Geographic Bee

Brishen and I are just back from Dallas where he competed in the Texas State Geographic Bee.  He did very well, getting six rounds worth of questions right.  Here are some stats:

*100 students competed in this level of competition.  In some states with small populations, they have a hard time finding 100 students to compete.  

*In Texas, the kids had to practically score perfectly on the written test in order to make it to the top 100.  This is why:

*Texas has 1050 school districts

*It was estimated that there are about 8000 schools within those districts, not counting homeschool associations.  Our family is a fan of counting homeschool associations.

*The top three children at this year's Bee were a 6th grader (3rd), a 4th grader (2nd), and a 5th grader (1st).  Amazing!  The 4th grader was unbelievably small and adorable and knew his stuff in a big way.

*Only 10 of the 100 students were girls.  I'm going to start working with my girls right now!

*These kids had to get around 40 rounds of questions correct at this bee in order to win.  I assure you that these are not easy questions.  

*I really wanted to ask their moms how many kids they have because I feel a little like a slacker, and the only way I was able to feel better was because I tell myself that I have more kids and cannot possibly prepare my kids as well as they prepared theirs.  Really, it must have taken so many hours of quizzing by parents for months or even years to reach the final rounds.  My kid is very well rounded, doing well in so many areas of life, so I also tell myself that it must not be the case with the winners there.  Shh. Don't burst my bubble!  It's possible that they are well rounded, too, I do realize.  Brishen thinks that I should help the next round of little Moores become more specialized so they can win such events.  He thinks that being well-rounded is over-rated.  In a few years he may change his mind.

Here are some pictures from the Bee and also from our trip.

 Each student put a pin in their home town.  The west side of the state was a bit under-represented!  Brishen was the only one from El Paso.

The first day we went to Legoland Discovery Center.  It seemed like a good place to go since Brishen has liked Legos for most of his living days.  He would have fit in there better if he were a preschooler.  Oops.  We did see some cool Lego creations, though.  After the Bee we had a couple hours to kill before our flight, so we went to the aquarium that is across from Legoland.  It was very nice for a mall aquarium.  We got to pet little sharks! 

The same mall had an awesome candy store.  Brishen wants to move right in, I believe. 

I am very proud of Brishen for making it to this level of the Geographic Bee!  It was such a great event to witness.  I left inspired to get out our geography songs CD and US puzzle to start inspiring a love of geography in my little ones.  I also left inspired to learn a little more myself.  It's hard to see a tiny 4th grader have so much more knowledge than I do!