merylvdm Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Hi My kids aren't brilliant or anything like that, but they do like being stretched academically and I have found contests have been a wonderful way for them to do that. In addition they learn to lose, to win with grace, that life is not fair etc. In addition many contests are group ones and they can socialize at the same time. I have managed to get my local homeschool group to join me in my enthusiasm for contests and so we have teams in practically every contest going. In addition my kids do quite a few individual contests. I would love to see more homeschoolers doing some of these. I have just written up about many of the ones we do, and thought some of you on this forum might benefit from what I wrote - so go to http://www.squidoo.com/contests-for-students for more info about some of my favorites. I have links and photos etc. And post if any of your kids have enjoyed these too - and succeeded in them. And just for your encouragement - the 2nd placed team in the National Science Olympiad Competition was a homeschooled team - Excel - from Washington State. That was such an awesome achievement!! Our team has to work hard to even make it to the State contest, so for a homeschool team to not only win their State championship, but eventually come 2nd, is just amazing. Meryl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 thanks for the info; my dd11 loves competitions of all kinds! I'll have to check into some of these. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merylvdm Posted July 18, 2009 Author Share Posted July 18, 2009 You're welcome. I plan to add a few more tonight and keep going till I have up all the ones my kids have done. Contests really challenge them to do their best, so although it seems that we just go from one contest to another (because we do) my kids have learned to prioritize, to learn quickly and to make choices about their time. They watch practically no TV - but as it is their choice to do the contests, they don't complain. And of course, when they get to apply for college - all those contests look so good. Meryl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Uhura Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 A list of contests with age ranges would be great! :001_smile::D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merylvdm Posted July 20, 2009 Author Share Posted July 20, 2009 I have just added an extra contest, and will do another tonight. I have done (and will be doing again this year) all these contests with my own kids. And they've been fairly successful too. Without some success, I guess we would have given up by now. Actually my kids don't know what to do with all the medals they've won - and their names are often in the paper, which is fun for them too. And it is good to be able to show that homeschoolers can hold their own - and often do better than - school kids. This year I want to find a mom in our h/school group to handle publicity and send in a story every time one of our teams places in a contest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Uhura Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 :blush: I missed the link in your first post. :lol: Thank you so much for putting that together! What a great resource. I will put a link to it on another board on I'm on if that's OK! Capt_Uhura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merylvdm Posted July 22, 2009 Author Share Posted July 22, 2009 You are welcome to copy the link anywhere. And I added another contest a few minutes ago. I hope if some of you who have read this post try any of these and have success, you will post here on the forum and let us know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Uhura Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 I emailed my area coordinator about the Stock Market Game but haven't heard back yet. It's summer so might not hear anything until August or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babysparkler Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 My kids compete in PSIA - Private School Interscholastic Association http://www.psiaacademics.org/index.html If anyone from Texas is interested, check it out or PM me! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KAR120C Posted July 22, 2009 Share Posted July 22, 2009 We're doing MathCounts this year, and MOEMS (Math Olympiad)... and so far both are looking pretty straightforward for homeschoolers to participate in... Also in past years we've done the National Latin Exam and the National Mythology Exam, which are very homeschool-friendly. The Latin Exam requires that someone other than the primary teacher administer the exam, so DH got to do that part. :) Our big competition every year is the science fair... That one takes some doing, because the regional fair requires that you've been "passed along" by your school district fair, and someone has to organize a "district" for the non-public schools to compete in. We've been very lucky that until this past year one devoted homeschool mom has really spearheaded the whole thing, but she's retiring from that as her kids are graduating, and the rest of us are going to have to step up. But once the kids move on to the regional level they are on equal footing with the public school kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merylvdm Posted July 23, 2009 Author Share Posted July 23, 2009 I think I should add a section to my article for other contests I don't have personal experience with