Playing Catch Up

So, I've been taking pictures and planning posts in my head, but I haven't gotten in the habit of posting frequently. So, rather than skip all of my posts for the last couple of weeks, I'm posting them now.

This is Annika's knowledge bowl team. The competition was on March 15th. Annika prepared for it by going to school an hour early 3 days a week, starting after Christmas break. The topic was Science, and Annika's areas of expertise were Heat, Plants, Matter, and Light (they divided it up by topic so each team member had an area they specialized in). The competition to just make it on to one of the three 3rd/4th grade teams for her school was fierce, with only half of the kids actually making the team. Annika not only won a spot, but was on the only one of her school's three teams to rank in the top ten for the district! She did a great job!
Here's the team, it consists of three 4th graders and two 3rd graders (one of which is Annika).

Typical Annika.

The team can confer on the answers to the questions.

The thing that makes me the most proud is how much she learned. Three nights ago Mike and I were helping her with her homework, and while trying to help her understand one of her spelling words, Mike asked her what convection was. In exasperation I started to tell him she didn't know that, but was interrupted by Annika explaining what convection is. Mike just looked at me and asked me what I thought she was learning all those mornings. Yeah, good point.