Among Greatness

Yesterday Skip and I got to watch Scooter participate in the provincial finals of the Canadian Geography Challenge. It is a competition open to Ontario geography students from Gr. 7 - 10. The majority of students were in Scooter's Gr. 9 cohort. 54 students were vying for 5 places on the provincial team and Scooter made it to the top 5 and will be competing in the national finals on May 15, 2008. He will be competing online under the supervision of his teacher and we will get to monitor the proceedings online as well from our home.

The provincial semi-final competition yesterday had the students divided into 6 groups located in different locations around the school. They were asked questions and had 15 seconds to write down their answers. They would then simultaneously display their answers. There were 6 rounds of questions in the morning. After lunch, the top ten students' names were revealed and they took their place on the stage for the final competition where the top 5 provincial representatives would be chosen. Alphabetically, Scooter was number 9 in the top 10. There were 6 more rounds of questions, this time asked by TV and radio meteorologist, Harold Hosein. There were three ties in the end which were broken in further rounds of questioning but when it was all finished, Scooter had captured a spot in the top 5! We were thrilled! He will go on to compete online in the National Finals of the Canadian Geography Challenge on Thursday, May 15, 2008 under the supervision of his teacher. His father and I will be able to monitor the goings-on from home as the action will be viewable online. I guess all those trips we've taken him on, his reading the Reader's Digest Children's Atlas cover to cover when he was about 6, watching all those disaster and nature shows on TV and playing the geography quiz on Facebook has paid off! Way to go, Scooter!

I knit almost an entire second sock during the competition:

I finished the afterthought heel last night.

It is the Regia Galaxy sock yarn that I think is so cool because it looks like the rings around Saturn.

I've also been working on a new clapotis. This time it'll be a bit wider as the yarn is 200m longer. I'm using the Fleece Artist Blue-Faced Leicester DK yarn I bought last week. I'm loving how it is turning out.