Did that really just give me a headache ?

Today my oldest son had his "practice round" for Battle of the Books.  It was called the "District Tournament" but the scores were like those on the show Whose Line Is It Anyway? ... they don't matter.

This year's Battle of the Books logo / t-shirt

If you're unfamiliar with Battle of the Books, here's a brief synopsis:

5th Graders in Colorado Springs are provided an opportunity to sign up for a reading challenge.  There are 40 books selected, which the kids are told about months in advance, from which questions will be taken on a variety of subjects.  The kids who sign up are placed into 4-person teams and then after having had time to read the books, they have a competition in each school to pick the Top 2 teams, which go to Regionals.

Josh Jr decided (largely based on a challenge extended by his mother) that he wanted to try to read all 40 books before the Regional Tournament.  This was after his team earned the right to go to Regionals, which was only a little over a month ago.  He had read about 15 of the books, but in the past month he has cleared another 15 or so books, which is amazing to me!

Anyway, Karen and I attended his "practice" at the school today ...

and the stress gave ME a headache!

It was so hard to sit there, knowing nothing about the books being discussed, and watch my son struggle to remember the answers to all the books he has crammed into his brain.  He did so good and was really carrying his teammates, but I cannot believe how much this experience stressed ME out!  I am not sure how supportive of a parent I will be able to be for my kids if a simple "practice" session gives me a headache!



My amazing bookworm son



The practice was very good for him and his team though, as they learned for certain the weakness of one team member (who hopefully can be replaced with the alternate, who did much better!) and also the importance of being very specific with their answers (they missed several questions by leaving out just one or two words that they knew but just didn't include).

Next Thursday is Regionals (held at Colorado College) and Karen and I will be the Ridgeview Elementary school chaperones (riding on the bus with the two teams and keeping the kids together and in line).  I hope Josh Jr does well and that his team works well together ... but selfishly, I hope the stress doesn't give me another headache!  :)

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