Busy Boy

Yesterday Mitchell competed in the county finals of the National Academic League (NAL). This is one of many activities to which he belongs. In the last three weeks, he has been busy with chess club, Science Olympiad, a week at Space Camp, boy scouts and NAL. Did I mention basketball? Mitch is team manager for his 7th grade team and intends to play on a team at his best friend's Mormon Church.

I am relaying these episodes backwards. Mitchell goes to Paisley International Baccalaureate Magnet School. (Yes, it is a public school.) Our NAL competitor was Hanes Magnet School for the Highly Academically Gifted. They are the defending national champions. We were trounced 82 to 49.

Second in the county is just fine and our boy loves it. Competition is divided into quarters. Scoring is too complicated to explain here. It is like those college bowl shows where students are quizzed on facts and math skills. Mitch cannot wait to start all over again next year.


Last week he was in Huntsville, AL at Space Camp. This is the second year he has gone there. He loves it, too. This is a field trip with his school. They get a mission to perform as a team and then have a graduation ceremony on the last morning before the nine hour ride home.

Poor bud came down with a fever and wound up in sick bay for a couple of days but he did manage to complete his mission and graduate with his group. The kids he worked with were from California. They asked for a volunteer to work with a group not from their own school and Mitch stepped forward. He has never been afraid to meet new people. They left for this trip at 4:30 in the morning the day after regionals for Science Olympiad.

Here they compete with science experiments and know-how. Mitchell is in two events. In "Egg O Nauts" he pressure launches a rocket he made out of one liter soda bottles complete with landing capsule and parachute. The object is to get the rocket up as far and as long as it will go and then have a raw egg land unharmed.

"Road Scholars" is a test of map reading skills. He and his partner, Scott, took second in "Road Scholars" and third in "Egg O Nauts". If their egg didn't crack they would have taken the gold.




The Paisley team placed third overall so next we will be off to the State competition in Raleigh April 4th&5th.




The other events where we spend time are chess tournaments, one of which was held the Saturday before Science Olympiad. This is a day long slog for parents. We go to a local middle school. Clear Wire donates free wireless at these events. (Thank you!)


We bring thermoses of coffee, snacks and our laptops, and camp out all day with a group of friends who also have kids playing chess. The kids play Yugioh in the halls when they are not in the cafeteria playing chess.

Most of our friends take shifts because they have more than one kid. They trade off half way through the day. Not so, those crazy Tagues. We were there from 8 a.m. until we cut out early at 3 p.m. to get to a Demon Deacon basketball game. Mitch played in all four games winning two and losing two. He came away with a medal. I think he has about seven of these.

Even though it is only March, these activities are winding down now. There is the State Science Olympiad weekend and there will probably be a couple more local chess tournaments. I will let you know how it goes at State. He needs to work on his bottle rocket. I never did all these things when I was in school. It makes me happy to be so involved in my son's life. Lord knows it won't be long before he is off on his own. Don't anybody blink!