2nd Grade Field day

I remember looking so forward to field day.  We would spend all day outside playing games,  real games.  Someone would win at every game and we lived with it and we were ok.  Our class was our team and our class would all wear the same color and we would  have numbers on our back.  We kept score,  we got ribbons and we were proud of those ribbons.   Today the kids still look forward to field day but it is so different.  Alexis was so excited and talked about field day weeks before it got here.  She is so competitive and she is really good at sports.  But she does not know how to lose and when she does lose at something she loses it and cries.  I partly blame the schools and other sport  events  that don’t keep score, every child gets a trophy.  I understand not wanting to hurt any child's feelings,  I don’t want to see a child upset either but if they never learn how to lose what is this going to do to the child in the long run.  Every child has got to learn that you will win some and you will lose some.  If you win celebrate and enjoy it.  If you lose pick yourself up and try harder next time.

This year they played 18 different games in about 1  hour and a half.  They were very silly games.  They squirted each other in the chin with water trying to wash off the shaving cream.  They wacked each other’s feet with noodles.  They tossed wet sponges at each other.  You get the picture.  No real games and no one could win.   They did do a tug of war and Alexis loved it.  It was her favorite because they did get a chance to win and she was so excited.    The kids did have a blast.  It was fun to watch how they all played.