‘Parentemonials’: Lisa
From feeling left out, to finding his game! A practical impact story 🙌🏽
🏀 Ilya discovers basketball, gets better at soccer, and makes new friends in his first year of the Free to Play program. He even now plays with kids he didn’t get along with last year, all while building confidence in the after school program that exposes him to a bunch of new sports.
💛 Lisa is grateful for Free Play for Kids, and we are extremely grateful hearing about Illya’s development into a confident, and curious young person.
💙 A big thank-you to the City of Edmonton for continued support providing caring coaches, in safe spaces, for kids to PLAY·GROW·BELONG!
Lisa’s Parentemonial Transcript
Which he keeps showing up for, even though he feels like that—which is, you know, amazing. I’m so happy.
Hello, I’m Lisa. I have one kid in Free Play. His name is Ilya. He’s really, really, really happy to participate.
For him, last year, he had a hard time with a couple of the students that are in Free Play. And in this program, he plays with them this year now. So this is really, you know, I’m like, “Oh, so you guys play together now?” He’s like, “Yeah, we’re friends now.” In the program they’re playing together, which is amazing. That’s something very positive I notice—and same with him, obviously.
It’s different kinds of games that he wouldn’t usually play because, you know, he thinks he’s bad at soccer, for example. But he just hasn’t played enough for him to find out if he’s good or bad. Now he really likes basketball. We just learned that through this program, which was great.
He keeps showing up even though he feels like that—which is, you know, amazing. I’m so happy. I know he’s not going to be good at everything. I keep telling him, “You just started doing these things. So of course you’re not going to be at the same level as the other children, but you’ll get there.” And he keeps showing up, and that’s all I can ask for.
Our ✨ Parentemonials 💫 series will focus on sharing stories from families that benefit from Free Play For Kids!
