Science Olympiad, V2

[DocMom]

Wanted to ask some questions as a follow-up to this thread: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/551465-science-olympiad-questions-and-answers/

 

1. Daijobu: did you ever start a Science Olympiad? How was your experience?

 

2. Has anyone else recently started a homeschool team and have any advice?

 

3. Even if you can't get a team of 15+ kids, is it worthwhile to complete as a smaller team so kids have the option of competing in individual events?

 

4. We would have to do register as 2 contiguous counties. Has anyone done this before who would be willing to share their experience?

 

5. And finally, tell me I am crazy for even thinking of doing this :)

 

[merylvdm]

1. Yes - been doing it for about 13 years now. I don't even have any kids on the team anymore ... so I think that speaks for itself

 

2. There is a closed FB group for homeschool head coaches. If you decide to go for it I  can get you in. I am not sure who is 'recent' but you would get help. There are 3 teams in our state that I know of. We are the oldest but everyone has been around at least 4 years

 

3. Yes. We started with 10. We seldom have 15 when we go to regionals. We have an A and a B team and we like to leave space on the A team to move students up

 

4. You don't have to 'do' anything. No one has even checked ever - not even when we made it to Nationals. But we always have stuck to that. We are allowed to take any counties to regional but have to drop to just 2 if we make it to State. So we often have to re-organize teams to make that work. We represent a homeschool support group so we can't advertise ourselves as 2 counties. We just take whoever wants to do it and figure out the logisitics later. At least anyone can compete at our regional. But I know other teams in other states say which counties they are. We have one main county, but change our "contiguous" county dependent on the kids we have.

 

5. No - it is the best, most rewarding thing I have ever done. Nothing like it. It is crazy-making I will admit, but we love it. And I don't even like science! I am a history / languages gal!!