A little background information first...
For the last couple of years, we have wanted to get Seth and Grace involved in Bible quizzing. Unfortunately, for whatever reason (and there have been many) our wanting to get them involved just never amounted to anything. Well... this year was starting to look as if it was going to be the same old story, because the first quiz landed over our vacation, and then we just couldn't seem to get ourselves on a good schedule in which quizzing had a prominent spot in our curriculum or even our extracurricular activities. But I got to thinking... (yes, dangerous, I know)...
The January quiz was quickly approaching, and it suddenly hit me... "You know, Lisa... They don't have to go and be super star quizzers. You could just go through as much of the material as possible, and then you could take them to the quiz... and they might even... you know... make some friends and have fun!" Not everybody has to quiz for blood!"
So I told them to pull out their quiz materials... and they did... and Grace started goin' at it... and Seth didn't... and I started to wonder if maybe... just maybe... this was something Grace might like to do and Seth might not. So I planned to register Grace.
Except... If you know Seth and Grace, you know they are just about as close as twins. We have pretty much raised them that way since they are only 13 months apart, and although they have many occasions on which they "hate" each other, they also do not like to be apart... pretty much ever...
And as we got closer to the date of the quiz, who should want to participate but Seth! So I sat him down and said, "Hey... I'll register you for this quiz, but you're going to have to put a whole lot of work into this, because they are covering the first TEN lessons from the book (roughly Exodus 1-12), and you've only got a week to get it down. And... of course... he thought that was sufficient time. So after much, "Are you sure about this?" I registered Seth, too...
Well... as the story goes, we got to Thursday, and Seth decided it would probably be best if I "unregistered" him, because he really didn't want to put the work into this. And I so do not "unregister" my kids for things they beg to do, so I did what no self respecting quizzer ever does... I said, "Seth... you are out of time. Just study the questions!" (Gosh... did I just admit that? The shame...)
Seth did, indeed, study the questions. I quizzed him (and Grace) over what they had learned, and shocked as I was, the kid knew almost all of it... go figure!
So the big day finally arrived! We woke up this morning and drove to the quiz, amidst complaints that they might just get carsick if we made them study all the way! As a side note, Phil did offer to pull the van over if anybody needed to spew...
I made sure to remind the kids that this was their first quiz... and that the other kids had been doing this a lot longer... and that they would probably miss questions... and that it was OK to guess if they didn't know the answers... and that it really didn't matter how they did as long as they had fun... and made friends... and were good sports... Need I go on?
I really didn't know what to expect, because although I participated in teen Bible quizzing for four years, I had never been to a children's quiz. We walked in... I gave the people who looked like they were in charge my best "deer in the headlights, hey look I have no idea what I'm doing spiel"... and they directed me to the table where my kids were supposed to set up their quiz boxes (sigh of relief... gosh I'm glad we thought to bring these wonderful cardboard things... wow those kids with the crocheted boxes are probably pretty good... are those wood boxes... wow... we should have invested in matching T-shirts...)!
We got set up, and the people were very nice when we had to take a quick time out to instruct Seth and Grace on when... and how to hold the numbers up... and for how long... and when to put them back! I felt a little bit like those people who come to teen quizzing for the first time without line up forms!
And the 15 question round began. And the quizzer in me was very nervous. And Seth and Grace got all of the questions right! And the quizzer in me was very proud... and sort of amazed... and figuring that the people I'd just talked to as if I was an idiot probably thought I'd lied about the whole thing and that my kids had been doing this for years (That was just the irrational part of me. Actually, all of the people were very nice and likely thought no such thing...)!
Then we got a break, because the older kids were going to quiz a round...
And then the second 15 question round began. And Seth and Grace got the first 11 questions right. And the quizzer in me kind of wished there was pre-jumping in children's quizzing... kind of... but not really, because my nerves were pretty much frayed at this point.
And then question 12 was read, and for the first time all day, Seth and Grace pulled different numbers, and I knew our perfect day had just come to an end, but to be completely honest, I didn't know which one of them had errored, because I have not put as much time into the study of Exodus as I should have. I braced myself for the answer, and it was Seth who had errored... and here came the tears...
He managed to get himself together, which I was rather pleased with, because sometimes it's really hard for kids to get themselves back together when things like this happen. Both Seth and Grace answered question 13 correctly...
And then out came those stinkin' different numbers again for question 14, and it was Seth who had errored again. And this time the tears lasted a little longer, and I knew we were probably in trouble, but I hoped he'd pull it together for the last question, which he did, and again... both kids got it right.
So... when the quiz was called, I went straight to Seth and tried to talk to him, but he was upset. We had to clear the tables for the next blue round quiz, which we did, but Seth was just not very happy about his performance, and he certainly wasn't going to talk to anybody about it or accept any praise for it. Thankfully, Phil was able to pull him aside and help him calm down.
And it made me think about all of those times when I cried at quizzes. Actually... I'm not real sure I can remember a quiz at which I didn't cry! It was highly stressful! It was emotional! But I loved it!
After the last blue quiz, we gathered together for cookies and juice, and then it was award time. I had really paid little attention to how the other kids had done, so I made sure to take Seth aside again and to remind him that not everyone gets an award every time. Except, I was wrong about that, because everyone did get an award, but I didn't know that was how it was going to be!
You know... award times are always so nerve wracking! They started with number 15 (there were only 15 red quizzers total). And on and on it went... through numbers 14 through 3 with a few ties here and there. At this point, of course, I knew that Seth was actually going to be #2, which I thought was great. Still lots of tears, but he took his prize... and certificate... and a ribbon for the one perfect round...
And then they announced the first place quizzer for the day... two perfect rounds... and it never occurred to me that Grace didn't even realize she'd scored two perfect rounds and placed first until they said her name and she said, "Mommy, I didn't know I was first! I didn't even think I would be!" This, of course, cracked me up, even though I felt a little teary eyed and had that proud and nervous thing going on in the pit of my stomach...
I know it's only multiple choice... But it was their first quiz... Welcome back us... God does some amazing stuff...
Lisa
PS Here's the pics. Do you think it's genetic?
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