The Odyssey Begins

We attended our first meeting of a new homeschool group today. Well, sort of. We joined an Odyssey of the Mind team as a part of Seminole Learning Community, our local homeschooling group.

Odyssey of the Mind is an educational program that revolves around a creative problem-solving competition. Students of all ages form teams to work on an assigned problem for months, without input from any adults. The teams can then present their creative solutions in a skit at a regional competition, with winners going on to state, and even national level. For the K-2 level, there is only one problem, but the other levels have several problems from which to choose. Also, our level (K-2) is not judged, but the teams can present their solutions in front of the other teams.

I'm still learning about the program, but, as I said, our first team meeting was today, and it was AWESOME! The kids played, did some teambuilding and communication exercises, and did a spontaneous problem-solving activity. I couldn't believe how much Max got out of it - and he was so excited to tell Daddy all about it ("An odyssey is like a quest, Daddy, but in the minds!")

There were some issues, of course, including a melt-down by our favorite boy because he didn't feel listened to, but it was enlightening to just let the kids work things out on their own, without any guidance or direction or interference from the moms. I'll admit, it was much harder than I thought it would be NOT to step in and try to solve Max's challenges for him. But, in the end, he learned so much more than he would have, had I "helped".

Kudos to Naomi, who got our team going and is a fantastic facilitator! I can't wait to see where all of this goes!