The Defeat of Dumbledore's Army
Defeat builds resilience and losing gracefully is a lifelong skill of maturity. Too often children today are sheltered from discomfort with the 'every child's a winner' mentality. Luckily, my son's 5th grade Oregon Battle of the Books (OBOB) team 'Dumbledore's Army' experienced defeat last night. Losing gracefully to 'The Unicorn Ewok's', a team of 3rd grade girls, they failed to make the top eight teams in the tournament's second round and another mark of resilience was earned!
Dumbledore's Army is anything but a failure and certainly not made up of losers. Rather, the team is comprised of five boys with the greatest sense of humor and zest for life. I was honored to coach their team, though it took every ounce of patience I could muster on Friday afternoons to practice book trivia together. Avid readers, three of the boys, including my son, returned this year to form a larger team of five, including an alternate player. Having been short a teammate last year, they learned the more readers you have on your team, the greater your chances of success. Never lacking in confidence, Dumbledore's Army was sure their depth of experience and breadth of knowledge were second to none this year!
Quite positive the boys would arrive to practice exhausted following Friday after school soccer, I was shocked when they showed up at my home fueled by caffeine and sweets unrivaled by Halloween. Seems their entire journey home from school each Friday involved trick-or-treating by stopping in shops to snatch candy at reception desks, free warm cookies at the neighborhood bank, and purchasing Mountain Dew and candy bars at the local market. Laughing at their antics and clever tactics, who could blame this youthful cavalier behavior I vaguely recalled from my own childhood? Needless to say, without the promise of WiiU games, street basketball and four square after, we never would've accomplished weekly book trivia practice!
As a mom of four children, Fridays have become a hangout at my house, with no less than a dozen children at any given time. I'm proud of that fact and I love the noise that ensues, mostly... In all honesty, book battles with five rambunctious, caffeinated, pubescent boys hopped up on sugar with no holds barred behavior will drive even the sanest of mothers to early happy hour on a Friday! As we gathered 'round the kitchen table, healthy snacks devoured, the assortment of sugary pleasures quickly reduced to empty candy wrappers on the boy's placemats, I prepared to test their knowledge. Dabbing and shouting answers to questions, degenerated into a laughing game as I tried to maintain law and order. As the shouting one-upmanship escalated, I cleverly suggested they scream their answers out the doggie door flap on the kitchen's sliding door. A poor idea in hindsight, as the ten and eleven-year-olds promptly began sticking their tails outside to pass gas. Uncontrollable hilarity ensued and I'll admit, I was equally amused by the farting game and levity it brought to the team. Perhaps a more responsible adult should've been parent coach!
Needless to say, by the sixth and final week of practice, all candy and caffeinated breaks were banned until after our Friday book battles, and I no longer needed Advil nor felt the urge to strangle the child with the most outbursts. (It's a wonder school teachers manage on a daily basis; God bless 'em!) Two of the five children read all 16 books (my OBOB passionate son read them twice), with each child reading at least six, improving their team odds. Sporting their Dumbledore's Army team t-shirts, they confidently set off to battle.
I have the utmost admiration for the children who recall the most minute detail from a 250-page book, let alone 16 books, as I can barely remember the day of the week! These boys, as goofy as they are in a line-up, retained knowledge that in The Door by the Staircase, Madame Z played two instruments called the balalaika and the gusli.
Calm and collected for the first time in history, Dumbledore's Army battled hard. However, with a combined two-battle score of 68 points, the boys were soundly defeated by the Unicorn Ewoks' who advanced to the top eight teams with 75 points. Genuinely, as parents, we were unanimously relieved the score was not too close (like 4th place in the Olympics), and we congratulated the team for it's hard work. As I braced myself for possible 'unsportsmanlike' remarks, my son did not take that route this year. Instead, he acknowledged losing by only seven was an improvement over the ten points they lost by last year, and he plotted next year's middle school team involving his 7th grade brother.
Dumbledore's Army is anything but a failure and certainly not made up of losers. Rather, the team is comprised of five boys with the greatest sense of humor and zest for life. I was honored to coach their team, though it took every ounce of patience I could muster on Friday afternoons to practice book trivia together. Avid readers, three of the boys, including my son, returned this year to form a larger team of five, including an alternate player. Having been short a teammate last year, they learned the more readers you have on your team, the greater your chances of success. Never lacking in confidence, Dumbledore's Army was sure their depth of experience and breadth of knowledge were second to none this year!
Quite positive the boys would arrive to practice exhausted following Friday after school soccer, I was shocked when they showed up at my home fueled by caffeine and sweets unrivaled by Halloween. Seems their entire journey home from school each Friday involved trick-or-treating by stopping in shops to snatch candy at reception desks, free warm cookies at the neighborhood bank, and purchasing Mountain Dew and candy bars at the local market. Laughing at their antics and clever tactics, who could blame this youthful cavalier behavior I vaguely recalled from my own childhood? Needless to say, without the promise of WiiU games, street basketball and four square after, we never would've accomplished weekly book trivia practice!
As a mom of four children, Fridays have become a hangout at my house, with no less than a dozen children at any given time. I'm proud of that fact and I love the noise that ensues, mostly... In all honesty, book battles with five rambunctious, caffeinated, pubescent boys hopped up on sugar with no holds barred behavior will drive even the sanest of mothers to early happy hour on a Friday! As we gathered 'round the kitchen table, healthy snacks devoured, the assortment of sugary pleasures quickly reduced to empty candy wrappers on the boy's placemats, I prepared to test their knowledge. Dabbing and shouting answers to questions, degenerated into a laughing game as I tried to maintain law and order. As the shouting one-upmanship escalated, I cleverly suggested they scream their answers out the doggie door flap on the kitchen's sliding door. A poor idea in hindsight, as the ten and eleven-year-olds promptly began sticking their tails outside to pass gas. Uncontrollable hilarity ensued and I'll admit, I was equally amused by the farting game and levity it brought to the team. Perhaps a more responsible adult should've been parent coach!
Needless to say, by the sixth and final week of practice, all candy and caffeinated breaks were banned until after our Friday book battles, and I no longer needed Advil nor felt the urge to strangle the child with the most outbursts. (It's a wonder school teachers manage on a daily basis; God bless 'em!) Two of the five children read all 16 books (my OBOB passionate son read them twice), with each child reading at least six, improving their team odds. Sporting their Dumbledore's Army team t-shirts, they confidently set off to battle.
 |
Calm and collected for the first time in history, Dumbledore's Army battled hard. However, with a combined two-battle score of 68 points, the boys were soundly defeated by the Unicorn Ewoks' who advanced to the top eight teams with 75 points. Genuinely, as parents, we were unanimously relieved the score was not too close (like 4th place in the Olympics), and we congratulated the team for it's hard work. As I braced myself for possible 'unsportsmanlike' remarks, my son did not take that route this year. Instead, he acknowledged losing by only seven was an improvement over the ten points they lost by last year, and he plotted next year's middle school team involving his 7th grade brother.
Somewhat relieved I'm off the hook this Friday afternoon, I cannot help but miss the positive interactions the boys shared. Live and learn. They taught me to chill out too, one doggy door fart at a time! Anything but defeated, maturity and resilience were equally gained in loss this year and Dumbledore's Army lives to fight another battle. As a parent crazy enough to have four children, I'm definitely going to coach OBOB next year!
Comments
Post a Comment