Field day

No photos this year, but C6 had field day. Hot, but not TOO hot. A nice breeze. Talking to her teacher yesterday I was told C6 was on a team with an extra person, so if she didn't participate it wasn't a big deal. Ug. C6 has a reputation for not participating in athletic things.

And in fact, C6 started off not trying at all. Of the first three stations, she tried at one. The egg and spoon she was interested in, and lined up first to participate. Never mind that she was slowest AND the first to break her egg, she at least was DOING it. However, during the sack race she put the sack on her head, twirled, and generally hung around on the field. During the soccer kick she went off toward a tree at a snail's pace, with not a care that she was supposed to be headed toward the cone. The teacher finally kicked the ball down with her and C6 just had to run. All the other kids in her line were yelling at her and then groaning, "WHAT is she DOING???" and "I KNEW we didn't want C6 on our team"

So, after that I told her if she didn't start trying I'd not come to field day again. I told her she didn't have to be good, or the best, she just had to put forth some effort. Or this was my last field day. And she'd have to join a soccer team.

That really did shape her up. She tried hard to roll the tire (badly, and with help from an aid, but she did it), she joined in with the football run (she came in last, and didn't run it out, but she did it), she participated in the balloon toss (the water balloon broke in her hands), and she did the balancing a foam ball on a tennis racket (very poorly, wandering around, putting the ball on her head and the racket on the ground, but at least she wasn't sitting out).

But she really did try with the tug-of-war. They lost their first bout, but their second (the battle for third place) both teams were evenly matched (despite the fact that C6's team had one extra child). And the marker in the middle went back and forth, back and forth. A child who hadn't been participating on C6's team ran up and joined. Back and forth. It must have taken 5 minutes, but when L6 fell down, our team took the initiative and yanked the rope over and won.

C6 was so proud to be part of a team. She said to me, "I was part of the team and helped us win!!"

That made it worth it. When she wants to join in, we are all so pleased.

(also, they learned some lessons from last year, and had extra monitors -- from 6th grade? -- who ran the games. Very helpful!)