Since we were gone to a wedding the majority of this past week I missed this cool contest that was posted on my local HS loop.   http://www.storytubes.info/

It's for grades 1-6 and our oldest won't be able to participate in it.  I wish we knew about it a week or 2 earlier. I've always wanted to make a Youtube video. We've attempted today but it will really take time. So, all of you technocrati wizes, have at it. Help your kids learn how to edit and make a cool 2 min movie about a book.  We gave it a good try this am, but I just couldn't handle 4 stories with a dumb camcorder whose owner's manual I couldn't find anywhere. The exposure was so high we couldn't find a room dark enough to film, so we gave up.  I hope some of you will decide it's worth it and enter. Another thing that slowed me down (on top of unpacking and doing loads of laundry and trying to consign some kids's clothes for KCC (kidsclothesconnection.com) after a weeks absence) was the statement in the contest rules that first 2,000 entries in each region are guaranteed a review for Top Ten consideration and subsequent voting in their selected categories.  Entries beyond this number will be screened if possible, as determined by the regional library partner. So, that was a bummer.  I figured to get into the 2000 one has to be mighty quick to enter first thing tomorrow am.  But making a 2 min quality movie might be daunting to unexperienced parents like me. I know some of you are good and hope one of your kids enters. If so, please, count on us to vote for you. Let us know the category and when to vote!  Have a ball!

I hope to mark my calendar for next year's contest and hope to put the movie making on my project list, like I don't have enough. But I plan on tackling it this summer after I get a gallon of blueberries picked and half in my tummy!

I entered Reading Rainbow's Story contest with our 1 and 2nd grader 2 weeks ago and we took 2 full days "off school" to get that done. Whew! One got her story back with a certificate of participation, another one nothing yet. So , we are hopeful. The youngest one doesn't know what to think about her entry-maybe it was disqualified. Both entries were in the same envelope. I hope that wasn't the prob. But she wrote it on her won and even typed it. I helped her choose her font and edited her grammatical mistakes and discussed syntactical ones on a 1st gr level.  She illustrated it and it was a long process but we did it!   I will try to take pics of the story and illustrations. So cool! You can view past winners and make your own story books. I bet RR has a contest in your state! Here is the link to the national winners http://pbskids.org/readingrainbow/contest/national.html

Enjoy!