Odyssey of the Mind

Last year Maggie joined Odyssey of the Mind and had so much FUN, so it was an easy decision for her this year when asked if she wanted to participate again.

(during last year's performance)

This year she just happened to be the only girl on her team, but that didn't bother her. They didn't get to start practicing until January this year (some teams practice year round) and I was AMAZED at how much they got done in less than 8 weeks. Her team was made up of four 1st graders and one Kindergartner. Odyssey of the Mind is a fantastic program, and I would encourage you to see if YOUR school has the program! It is so great to see the kids come up with their lines, and then their props. THEY have to do it all, you can't even hold the paper for them while they cut it, or help them trace things. They have to figure out ways to help each other, or do it themselves. They hot glue a lot, so they are very closely supervised, but they have it do by THEMSELVES...

This is the kids making some of their props a couple weeks before the show, they work really hard to get it all together in time.  And yes, I said they have to write their own lines (and then memorize them)

We have to get there EARLY (we were there BY 8am this year) so we make sure to bring LOTS of healthy snacks to get the kids ready!  Fionn was not so amused with having to sit at the school all day for the big competition, but he did his best to bear it (HA!)  We downloaded "Finding Nemo" to the I-phone so he made himself comfy and watched intently (hahahahaaaa....yeah right) as Maggie got ready for her turn to go in...Last year AND this year, Pop-pop came down and participated as a judge.  Mema came along to help cheer our girl on, and to help me entertain Fionn while we waited!

FINALLY, after they did their "Spontaneous" (its just them and the judges in a room and they have to solve a problem they are given) they waited another hour and then it was time for their turn to meet with the judges before going in to perform...

The judges ask them all kinds of questions about their props, who's idea things were, and ask who made what, and how they made them.  Then it"s their turn to go in. 

Fionn just happened to fall asleep just as Maggie's team was getting ready for their turn. We had hoped and prayed that it would happen that way, but never thought it actually would...As you can see he was VERY proud of his bis sister!! Everyday when she gets off the bus he runs screaming to her
"HUG, SISSY.....HUGGGGGGGG"
as he attaches himself to her legs! Everyday it melts my heart, he just loves his "sissy" soooo much!!
Okay, back to Odyssey of the Mind...
on stage they went...things were going well...

pop-pop and the other judges looked on as they performed their "surprise parties"
UNTIL...
Maggie forgot a line, and got upset about it...THAT threw off the boys, and suddenly no one remembered where they were in their skit...so they just stood there and stared at each other, and my poor girl just cried harder...

This my friends STILL makes me tear up to see...There was nothing I could do to help her remember so we prompted her on her line, and they got back on track...
They worked very hard as a team and helped each other get through it, and honestly besides that one little hiccup they did GREAT!

ALL the judges come up at the end and talk to the kids as they explain all their props and get a better look at them.  I didn't even notice this at the time, but at the very left of this picture is Pop-pop giving his princess some much needed love.  She was so devastated about what happened, it was heart-wrenching as a mom not to be able to run up and just grab her in the biggest hug I could!  I waited for them to finish talking to the judges, and scooped her up!

They all recovered and we told them all how proud of them we were. Here is a picture of her whole team, WITH all their props that they made! They ended up getting FIVE out of FOUR stars for all their hard work overall because of the amount of time and attention they put into the details of their props and skit.  Their skit included THREE different surprise parties, when all they needed was ONE.
Tonight there is an encore presentation at Maggie's school for the Parents and Principal, and the kids are really excited for it.  I'm home with Fionn tonight since I got to go the first time, but daddy is there seeing it for the first time.  He's been a little hesitant to watch the video from the competition with her crying in it, and let's not lie, I don't really want to watch it either.  Our poor girl.  She takes things so seriously, at SIX, geesh!  We had to talk over the last week about dance because now she's afraid of messing up in the big show at the end of the year!
We touched again on Brave Queen Esther last week, and she seems to be better about things now...
We have lots more to share, it was one long and crazy month, so more soon...I promise!!