More learning going on here!

The kids had the Race for Education on Monday. Last year Monkey won a trophy for running the most laps of all the boys in his grade. Well it is pay back time for all the toys that Monkey broke of Red's and if you guessed that Red broke Monkey's trophy you would be right! He has been talking about how he wants to try and win it again this year. Here is where the lesson comes in. There were a few boys who didn't stay on the track and cut through the field. I told a few that I saw to go back to the other side of the track because they were cheating. I must mention when that occurred Monkey was no where near me and he had no idea it happened. One of the boys listened and went back the other just stood there looking at me like I was crazy. I nicely explained to him that he needed to go back because he was cheating by not staying on the track. They get sponsored by lap or a flat donation. After I was done talking to the boy his mom who was there was yelling his name and waving him over. I have no idea who this kid was or what his name was. I turned to see this little boy conflicted as to what to do. I asked the women waving at him if he belonged to her and she said yes. I told her that he had run across the field and I told him to go back. As I got passed her I turned around to watch her walk towards him and tell him to just keep going. I was shocked that she would tell her child to cheat and keep going. Well this boy did it more times...per his mom's approval. This is a private Christian school that my kids attend. Anyways, I got sided tracked and went into more detail then planned. The kids were on their last lap and a group of boys (some of the cheaters) ran over to Monkey. I was trying to yell for him to run because I had a feeling they wanted to compare laps around. After they ran away from him he started crying. I ran over to him to see what happened. Needless to say, those boys had ran more laps and were bragging about how they ran across the field. Monkey says, "Mom they are going to win and they cheated." At this point, my heart is braking for my little man trying to do the honorable thing and follow the rules. He is my rule follower and I can so relate because that is my nature too. I had told his teacher about the boy who's mom told him to keep cheating after the second time I had said something to him about it. I found out later they took 5 laps away from him. I didn't know about the other boys until the end. Monkey told his teacher after the race was over about the boys who came up to him and she said, "It's okay." Then when I went to pick him up from school his teacher came over to me and we talked a little more about it. She suggested I talk to one of the boys mom, which upset Jeff because the teacher should handle it. We aren't upset that Monkey isn't going to win we really don't care about that because he did his best and we are proud of his effort. He ran 11 laps that is almost 3 miles in an hour.

This was a great opportunity to talk to Monkey and even GG about cheating and how it affects everyone involved. Why it is wrong and that if you are caught there are consequences like getting 5 laps taken off your score card. How God knows if you cheat even if you don't get caught. We talked about not following the pack when people are doing the wrong thing. We also talked about how we can't control what other people do like cheat the only thing we can do is what is right. I really hope these talks have sunk in. We have been having great conversations about it for the past two days.