Both Shealyn and Carter are participating in battle of the books and I am co coaching both teams. Well, yesterday was Carter’s competition! I was nervous, he was excited! A nervousness only because I didn’t know exactly what to expect and also wondering if I had my team prepared enough.
First, let me fill you in a little bit about what takes place during the competition. The whole competition is a SILENT competition! Carter’s age group had 12 books to work with. The very first thing they had to do was work together to match all the titles with the correct authors. They did that no problem. Then the questions started. A sample question might be:
In which book was there a character named Mr. Drysdale?
Then the kids would silently point to the correct title card and when time was called the captain would hold up the teams answer. If it was right they got 15 points, if it was wrong they got the big ZERO!! There were a total of 80 questions with a short intermission after 40. My team had aced the first half. I was so excited for them and so proud of them!!! As a matter of fact, one of the judges came up to me and asked me if I had been up all night grilling Carter? Nope, he’s just a Type A kind of boy! He was totally in his element! I was judging at another table, but found myself and every other coach who was judging looking to their tables to see how our respective teams were faring. Because, I was judging it was hard to tell exactly how my team was doing in comparison to others, but I knew we were doing well. Anyway, we ended up missing 5 in the 2nd half and 5 for our total. We tied for 2nd place! I went over to my team after the tally and the first team had been announced and saw a couple forlorn faces. I let them all know how proud I was of them, all the awesome teamwork they had and to let them know we tied for 2nd. Well, this wasn’t good enough for 2 little boys, mine being one of them. Carter was more mad because he was sure they only missed 3 and that the judges scored them wrong. So, tears ensued for both Carter and mom. My heart was breaking for him because he worked really hard to prepare for this and I would have put him up against any kid in there (including the 2nd graders) and am confident he would have held his own. My captain was a little down also. The captain’s mom and myself made very certain to let each of our kids know how awesome they did, how proud of all the hard work they put in, how amazing their teamwork was and how proud we were that they didn’t talk for 60 minutes. Not an easy feat on the latter. I took Carter back to his class as he was trying to get his emotions in check. I wondered about him all day.
He was in a much better frame of mind after school. He was showing off his medal to Shealyn’s teacher (I forgot to mention each child got a medal just for participating) and telling her that his team only missed 5 out of 80 and that was really good! Yes it is little man!!
His disappointments are going to be so much harder to take because I know he has very high expectations of himself and is passionate about most things he chooses to get involved in. I also know these are life lessons and good lessons. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t mean that I won’t get emotional right along with him. After all—he is my 1 and only boy and my one and only Mr. Carter!
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