Battle of the Books

Much to my frequent dismay, my daughter is NOT chip off this block when it comes to reading.  I love, love, LOVE to read.  She does not, not, NOT.  So I was completely shocked when she came to me in the fall and asked if she could join the Battle of the Books team for our school.  This team reads quite a large list of books in preparation for a district competition on knowledge of said books.  So yeah, a lot of reading is required.  So no, not really up my kid's alley.  One of her oldest friends has been on this team since kindergarten and apparently the team was short on participants, so she asked Kendra if she'd be interested.  And shocker of shockers, Kendra said yes.  When Kendra asked me if she could join, I picked my jaw up off the floor and, of course, agreed that she could join.  The reading fest began! 

Kendra is an excellent reader with an excellent memory.  She just doesn't LIKE to read.  I don't get it.  But that steel-trap brain of hers served her well as she read through that list of books.  The team practiced twice a week, had a Friday night lock-in the week before the competition, and designed a really cute shirt for the team. 

They did a play on words.  Two of the books they read were called "We the Children" and "Word after Word after Word."  So they did We the Roadrunners (our mascot) will win after win after win (there are three rounds in the competition). 

The back of the shirt with those cute faces and names!

There were three teacher sponsors, one of whom is one of my best friends, Missie Rodgers.  They also had a parent volunteer, who happens to be one of my student's parents this year.  The parent helper volunteered to do all the older girls' hair for the competition---they all had the same 'do!

Here's Missie, fixing her daughter's bow

The finished 'do.

This is the good friend who roped Kendra into this!

I felt like the world's worst mother the morning of the competition.  I had talked to Kendra ages ago about whether or not I should take the day off to go.  We decided together that I shouldn't, because I had other things going on that required days off, it's a stressful time of year, and I am also going to take three days off later this month to go to science camp with her.  But come the morning of the competition, I felt horrible.  There were several other "teacher kids" on the team, and ALL of them had taken the day off.  Well, it was way too late for me to do anything about it, so I just lived with mama-guilt.  Kendra was not the least bit perturbed about me not going--she kept telling me it was fine.  I believe her--I think she really was fine with me not going.   The district streamed the competition live so I got to check in throughout the morning as I was teaching, but if I had it to do over again, I would go for sure!

The competition was fierce...our team finished only three points behind the winning school but they didn't place!  Crazy!  Kendra's buddy was heart-broken--she was the team captain and felt she shouldered the burden more of why they didn't place.  But they really did fantastic, and it was a super learning experience for Kendra.  Too bad she's moving on to middle school next year so won't get the chance to do it again. 

But she did win a medal for participating!