Recognition for academics?

[Dmmetler]

We got the e-mail about the local homeschool spelling bee, and DD was ecstatic. She did it last year, basically on a lark, and I was really worried about her handling it because she doesn't handle making mistakes well (and I know there are homeschoolers who prep for spelling bee all year and who really focus on that), but she won her division.

 

So maybe it's not surprising that she's excited about going back-but her reasoning surprised me "Finally, I get to try to win at something I'm GOOD AT!". She's been very down on herself lately because she's NOT the strongest member of her dance team, is lower in levels than many of the girls her age at gymnastics, and so on-so to see her enthusiasm about the bee was a little surprising.

 

It really makes me wonder if I've gone the wrong direction-one reason for pulling DD out of school was that she was starting to try to blend in academically and that she didn't like being different. And I've worked really hard at challenging her so that she doesn't always get everything right, and encouraging the "you learn when you make mistakes" philosophy. But I wonder if maybe she NEEDS more times to recognize that, yes, she's got things that she IS better than most people at.

 

And the next question...what other venues for academic competition even exist for a 6/7 yr old?

Edited October 23, 2011 by dmmetler

[boscopup]

Does your group have any other bees? I have a local homeschool group that does all kinds of bees all on one day - history, math, Bible, spelling, etc. They also have a creative writing competition and handwriting competition.

[acurtis75]

This is a timely post for me because I just found out about a local spelling bee and was considering it for dd6. I had the same concern about her not doing well with losing but I'm thinking we're going to do it for all the positives you mentioned. I googled and found a list of potential k-3 spelling words used in local events and she was able to spell almost all of them

[LetsDoMath]

My dd is also a natural speller, who gets frustrated when she misses words. We only do spelling when she wants to, which is almost daily. So, I am quite disappointed in the regional sponsor of the spelling bee who is restricting it to a minimum of a 4th grader. Sigh. Well, she can "compete" in the local bee, but not advance to the regional if she were to somehow win. It is still a learning experience.

 

As for other academic competitions...

National Math Bee http://www.nationalmathbee.org/ is taking "a sabbatical", but may be back for Fall 2012.

 

National Geographic Bee http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geobee/

 

Oh forget it, Hoagie's has a more complete list. http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/contests.htm

 

Most of these are geared more toward older elementary/middle school, but younger kids can participate in most of them (unless certain regional organizers.....nevermind) :glare:

 

:)

[Dmmetler]

DD can't advance either-only 6th-8th graders can go on to the city-wide preliminary, so K-2 and 3-5 have their own little bees. Which explains how she won so easily last year :). I plan to e-mail and see if I can pay the registration fee and register her for both the K-2 and the 3-5, and encourage her to do the 3-5 for fun.

 

We have some of the math and geography competitions here, but again, they're limited to the kids who are the "Right" age for the program. I'm actually surprised we have the homeschool spelling bee for the younger kids. There are a lot of folks who don't do much in the way of formal academics until 7-8 around here.