Alpha Omega - State Math Tournament

May 3.

Thomas participated in Alpha Omega Math Club again this past year, and he and the team made the state finals, which were held at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.  After a super-early morning getting on the road to get to the campus by 9:00 a.m., Thomas met up with his teammates and the various competitions began.

Thomas and Jacob hanging out waiting for Thomas' teammates to gather.

The hall where the opening ceremony was held.

The area in the Student Union where family and teammates could meet up throughout the day.

Since he had the day off, Jacob came with us and met up with his buddy Nathan for lunch on campus.

Thomas had lunch with us in the Student Union.

Give Fernando a croissant, and this is what he does...

Jacob thinking about what to do for the afternoon.

During the afternoon competitions, Fernando and I wandered around campus and found this sculpture park, Darwin's Playground.

Finally, the awards ceremony began.

Thomas went forward to receive his award--Division 1A, Individual Test Score--Ninth Place!

Thomas and Adair went forward to receive another award--Pre-Calculus Team, Ninth Place!

The entire team went forward to receive their team award--Fifth Place in state, Division 1A, Team Score!

After the ceremony, the team and family members went outside for more pictures.

Celebrating with Mrs. M, Team Leader.

Thomas got to hold the Team 5th Place trophy.

Mrs. M and Thomas

After the ceremony, everyone found their cars and met up at an Italian fast food restaurant for dinner.  It was an exhausting day, to be sure, but a very fun one, too!  Plus it was fulfilling to see the rewards for all the hard work the team members put forth to win all the awards they did.

Back to life,
Christine

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Thomas, Math, and a Tournament

February 22.

We prodded Thomas, just a little, to join Alpha Omega Math Club this past school year.  I don't know that he needed much prodding, though, because he threw himself into the club with all the gusto he could muster.  Once again, he organized one of the most important aspects of the weekly club meeting:  Snacks.  :)

The ICTM regional math tournament was held at North Central College in Naperville on February 22, and Alpha Omega had a pretty good run, winning several awards and earning the privilege of going on to the state tournament on May 3 at the University of Illinois!

Here are some highlights of the regional tournament.

Thomas did some last minute preparations.

When not competing, students gathered at the library for snacks and games.

The team, with Mrs. M, their fearless leader!

Thomas waits for the awards ceremony to begin.

Mrs. M.

Setting out all the ribbons, plaques, and trophies.

When the awards were being announced for Calculator Team, our ears perked up a bit.  Thomas is one of the members of the team, and Mrs. M predicted they'd do well at regionals.  After a few years of awards ceremonies, we were familiar with hearing, "First place for ___ goes to Cornerstone!" 

Cornerstone is the other homeschool math club that competes at regionals; there are several other schools that also compete at our class 1A level.  Cornerstone is a well-established team, and Alpha Omega was an offshoot of that team, which grew to a large number of students.  Since they're well-established, and since they're homeschoolers, they've dominated both the regional tournament and the state tournament at our Class 1A level.  As a relatively young team (less than five years old), Alpha Omega has done a great job making dents in garnering awards all the way up to the state tourney.  We're also a very small team, so it has been very satisfying seeing the students do so well at the tournaments.

Okay, back to the awards ceremony...

Just before the ceremony host announced the winners, he looked down at our team (we were sitting up front just in front of him) and said, "Get ready for this..."  He then announced the second-place winners as Cornerstone.  I thought, "Well, okay."  And didn't think much else.

Then he announced, "And, first place for Calculator Team goes to Alpha Omega!"  WHAT??!!  That was us!  That was Thomas and his team!!  I completely forgot about my camera until he and his teammate Adair were up on stage!  :D

Shaking hands with one of his teammates.

He looks pretty happy.

Wow.  We were so excited!  Now it's on to state, and since the whole team qualified to go, the students have been practicing hard for this major tournament.

Great job, Thomas and the Alpha Omega team!!


Back to life,
Christine

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Alpha Omega Goes to State!

Hey, there!  I've been absent from blogging, but busy (flooded, really) with life.  So I let life happen, swirl around me, and toss me about for just a bit.  Now it's officially summer, the days are longer, and it's starting to get HHH (that's hazy, hot, and humid for you non-Midwest folks).  That means the air goes on and I get some lazy down-time at my photography computer in our deliciously cool basement.  :)

And, therefore, it means I play "catch-up" with blogging.   Here goes...

May 4.

I never did blog about the regional ICTM math tournament a few months back.  Never mind, though, because the team did well and got to go to the University of Illinois for the ICTM state tournament!  This year, Thomas was on the calculator team, which made it to state.  So, for the first time, we got to go to state with the team.  It was pretty exciting--and I have the photos to prove it.  :)

Thomas, ready for the day.

There were a lot of people there--both students and parents.

Thomas goes over the schedule.

(Most of) the team!

Waiting was really hard!

Award time!

I don't think the following images get boring:  they're of all the Alpha Omega students receiving their awards!  Such a little team, and they did so well!

Now, here's a BIG DEAL photo.  The calculator team made some mistakes, and didn't think they'd placed.  At all.  So when they were called for the Fifth Place award, they were shocked!  Joel and Thomas went up together; Thomas just followed Joel right up on stage, then right down.  I think he was thrilled to walk across that stage.

Yep--he was pretty excited.

Way to go, Thomas, and way to go, Alpha Omega!


Back to life,
Christine

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