Phew!

I'm tired! Five of my children competed in a chess tournament at the local Catholic school.   We all earned medals, but no one placed first or second, which would have earned a trophy.

It was a huge meet! I think there were 80 kids (well, I thought there might be 20 kids or so, so 80 was a surprise to me) competing.  It lasted 3 hours. Apparently these things can last much longer, but the schedule said it would be over in 2 hours, so again, I was taken by surprise.

Now, I really don't relish being negative, and I know that chess in general is a great game and that many of the children present were good kids.  Still, I hadn't been in a school setting in a while.  I realize that during school hours these children are quietly settled into classes of 20 or so children, and cafeteria scenes are notoriously...busy.  Honestly, I was overwhelmed (and for what it's worth, I am an alumni of the school we were at).  The noise was just something a homeschooler doesn't hear outside of sporting events.  It is always of interest for me to observe the behavior of children at large.  Everyone has seen, and probably been approached by, the extroverted child who will come up to any strange adult and start  chatting as if you are his favorite aunt or babysitter.  One child came up to a mom-not his own-who was helping to run the chess meet today and asked her for "fifty monies" (he wanted $0.50 to buy candy for sale).   I take this as one of "those kids" who haven't been taught proper social protocol by their parents in general and I don't blame it on any school in particular.  But then there's this other dynamic.

School kids typically won't run and shout the way home schooled kids might when they get together and, say, break into a game of football in a random living room until they are kicked out of doors.  They do tend to cluster together and talk in a "crowded" manner at each other....incessantly. To wit, I sent my kids to a side table where some other kids were practicing chess before the meet began.   I told them to scout out the competition. We had about 15 minutes before the sessions started.  After just a minute my 8 year old came back and said he heard one kid say, "your gonna loose, you're dumb" and another child said, "shut up, you're stupid."  Right. Now, I know very well that not all children who go to school speak this way, and my own children have used words like "dumb" or "stupid" in their lives, yes they have.  But...typically, if a mother were present during such speech, she would correct it.  As there are no parents around to hear these things in the crowded groups in these types of settings, this type of speech becomes typical, perhaps "the norm".

We got our medals at the end of the meet. I spoke with some friends and truly enjoyed my conversations.  My children enjoyed the tough competition.  When I came home, however, and saw our lonely wooden chess board on our dining room table, the board my kids had been playing each other on for days in preparation for the tournament, I just couldn't help but have a surge of relief and joy.  I was just so happy to have that as our typical environment within which to play.  Oh I was glad to be out of that cafeteria! I am so happy to be at home with my family.  I'm grateful.