Today We Learned about Bad Sportsmanship

Well, I think it came pretty naturally. And I don't know if we learned anything about good sportsmanship. Ah well.

First we tried mom class. We built a fort in the family room a couple of weeks ago, and I was ready for it to be cleaned up. So Mom Class was pick up a blanket, do something silly with it together, fold it up together. Sounded like a good idea to me. The enthusiasm to see it all the way through lasted through one and a half blankets. Then they wouldn't help and started playing their own thing.

I took a little break to decide how to proceed and then told the girls how I felt that they weren't willing to do my activity at school. They came around, and we had fun. There was some creative silliness with the blankets. We swung around kids and bunnies. We twirled and hid under them like they were parachutes. Once Amy decided to lie in the middle on top of a small toy tomato with a toy stroller on her tummy. I then was supposed to wrap her up and pick her up. When I put her down, we looked for where the tomato was. Awesome.

When we finally had most of the blankets cleaned up, Amy decided we should take a little rest under the last one. I read one story with my words starting to blur together, and I was out. After a while I heard the girls saying to each other, "Mom fell asleep. Right in the middle of school." and "I wonder how long she is going to sleep." I smiled to myself but still couldn't quite get up.

I finally woke up ready to play. Amy chose checkers for her activity. We set it up, and I taught the girls how to play. Noel got bored pretty quick and bowed out. When Amy realized that I had a queen (in our house checkers kings would be called queens) and that she may have to get jumped at some point in the game, she had a fit crying about wanting to win. A minute later she pushed away the whole board and ruined the game.

Noel chose Carcassone for her activity. We had a fun time for a while until Noel started taking "Amy's" guys. Amy got mad. Noel didn't give them back. Suddenly Amy threw a bunch of pieces. I told her she couldn't play anymore but that Noel still could. She started to cry again.

Finally after a little snuggle and some persuasion, Amy joined me in cleaning up another game they had messed up earlier. We still have to go clean up the last blanket, the bunnies, and Carcasonne. I must admit, sometimes following through on cleaning up after ourselves can be daunting - especially if I insist on the kids doing it (like I think I often should.)

Maybe sometime soon I will talk to Amy about sportsmanship.