excellent reader, plowed through like 10 chapter books this summer, good with math but needs some help - loves the social aspects of school but screens hurt her eyes and we’re very screen heavy in our district.

1st grader - desperately needs friends. I’m wiling to overlook the fact that he’s already on 2nd-3rd grade math just so he can go make friends.

My daughter does competitive gymnastics and soccer, and swimming. We maintained some school friendships last year. I just felt bad that she missed out on some of the parties and seasonal stuff at school, plus recess.

My son swims and does boyscouts.

We did a fun Friday coop last year which was ok, but not great. It was only 5 kids in with both of mine, many of whom were younger. We also did open gym twice a week at our local gymnastics center, but again, so few kids there…

Idk. There’s no easy answers. There are no accessible low screen schools near us - closest is like 30-40 min away and downtown, plus private schools run 15-30k/kid. I really don’t like our public school in terms of safety and academics (we’re in Texas, not far from a mass shooting), but I know and love the families in our school community. A lot of great people.

We’re also live with my elderly parents, who need help but will not move, and this complicates things.

I guess my plan is to just let my daughter start 3rd grade, maybe try some eyedrops or blue screen reducing glasses, and pull her if she wants to come out?

My son would be glued to a screen if we let him. I’m conflicted about asking them to test him for 2nd grade given where he is, but he’s socially a bit immature.

Not sure what I’m looking for here, I guess just using yall as a sounding board.

Hi guys - for those of you who do galaxies and paint on little white stars - what are you using for this? I tried jacquard’s white fabric paint but it’s not opaque enough? Idk. Hoping for suggestions to cut out some of the trial and error.

Are they substantially different? I have Amazon ones but I hate to do the work to tie and dye it if it’s a low quality linen. Does it make any difference?