and I'll put in those too. I have thought of adding MOEMS as it can be for younger kids than AMC, but I am not sure if I have the Energy to organize something else. If I remember correctly, Math Counts needs the team to get together to practice - our co-op did a class for that once. As the kids in our homeschool group are doing so many other contests already and have loads of other things they do (sport, dance etc) I thought that would be impractical. I try to have as few practices / meetings for the contests as possible. We use the internet to communicate whenever possible (eg with Stock Market game the kids do it all over email) Quite a few of the kids in our homeschool group have done Science Fair and enjoyed it - but then at some point they'd decide to try Science Olympiad, and then they would drop Science Fair (for us it is always in the same month, usually on back-to-back Saturdays). The appeal of Science Olympiad is that you have a partner for every event and you work as a team so it is more social. And they get a HUGE kick out of beating the school teams. Our middle school team came 4th at State last year - and most of the kids medalled, so that is big attraction. Meryl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Uhura Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 MerylVDM - can you tell me how you run the STock Market game over the internet? Are all the kids local or if done over the internet, can they be from other regions as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asma_08 Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 Thanks for the link to your site. I don't know if this was posted but there are some more resources here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merylvdm Posted July 23, 2009 Author Share Posted July 23, 2009 Capt_Uhura I wait to see how many kids in our h/school group sign up for Stock Market Game and then divide them into teams of 4 or 5. We are in the Eastern TN division, so I would guess all our students would need to be in the area. I have wondered about including MKs and if that would be allowed. You could ask your co-ordinator. I register the teams online and have to provide the name of the team captain as the top 12 teams kept listed in the local newspaper on Fridays. Other than that, they have no idea who is in the teams - unless you place, of course. When our one team one, they went to an awards banquet etc ... don't know how that would work if some kids weren't local. You do sign up in a particular state. Once the kids are in teams, I send them instructions on how to play and it is the team captain's responsibility to email his team and ask for suggestions on stocks to buy. Initially I make them each send the captain 5 stocks, and then the captain sends out the list of ll 20 or 25 stocks selected. They then select their favorite 5 and rank them. The captain adds the rankings together (eg. if one kid ranked Google as 2nd favorite, that would score 4 and if another ranked Google as 5th favorite, that would score a 1, so Google's total score would be 5). The team captain then buys 100 of each of the top 5 as selected by his team - and that gets the ball rolling. After that I let the captain decide how he/she wants to progress. SOmetimes each student will pick a stock, sometimes someone suggests a stock and the rest votes yes or no. I only allow the captain to make transactions online - or it could get chaotic - but everyone can log in and see how the team is doing. If the kids do all go to the same church, or co-op or happen to live in the same area, they will sometimes get together to discuss what to do. But our group is pretty scattered, so that is impractical for us. The teens communicate via texts or Facebook. Meryl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Uhura Posted July 23, 2009 Share Posted July 23, 2009 Thanks so much for the info! Yes, it sounds like the teams would need to be in the same area but I could have members that are 40min away but still within our region which would make weekly get togethers difficult. But if some of it could be done online, that would work perhaps meeting every other week or so. I may sign up to do a training session 2009-10 with the hopes of having a team in 2010-2011 when my son will be a 5th grader. Capt_Uhura Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merylvdm Posted July 23, 2009 Author Share Posted July 23, 2009 I did a training session - it is required in TN. It definitely was worth it. And there are 2 contests per year for SMG, so you could join in the spring one. In the mean time, you can let your son go on http://www.howthemarketworks.com. It is a free site that also lets you 'invest' money. It would be nice for teams to meet, but as I said, this was never really an option for us, so sometimes the kids ply all 10 weeks without ever meeting their team. Not ideal, but it works. Most of our teams make it to the top 12 at some point if they play regularly. Meryl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phathui5 Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 Ds1 is going to be participating in the Bible Bee this fall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merylvdm Posted July 26, 2009 Author Share Posted July 26, 2009 Ds1 is going to be participating in the Bible Bee this fall. A number of our group (including me) looked into that - but we didn't do it because it was so expensive. Please post about your experiences after the event. Meryl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.