Oct. 24, 2009 - Bible Bee
I'm a little behind on blogging these days. I have a lot of ideas, but not a lot of time with a very mobile 10 month old.
I wanted to share our experience with Bible Bee, and encourage everyone to particiate next year.
As many of you know, this year was the first annual National Bible Bee.
There was a few gliches and tweaking, but overall, I feel that they did a good job for their first year.
I signed up my oldest 4 children to participate this year. Halfway through, I realized that it was too much for a 6 year old, and un-enrolled Josiah, but the other 3 kept studying for the Local Contest.
The amount of information to learn and memorize was overwhelming, but we were just enjoying memorizing more verses in a few months than we had done in the last few years.
Along with Category 1 verses (100 Total) Category 2 and 3 (Hundreds more), 6 books of the Bible to know in detail and hundreds of Bible Knowledge questions, we also sang along to many verses that our friend Pam put to karaoke tunes. That helped tremendously and we still go around singing the verses!
The Local Contest was held on Sept 12th. Everything went fairly smoothly, except for some last minute changes that stressed out the local coordinator (grin). One thing that we have learned is next year we will not host a local bee. It was a lot of work to prepare for ahead of time and it would have been much easier to find the closest bee, even if it's over an hour away, and just drive. I'm thankful that Pam and Carri were willing to head it up here though this year!
6 days after the Local Contest, we got word that Aslan had scored in the top 100 in his age category and was qualified to go on to the National Competition in Washington DC November 6th, 2009. We were very shocked, quite honestly. We thought he had done will on the Bible Knowledge section, but didn't do so well on the memory verses. He had only memorized category 1 and part of category 2, so in that part of the Bee, he only answered 2 or so right out of 8 that they asked of him. He was supposed to memorize through category 3 for the local bee.
To put a plug in here for the curriculum that we have been using for almost 5 years, Student of the Word...We really feel that studying the Bible in depth over the past 5 years using SOW played a huge part in Aslan knowing so much of the Bible. Whether you use SOW, or just read through the Bible as a family and discuss each section, there is nothing better you could be doing with your time than teaching your children God's Word and learning with them!
Back to Bible Bee. We were super excited to think that Aslan would be going to DC.
Over the next week, we received a few letters and emails explaining the National Bee process, and were shocked at some things we found out. They told us to expect to spend $3,500 on the whole weekend. YIKES. One rule that they have made is that the contestant and at least one parent were required to stay in the hotel where the Bee was held. We had to be a paid guest in that hotel for at least 3 nights. Those 3 nights would cost approximately $1,100 and our whole family wouldn't even fit in the room. They have a max of 5 people. That was a bit of a bummer. We were still willing to let Aslan go, but it was looking like the great family trip we had envisioned was not going to happen.
We decided to let Aslan made the decision. When he read the email the next morning, his eyes got big and he thought that was a lot of money when he didn't feel very prepared to go. (He would have had to memorize over 200 more Bible verses in 6 weeks).
We asked him to pray about it over the weekend and make a decision. We were willing to pay for it, if he was willing to really dedicate the next 6 weeks to memorizing like crazy.
Partly because he was also enrolled in an online Creation Apologetics class that requires 5-6 hours/week and partly because he said that he wasn't planning on winning this year, so he hadn't given his all, he decided to pass on the invitation to compete in the National Bee this year, and get a better head start next year and try again.
I have written to the Headquarters some of our disappointments in the cost and the fact that it wasn't large family friendly. We will give them grace though, as this is their first year and it is a huge undertaking. We are so happy that they have begun a National Bible Bee and will look forward to again competing next year. Hopefully, we will be able to work out a nice family vacation next November in a much cheaper hotel. (grin).
I do encourage everyone to join. It really has nothing to do with going to Washington, but everything to do with an incentive to memorize God's Word with friends. It has been a great thing.
Comments
Oct. 26, 2009 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Eunice
I'm so glad you posted about the Bible Bee. We're so proud of Aslan and his decision making abilities. That boy is grounded! Yes....in the Word :O)
I'm glad you wrote out the mini list of pro's and con's as well. That was a dilemma for us last year.....is it worth it to drive so far? We're an hour from everywhere.....
Nov. 9, 2009 - So good to get an update
Posted by seasonsmom
Hey, girl. I just saw crazy busy post an update on her FB about the videos of the BB and headed over to your page and blog to find out whatever happened with Aslan. Praise the Lord for working out the right thing in this situation. It is a bummer the expense part. I am surprised. How could they ask such a steep price knowing that a lot of families were large families? Might not have thought it thru. I sure hope they improve their policies next year. You could have easily found cheaper accommodations, but the requirement of staying in that samehotel, that is a bit odd. We've only found one Hotel 6 that didn't have the fire regulation of five per room. ONE! We kept returning to it on our way to and from DC many times, the rooms were very large. Amazing limit huh? Even with our small brood. Have you heard the story how Hingle got all his 12 kids in one hotel room? Hilarious. But he did and he didn't lie either. He was asked how many people would be staying in the room at the desk. he replied my wife and our children, to which the clerk just shrugged. She didn't ask how many children or anything. LOL! Ellen said they were like sardines all over the floor, LOL! Bless ya!
