Thursday, February 16, 2017

Dodge Ball With Cops and Co-ops?

When we moved to NC last summer, my 9 yo needed some way to engage with our new community.  We were all a bit adrift, looking for ways to network with local homeschoolers.

At that time, my son was really in to dodge ball. I think he had played it at boy scouts one night just before we moved and he LOVED it.  He kept asking me if we could play.  I bought some dodge balls like these and we would play as a family on the neighborhood tennis court,  but that wasn't cutting it for him! He wanted the real deal!

After looking around and not finding an existing dodge ball game/team for kids, I offered to organize one.  We could make some friends in the process, right?  The problem was finding a place where we could play for free.  That's always the catch.  We like things to be f.r.e.e. as often as possible.  :)
 With the help of a local HS mom, I was able to locate an open gym time at a community center. They would accommodate our activity for free...ahhh..the magic word!

 I looked up "how to play dodge ball" on you tube and learned some basic rules. (It had been eons since I had really played!) and invited the HS community to just come play!  Well, it was a huge hit.  6 months later, word has spread and we are getting a turn out of about 30-40 kids.  This has forced me to be a bit more organized and enlist the help of more parents to keep the games running smoothly, but it's been great.

Today we had a really cool treat during doge ball.  During one of the games I noticed to officers standing in the doorway watching.  At first, I was like, "Oh no, is there something sketchy going on that we should know about? Why are they scouting out the community center?"  But they seemed to be totally at ease.  So I asked them if they had time to join in on the fun, and sure enough, they did!  It was a fun treat for the co-op kids to play dodge ball with the cops today!  Pretty awesome.

Sorry that my pictures are NOT pretty awesome.  I was busy reffing the game, holding a toddler on my hip, and catching some action shots on my broken cell phone all at the same time.  Don't you love it?