Knowing Is Half The Battle

Today Jared competed in his first school district annual “Knowledge Bowl.”  Each year the district assigns a category of miscellaneous information for the kids to study, from which a series of questions (a grade level higher than they currently are in) are drawn.  This year’s category was Science.   This is new to me, since Jared is our oldest.  So, what happens is there are teams from various elementary schools in the district that meet at one school in four different classrooms, and challenge one another.  There is a moderator and formal parental  judges; one from each team.  It was a big deal, and in hind sight, I wish I had helped Jared more. 

The questions were difficult.  Each kid sat at a table with a buzzer and buzzed in; Jeopardy style.The kids were nervous.  You could see on their faces, at times, that they knew the answers, but were intimidated.    From our school there were two teams; one which seemed a bit more prepared than the other.  Jared belonged to the latter.  They did put up a good fight though and Jared by far scored the most points for his team, of all the members!  Overall, I think, he had a fun time.  The hardest thing in life is to not give up when we face challenges and I felt bad that by the middle of the fourth round, Jared’s team pretty much felt defeated.  He wanted to mope and give up.  I do wish our two teams were a bit better balanced, but its made me resolved to help him get ready for next year’s competition, which category is a little more in my ballpark……Art!

I have to admit feeling a bit guilty I didn’t spend time with him studying for this.  Part of me feels like I let him down.  Honestly, he’s been struggling a bit with his regular assignments in math and by the time I spend my afternoon going through homework and some days, piano with both older boys, along with Scott’s review of the alphabet, I’m a bit overwhelmed.  I kept trying to get him to prioritize the more important; his math, but he’s definitely had the Knowledge Bowl on his mind and took it upon himself to cut up his flashcards and study.  So, what he had to show for himself today was all him!  We are proud of our boy!