BEEP BEEP BEEP screeches my alarm clock at the sadistic time of 5am. Ugh, I have to get up early today to go ‘to school’! Why do I do this AGAIN? I ask myself.

I stumble out of bed and shower, make breakfast for all, prepare a few lunches, kiss John as he heads out the door. I throw some clothes at the boys and declare that if they don’t get up in 5 min (which was 7am) then they’d miss out on breakfast! They made it just in time (Oh, lest you think I’m a TOTAL meanie; everyone was warned the day before, of the hecticness of the coming day). We packed the car and ‘Miss A’ , John, ‘Master C’ and I zoomed off to travel 45 min to go to school! Bek saw herself off to school, although she did get a kiss and a hug from me!

‘Miss A’ was asked to go into the school and teach PE lessons for 5 weeks. As I’m a level 2 coach who has done this in schools 4 times before I thought it would be good for me to go and lead her and then support her. Argh, I could kick myself!?

We arrived late due to traffic conditions and not knowing where I was going. There was no teacher to meet us or give us directions although the teacher did send 2 students to tell us to go and set up on the oval. So, we did. My boys were fantastic all day, carrying a heavy gear bag filled with softball gear, and our esky.

Within a few minutes our first class arrived. My boys sat in the shade and talked and read books while for the next 2 hours solid ‘Miss A’ and I were out in the glaring hot sun, teaching 4 classes for 30 minutes each. Now, of course we couldn’t instruct them for a full 30 minutes because the lesson period went for 30 minutes so by the time they got there, we introduced ourselves and they settled down, it left us about 20 minutes! Then, we had 45 minutes for lunch so we all piled back in the car and went to a local general store to get some lunch and buy a bag of ice. We went back to school and did another 3 lessons (11/2 hours solid in the sun) and then had a 20 minute break and did another 1 hour solid, before piling all our gear into the car and heading home. Traffic was horrid.

We got home and Bek had let herself in. I jumped straight into a cold shower, which hurt due to the heat of sunburn! Bek then made me a cuppa and I promptly drank it and fell asleep on the couch. John came home and listened to the horror of our day and somehow I drifted off again! Bek suggested pizza so she and DH organised that. We had tea and then watched Barnyard on DVD and we were all in bed by 9pm.

After it all, neither ‘Miss A’ nor I desired to do this again but we are booked in for another 4 weeks. The students weren’t too bad, but the heat combined with the schedule was blistering. However, throughout it I managed to see some great points:

  • My sons are fantastic! They barely complained the whole day and yet they had every reason to. They are such troopers. They were sworn at by some of the schoolies but they just ignored them.
  • ‘Miss A’ had the opportunity to observe me coaching (I’ve always coached her but this time it was with a different perspective) and then I stood back and made her go it alone! The first time she faltered a bit but then she did fabulously! By the time the grade 2-3 were there, she was even able to adapt and modify the program to suit! Wow, I was impressed!
  • These three children have no desire to go to school and think it is a joke- the boys are now adamant that nothing much gets done at school and good students must either be naturally bright or work extra hard at home! (This is my 11yo’s opinion ) They said they’d rather run away that be forced to go to school.

So all in all, it was a tiring day but some positives came out of it. Whew! I’m looking forward to a quiet day at home tomorrow. (Wednesday)

p.s. oh, in case you’re wondering what it was all about – softball is our sport, it’s what we do. ‘Miss A’ is a softball athlete and as she improves she has been asked to take on this role. We jumped at it, thinking that it would be an excellent opportunity for her personal growth and development. (It is…it’s just hard). It also pays so that helps.