Just a few weeks ago, our kids started a new school year. Here in Guatemala, our school year runs from the middle of January until about the end of October.
Our Guatemala summer, aka dry season, begins just as school ends for the year, giving us great weather for the kids’ school break and the Christmas holiday.
Soccer rules
Anyone who has ever visited our home, even just once, knows how much our boys love soccer. It’s their life. When any free moment appears, they play soccer even if it means using a basketball or volleyball.
Every year during school break, our boys head off to soccer camp. It’s the highlight of their break. They suit up every morning and head off for hours of soccer—footwork, endurance, teamwork, and most of all, FUN. Plus, they get to see friends they might otherwise miss over the break.
We often wonder if they’ll ever get tired of going to the same camp each year, but so far there’s no end in sight for soccer camp. (It’s also a good way to keep improving their skills to beat mission teams.)
A house full of gymnasts
For a while when our girls were younger they enjoyed playing dress-up and staging performances in our backyard. In the last few years, they’ve moved on to gymnastics.
While the boys were headed off to soccer camp, our younger girls set off to gymnastics classes. Some of our girls have been going for several years. They amaze us with their stunts. Of course, they also scare us a little bit because who doesn’t worry just a little bit when someone starts to bend backward?
For our little girls like Jimena, gymnastics is exciting. She gets out of the house and heads to a place where running and jumping is not only allowed, but encouraged. We’ve never seen Jimena get out of bed and get ready so easily. There’s no morning fight when gymnastics class is on the schedule!
New routines for our oldest kids
Even our oldest kids found new activities to keep themselves busy this year. Although our oldest kids work part-time during school breaks, they also found time to visit the gym most days.
Our new gym has an amazing number of activities, equipment, and classes for the kids to choose from. Brayan likes doing “guy stuff” at the gym. You know what we mean—weights and classes to make him even stronger. Our girls on the other hand enjoy the dance classes.
Isn’t it funny how exercise can be disguised as fun?
For Silvia, the biggest draw was the gym’s pool. She loves to swim, but until we joined this gym having the chance to swim regularly was almost impossible. Over the break, she swam almost every day.
Sun. Fun. Friends. Memories. Is this what summer’s all about?