Today was our homeschool group's Geography Bee!  It was the first one we'd ever participated in.  Last year they had a Spelling Bee and Cameron won 2nd in his age group.  The wonderful lady that organized the Geography Bee sent us lots of stuff to study!  Sadly, our schooling kept getting interrupted and we didn't get to study as much as we wanted. (I keep saying we because there was a LOT of stuff in there that mom was learning about right along with ds!).  I contemplated letting Cameron skip the Bee, thinking we hadn't studied enough but decided to go ahead with it just so that Cameron could see what it was all about and be a good sport and participate like he committed to, oh so many moons ago!

We stopped to pick up another family that was having car trouble and when we called to let Cari know we were running a little late she told us it was ok because only 1 other family had shown up so far!  Imagine that!!!!  Fortunately by the time we arrived, several other families had shown up and we were ready to go.  The kids were divided into 3 levels (they were given level specific material) and for the Bee, there were 3 stations.  Unlike the Spelling Bee, where you miss one word and you are out, the Geography Bee was based on a point system.  Some of the questions were written questions and some had to be answered orally.  Each child had a booklet where their points were recorded.  Cameron was excited to get several correct answers (he thought he wouldn't remember anything at all!).  I really loved seeing his big grin when he got an answer right!

The kids were all very well behaved.....even all the younger siblings!  There were no tears (Spelling Bee was a whole different story there!) and every child came home with a "souvenier" of their "travels". Cameron came home with a cool map of the U.S.A. to color (one of those "fuzzy" ones).  Other kids got Almanacs or placemats or cool guides to the states.  The clear inflatable world globe balls were a huge hit as well!

 The 3 kids in each level that won definitely deserved to win....one girl won with 72 correct answers out of 77 questions!  Wow!!  Every kid received a certificate for participating and an activity sheet to be completed for a free ice cream cone. 

Cari, her husband and the other adults that helped out did such a great job.  It was challenging but not overwhelming and we all learned something along the way.  I'll try to post pictures when I can figure out my new camera stuff.  Hopefully we'll do it again soon!  Next year might be a Spelling Bee year....we'll see.