A lesson in chess

I have to share another bright spot in the struggle to teach our kids (how to be kind, Golden Rule, etc.).

Today I overheard Robert say this to his friend Luke who had just received a bronze medal at the chess tournament:

Robert: "I'm proud of you Luke. You did a good job."

Luke: "Thank you Robert. You too."

Robert won one chess match and contributed to the Lake Harriet Elementary first grade team finishing third in its division at a huge chess tournament that ran all day today. At the end, Robert and Luke were the only ones left from the team, so they got to pose with the certificate.

The masters

Elizabeth and Robert both came home from Chess Club on Friday afternoon a little deflated. Neither of them won a game and Robert didn't even want to talk about it. (Of course, he's playing against second and third graders.)

Elizabeth and I have played a couple games of chess in the evenings since they started playing at school, but it's been a while. Da took up the challenge and has given Elizabeth a couple of practice games this weekend.

It's a learning experience for Elizabeth, who is having trouble keeping her pieces on the board. I came in to help her out late in a game on Friday night and I stressed with her the importance of playing it out a move or two ahead. I wasn't around on Saturday night but Da reports that Elizabeth made him work for his checkmate. So hopefully this Friday will go a little better for her.

Try it, you'll like it!

Our oldest daughter is adventuresome in some areas, hesitant in others. And that's OK. She's done some things in the past couple years that I wouldn't have anticipated, trying new foods, for example, and she's enjoyed them more often than not, of course.

This week we nearly had a throwdown over Elizabeth's participation in chess club at school. Robert has been enthusiastic throughout (I mean, come on, it's a club!), but Elizabeth wanted no part of it. And with Cate out of town this weekend, I was jumping into an already-existing conversation without much of the background. But I had my orders: on my to-do list was writing a check for their enrollment, and the prescribed amount covered two.

So that was it. She was going. Even though she got all dramatic and scratched her own name out on the enrollment form.

This was Tuesday night. Wednesday morning I sent the form in -- with Robert, not with Elizabeth -- and asked Mom to check Robert's bag right before they went to the bus stop to make sure Elizabeth hadn't sabotaged it. Wednesday and Thursday night I heard nothing about it. And today she sneaked into the room behind me after I dropped off Robert. So I gave her her space and didn't embarrass her.

My theory? She found out exactly how many kids actually take part in chess club (there were about 40 today) and who some of them were and she realized that it indeed was going to be pretty cool.

After I said good-bye to Robert, I hung around upstairs and watched. She had a great time.

To nobody's surprise.