(Thank you, LEGO Watches for sponsoring this post, in return for my honest opinion.)
He Found His Inner Ninja, All on His Own!
All the moms and dads were lined up, as our kids had been earlier that day. We were waiting patiently, single-file, for our turn to sign in to our child’s curriculum night.
His teacher greeted everyone as they milled into their kid’s classroom and found the desk with their little cherub’s name. I didn’t even get to set foot in the room, when the teacher pulled me aside.
I swallowed a big wad of nervousness and mumbled under my breath “what has he done THIS time?!” Although this particular son of ours has never been in trouble – at school… he’s a repeat offender at home, yet somehow he manages to keep a squeaky clean rap-sheet at school. (How he does it, is still a family mystery!)
She approached me with one of those big warm teachery-smiles… the ones that get your guard down right away. “I want to talk to you about your son not participating in recess. We are a few weeks into the school year and he has yet to join the rest of the class in their game of kickball! I want to make sure everything is OK with him.”
(Side note: our son is heat intolerant due to medical issues, and we live in South Florida, so running around outside at high-noon has never been his favorite thing to do!)
OH! THAT was IT? I knew about his lack of kickball participation. I immediately breathed a sigh of relief and felt less of a loser-mom for having to talk to the teacher before the evening’s agenda had even started.
Is Kickball His Ninja Power?
His teacher was genuinely concerned about his lack of participation and wanted to make sure that nothing had happened to make him not want to play the great game of kickball.
I smiled, thanked her for caring enough to bring it to my attention. I assured her nothing had happened (this year) to cause him not to participate… and with that she kicked off the evening’s review of the kids’ curriculum for the new school year.
I already knew that our son LOATHED kickball. It wasn’t so much that he thought the rules were dumb or even that the game was pointless. He had already told me that he chose not to participate, however I wasn’t quite clear as to WHY – but I let him make his own decisions as to how he wanted to spend recess. It was, after all, his time away from the books.
When I got home that evening, the UPS guy had just dropped a BIG box on our front porch. The kids were anxiously waiting for my approval to open it. We were beyond excited to find a LEGO NINJAGO alarm clock and a LEGO NINJAGO watch sent to us by our friends at LEGO Watches.
The kids quickly added the LEGO NINJAGO clock to their rotation of alarm clocks. The alarm clocks play a vital role in our morning routine – and they save my sanity every morning.
The watch though, landed right on our little non-kick-ball-playing son’s arm. He marveled at the colors (red and black is his favorite color combination) and then he made a comment about how cool it would be to have ninja powers.
I sat down with him and told him ALL about the curriculum night. We talked about the things he’s going to learn… and I then slowly steered the conversation towards recess and his dislike for kickball.
I gently dug a little deeper. Personally, I was NEVER EVER an athletic wonder – far from it. Skipping any type of ball-sport during recess had been my favorite pastime during my entire school career. I was acutely aware of my short comings when it came to kicking, hitting or throwing balls. Ball sports were therefore always a source of stress for me… and now apparently I had passed my non-ball-sport-loving genes right down to one of our sons! (Poor kid!)
Our son told me that he never had anyone explain the rules of kick-ball, so the few times he tried to play, his kickball-faking skills were apparently not up to par. A few of the more competitive kids made some unkind comments and that’s all it took. The comments were made over a year ago, by kids who were no longer in his class, but that didn’t seem to matter to our son. Their words stung as much today as they did a year ago.
(Grrrrr, I am going to pause for a moment to control the mama-bear in me!)
Fast forward a few minutes, we immediately called a family meeting and decided that the coming weekend, we were all going to the park to play kickball together. (Quite honestly, I could use a refresher of the rules and skills… and the younger brothers would only benefit from learning the game at an early age!)
Our son agreed to try a friendly family game of kickball and then he would return to school and participate in the kickball game during recess, at least once.
The Power of a Ninja Watch!
Throughout the weekend, he wore the LEGO NINJAGO watch every day. He was the one who woke us up at 8:00am, sharp. He reminded me promptly at noon that it was lunch time and when 5:00pm rolled around, he was eagerly asking what was for dinner. All thanks to his LEGO NINJAGO watch.
He was THOROUGHLY enjoying keeping us on a schedule and reporting the time at every chance he got.
Monday morning, I dropped a reluctant kid off at school. On one hand, he really wanted to try kickball, as we had played it over the weekend. But on the other hand, he knew the heat, coupled with the performance pressure from the other kids might just be too much to conquer.
Monday afternoon, I picked up a super charged, very excited and completely empowered child. I was afraid to ask what had happened during recess, but thankfully, I didn’t even have to open my mouth. He barely stepped foot in the van, when he spilled the beans.
Our little not-so-coordinated, ball-hating kid had found his inner-ninja. He realized, he didn’t need to play kickball to be part of the camaraderie in the class. He embraced the skills he had, and stopped worrying about the ones he didn’t have.
It turned out, his teacher needed someone to keep track of the score AND THE TIME… and who better to stand in the shade and do just that – with his new awesome LEGO NINJAGO watch and his teacher’s fancy clipboard! (There’s nothing cooler and more empowering than a watch and a clipboard – at least not when you are in elementary school!)
Just like that, without our further intervention, he found his inner-ninja. He capitalized on his current talents and interests… instead of desperately trying to fit in, at all costs.
To say, we were proud of him is an understatement. If only all future parenting conundrums could be solved with a LEGO NINJAGO watch, then I would feel really good about our mad parenting skills. However, this one was totally his win – his creativity.
This weekend, we are headed to the movies to see the new LEGO NINJAGO Movie, as a family! I am not sure who is more excited, me… or the kids?! Each one of our four boys have their own favorite NINJAGO ninja. They have been counting down the weeks and now the days until the big movie release, so if you need us this weekend – we will be in the backyard practicing our Spinjitzu moves, while one of the boys times us with his LEGO NINJAGO watch!
Thank you, LEGO Watches for unknowingly empowering our kid to find his inner-ninja – and rocking the rest of this school year with his new-found confidence.
Alarm clocks play a very important role in our morning routine – other than getting the kids out of bed! Read how they saved my sanity!
The Secrets to a Perfect Morning Routine for School
Don’t miss: The Surprising Effect the LEGO NINJAGO Movie Had On Our Kids
[…] Lloyd, or rather Jordan, said to one of the other ninjas “What is your ninja power, Jay? I know you don’t feel like you are good at anything in particular, but we ALL have something we are good at. EVERYONE has ninja powers. You just have to look within to find them!”… and then he dropped a line from the LEGO NINJAGO Movie: “Even if you are different you can do great things!” […]