Knock-out

Meg and Ben have teachers that have a Jack-and-Jill "workroom" in between their classrooms (their classes are 3rd and 4th grade mixed), and Meg's teacher is Ben's teacher's mentor. They do lunches together, recess, field trips, homework etc. It is great because it's the best of both worlds--they aren't in the same class (which they would hate), but they work on the same projects and have the same homework, so it makes my life much easier. This arrangement is also great if I want to go to lunch with them (can you say killing two birds with one stone?). Well, like I said they have recess together every day and the "in" thing this month is to play basketball, more specifically a game called "Knock-out." The object of this game (if you're basketball illiterate like I was) is to be the last kid standing. There are two lines and one kid shoots the ball and has to make a basket before the kid in the other line makes a basket--if he/she doesn't then he/she's out.

Anyway, this afternoon Meg was in the van alone with me (this in itself is a small miracle) and she told me that today they were playing Knock-out and she happened to be in the opposite line as Ben. In fact, he was right before her, so if she made the basket before he did, he would be out. After she told me the set up she said, "Mom, Ben usually gets out in the first or second round, so I kept missing on purpose so he could stay in for a while."

Later I was making dinner while Ben was setting the table and he said to me, "Mom, guess what?" "What Ben?" "Today we played Knock-out again, and I stayed in for the longest I've ever stayed in. It was my best game ever. I can't wait to play tomorrow."

His confidence was lifted by his sister and only I as their mother will know the importance of a little game called "Knock-out."