Contests and competitions- how to "show what you know"

Homeschoolers, particularly academic homeschoolers, are looking for ways to "show what you know" beyond the mom-required assignments. Several parents have asked me how we find authentic ways to demonstrate knowledge and growth without yet another essay, test or worksheet. For us, we use a lot of contests and competitions! My son loves a good contest and will participate in almost anything I can rustle up. My personal favorites are those that are simply contests against yourself- where you're not beating out anyone else, but just improving upon your previous results. The kid though, he likes prizes and will work for even the promise of a prize, certificate or award at the end!

Some of our favorites:

National Mythology Exam:  This will be our third year and as a mythology junky, the kid has a goal of earning every color medal for his wall. This year, he's hoping for silver to go with his previous gold and bronze. I'm working hard to discourage him from throwing a question just to get a silver!

Sikorsky Helicopter Challenge: Part engineering, part design and a whole lot of imagination required- this contest makes kids really think outside the box for a new idea that solves a problem

Doodle For Google: Answer the question in an artistic way and your doodle could win you a place on Google's homepage, as well as a scholarship!

Scholastic Contests: Scholastic always has an interesting contest cooked up- from skyping with authors, to book related treasure hunts and poetry writing contests, there's something for everyone!

Math League: Several weekends a year, math-loving kids gather in school cafeterias around the country to try their hand at challenging math tests. Even independent homeschoolers can participate!

Math Olympiad: School based teams participate in individual and team based math competitions. Tests are five times a year and problems are novel, challenging word problems.

PBS Writers Contest: For young elementary kids in K-3, this writing contest is a fun way to get kids engaged in writing and brave enough to share their stories.

Google Science Fair: Big ideas, bold research and amazing prizes for kids 13-18 that have a true passion for science.

Test- based opportunities are also available from local talent searches. Students take a standardized test to qualify for merit based awards, scholarships and participation in enrichment and academic courses. Hoagies' Gifted maintains an up to date talent search page if you're interested in these types of opportunities.

Other contests and competitions like Geography Bee, Spelling Bee and Poetry Jam may be available in your local area. Some of these are held at a city or county level and independent homeschoolers can enter. If your local competition starts at a traditional public school, it doesn't hurt to call and ask if your child can participate!

Super Science Day!

Every once and a while, we like to step back from the books (or the computer) and do some hands on fun! Today's project was a spherical layer cake based on a Jupiter Tutorial that was really fun to see. The kid and I wondered if we could pull it off with less experience and far less decorating talent.

First we started with a regular cake mix, rather than a scratch recipe. I bake a lot and it's been my experience that cake mix is generally more consistent and reliable. Since we had a lot of experimenting going on, we decided to control one variable!

We started with a SuperMoist French Vanilla cake mix. The kid did all the work in these steps, including cracking the eggs. A tip we've learned- crack the eggs into a ramekin one at a time. If they get shells in them, it's far easier to fish it out of a single egg than a whole mix.

The next steps are clearly explained in the tutorial above. We started with a very small, tempered glass bowl and a white center. Once that baked (about 15 min) we took it out, cooled it and then nested it in the 2nd layer, a bright orange layer. Same step again, until the red layer you can see here. We found that the top was getting quite brown on the small inner layer, so we covered it all with the red batter to keep it from burning.

The first three layers, all cooked and ready to come out of the bowl. We used Duralex, but you can use Pyrex or any tempered glass as long as you stay below 350 degrees.

EARTH! Well... the Northern Hemisphere anyway! We weren't quite sure it was going to hold together because the layers were a bit cracked as we took them out of the bowl in the last step. There's nothing a little blue frosting can't fix! The kid put on the loosely sculpted continents.

Ta-da! Earth's layers from the inside out. And the cake was delicious!