Math season

When Mariah and Eliza were in elementary school there was a girl who completely bugged them who had the word "Mathlete" put on the back of her school sweatshirt instead of her name. It was because she was so good at both math and sports, duh! My girls would try to test her skills and poke holes in her confidence. People who act like they are smart are just so annoying to those of us who really are.

This year, I had two little mathletes of my own. Willa had been invited to be on the Mathletics team for a couple of years but didn't do it until this, her final year of eligibility, and Wyatt's first year. For those of you who haven't seen a mathletics competition, it is a mathematical team sport. There are three people on each team. You bring your calculator and pencil to a different school and sit at a table with your team eating snacks and collaborating on timed math questions. Parents photograph from the sidelines.  It is usually loud and fun. The kids are really engaged and have a great time. When they get a question right they cheer or pose like T-Bo. When they get a question wrong, the entire team slumps and cries out. Willa competed on the pre-algebra (7th grade) level team, and Wyatt was on the 5th grade team. This week they had regional finals and both of their teams took fourth place out of the 12 teams in their division. In addition, both of them were invited to compete in another math competition last Saturday. It was sponsored by KCATM, which is the Kansas City Area Teachers of Math. There were kids from at least three school districts there, maybe more. Wyatt competed in the individual 5th grade event and came home with one ninth place ribbon, two tenth place ribbons, and a twelfth place overall out of about 300 kids that earned him a medal and a T-shirt. We thought he did pretty well, considering that there are kids out there who really do consider this their sport and train rigorously for it year-round. We just showed up. Willa competed on a mathletics team that didn't place above 8th, so we're not sure where they fell in the rankings. It was mostly painful anyway, since she was having one of her headaches and was on a team she said she didn't work well with.

The event this week was the last one of a fairly successful season. When we were deciding what to do with Wyatt's new "Math Wizard" shirt, he decided to put it in his pajama drawer instead of wearing it to school every day. Smart choice there, Mr. Mathlete.