Congratulations! What is the name of the competition? Do they have a website?

Oh nooooooooooooooo I'm not very regular in posting on these forums, but I read almost every day. I've seen your posts quite often. My family is praying for you and yours. Lots of hugs and love your way.

You should totally go for it and create your own curriculum that is both fun and rigorous enough to prepare kids for the geobee:) and then share it on these boards!

I think LDraw is open source, and as such would be my preferred option.

Laurie, thanks a lot, but I looked it up on amazon, and I don't think that it is the one. Could you check what else they have under the math section in the catalog? Or perhaps look in the back of the catalog and they might have an index with a full listing of all the books in all subjects.

I don't know. Did you see it in the catalog? I need to find exactly the one that Vision Forum was selling.

I need to look up the name and author of a certain book and I can't because they've closed down Vision Forum. It was a math book. Something about teaching math from a biblical perspective, or Christ centered math or something like that. It was a book intended for an adult to read, not children' curriculum. If someone could help me out I would be so grateful.

The acting was mediocre, many of the characters were very shallow and poorly developed. The dialogue was trite. I honestly think that movies made by Christians are embarrassingly poorly made most of the time. The only exceptions I can think of at the moment are Mel Gibson movies.

Thank you for such an insightful answer Quark. Would you mind telling me what physics Great Courses you guys covered before your son took the DO physics class, and at what age? I think I usually add about a year or two of age to the age your son used it, when I use some of the materials you recommend and it is just the right level for my oldest:)

Yaay!

Quark, I was wondering why you guys are going with pre-calc, since I know your son is so strong in math. Isn't pre-calc to calculus, what pre-algebra is to algebra (essentially a review of all things previously learned necessary for success at the next level). If a kid doesn't need the review, why take pre-calc? I skipped pre-calc with no subsequent issues in calculus whatsoever. Part of the reason I am asking this, is because I'm beginning to think about/plan a formal physics sequence for my son (we haven't done any so far, just living books, and watched documentaries) and am wondering about what are the benefits of doing Calculus based physics courses vs. algebra based. I'm thinking if a kid skips pre-calc, and does calculus early that might give them a chance to do calc based physics. I'm sorry to derail the thread a bit. I'll probably need to start my own thread sometime in the summer when I've thought through things a bit more, but I would love to hear any insight you can offer, as physics is not my strong suit at all, but I want it to be for my kids (I always loved the subject matter, but was never taught right, and never had the right books, my kids love the subject, and I want to make sure I get them the right books when the time comes).

Has anyone whose child took the written qualifying test heard back yet? Usually they notify around the beginning of March. Does anyone know what is going on?

I am very glad that they posted the winning videos together with the age of each kid. I only watched the 8 year old girl (since my son is the same age) and she knocked out the 17 highest numbers in a minute while speaking slowly and clearly, which I thought was super impressive. She didn't hesitate at all, not even for a split second. My son can't do that. It might be simply a matter of practice (since we found out about the competition only about a week before the deadline for submission and so we only had a week to practice), but it might be that he just can't do this without hesitation. He's a deep thinker and he tends to overthink and over analyze things before saying them out loud, so this might simply not be his area to shine:). For some reason, he is also much faster if he doesn't know that he is being timed. I've noticed this in other areas as well. He just thinks about the timer and keeps checking the time if he knows he is being timed.

Wow Jenn, to get a score of 413 you daughter would have had to do at least 14 equations. That is way more than my son was able to do. If even that was not enough to get you picked, we seriously didn't stand a chance. Their "sample" video was very misleading, and had they had a more accurate sample video on the website, we probably wouldn't have even bothered trying. I'm hoping that in the future when they have local and state competitions it would be easier because the picking process will be more transparent and less subjective. Btw, I noticed three kids with the last name Zhu and three with the last name Che among the winners.

Well the names are out and listed on their website. We are not on it. I really hope at least someone from this forum is going. I would love to see the videos of the kids that won and see how far "off the mark" we were. I wonder if they'll post them online.

March 4th? Oh man.... I thought for sure we will know by tomorrow.

Has anybody heard anything yet?

We received a confirmation a day after submitting, but I specifically asked for a confirmation in my e-mail to them. I don't know if they send confirmations routinely, it was not an automatic e-mail.

We were trying to film it today, but we didn't get a good one. My 6 year old will be filming tomorrow. He is notorious for cutting heads off and shaking the ipad though, so it might be a long day.

Did you guys send it in?

Do you mind sharing how many does your daughter get in a minute on an easy roll, vs. a hard roll? We are able to get 9 on some of the easy rolls, but I'd say that most often he only gets about 6 or 7. I think for the video we will just keep rolling the dice until he gets one of the easier rolls, so that he can do 9. But then I wander, is 9 really enough? I really just want us to send in the video and get it over with (we are both tired of practise), but a part of me thinks 9 might not be enough and if we keep on practising we might be able to get 10 or 11 on the video. When I try it myself I can get as many as 18 sometimes, but of course I'm the adult, so I shouldn't compare him to myself.

Did you guys send in your videos? We are considering doing this. What would you say is a good number of equations to come up with in one minute? I think the girl in the sample video does 9. Is that a good number to shoot for?

I felt like they weren't really debating each other. Each one came with his own speeches prepared in advance, and neither one bothered to truly answer the questions posed by the other. I am glad they kept it civil and respectful, and that there were jokes thrown in here and there to lighten up any tensions.

I can't believe there isn't any discussion on these boards already. Maybe we can use this thread, to post our thoughts/ comments/questions while we are watching?

Is this the one you have? http://www.amazon.com/Little-House-Prairie-Complete-Nine-Season/dp/B005F96UP0/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1390401868&sr=1-2&keywords=Little+House+on+the+Prairie