Bedtime Made Simple

This week the elementary school has put on a fitness challenge for all the kids. Each child got a pedometer to wear for the week and a log to be filled in each night with the results for the day. In the end whichever class has the most steps walked earns a popcorn party for their class and the right to brag of course!

In our household, things are taken a bit further than in most households when it comes to competition. Everyone of our kids likes to be the one in the spotlight and therefore they are willing to do just. about. anything. to earn that position. On Monday when the kids got home from school they were so excited to tell me about the challenge and bragged that they, in fact, would be part of the winning team come Friday. While homework was being done I had kids doing jumping jacks. When homework was complete (in record time mind you) I watched stairs being climbed and running in place. Kayela had a hard time getting her pedometer to register and she figured out very quickly that if she jumped on the trampoline those points would add up rapidly! It was really great to see....on Monday!

Now, Tuesday, came an enhanced competitive edge because the teams with the highest points were announced during the school day. When you have five kids in the same school, odds are pretty high that at least one of them will be a winner in competitions like this. Sure enough, I had a child in each of the top three classes. I know you are thinking "GREAT! Good for them!" but NOOOO you must understand, they turned into moving hungry monsters who would stop at nothing! Two of the three kids who's classes were in the top were watching each other like hawks. If one did ten jumping jacks, the other would do fifteen! They tried to sneak in as many "steps" as possible while the other was preoccupied. I was actually amused by it all and welcomed the friendly competition as I think it is good to learn how to be a good winner and a good loser.

Now, a curve ball was thrown, when I announced we'd be running errands and that most of them consisted of the kids sitting in the car. Astonished murmurs of "what?", "how will I get my steps in?", "can't we stay home?", and miscellaneous other horrified expressions filled my house. When I didn't back down and they knew they had no choice, they begrudgingly loaded into the car. Thirty minutes down the road is when the real lesson in winning an losing gracefully came to play. One (not to be named) child was caught shaking their pedometer up and down ferociously trying to accumulate "points". I confronted this child and they admitted that they did, in fact, cheat by adding points without really "earning" them. wow! I was a little shocked that this was something so important that they were willing to cheat. I explained that I would be putting a zero down on their log chart and that by cheating they may have lost the competition for their team. blah, blah, blah! Ya, know all the mom stuff we always say when a lesson is so clearly needing to be taught.

The competition continues and will for the next couple of days. I'm glad that lessons of healthy choices, right and wrong, winning and losing are being witnessed every day by this simple competition. Additionally, I am so grateful for tired kids who are going to bed without having to be told twice!