Odyssey of the Mind

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Former coach here- you will also get parents who view this as babysitting time as well as suck up activities to put on their child's AAP application.

About how much of a commitment was it? Weekly hours out in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Former coach here- you will also get parents who view this as babysitting time as well as suck up activities to put on their child's AAP application.

About how much of a commitment was it? Weekly hours out in.

NP here - 5 hours a week minimum

[Anonymous]

Seriously? We did the younger class and it was 1-2 hours a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously? We did the younger class and it was 1-2 hours a week.

Seriously. We were told 3 hours a week as a minimum and then it expanded to 5 to closer to 6 hours a week. DC was in 4th and 5th grade when we did OM.

[Anonymous]

Earlier years is less time- our group (again- comprised mostly of kids with parents solely interested in getting material for their AAP application) only wanted one meeting per week. So as a coach it was about 3 hours or less per week. If you do decide to coach, try to get an assistant coach before enrolling. There aren't that many volunteers so don't expect to have a pick of help (at least at our school).

[Anonymous]

My experience was with older students but our team did about two hours a week, usually Sunday afternoon, until it got closer to competition then they met more. One idea that worked well for the team was two coaches, one that helped them focus on the long term problem and the other focused on spontaneous. The team worked on spontaneous a little bit each week, then went into their long term. Oh, plus any time the kids choose to on their own in between, like writing scripts, etc. Again, it is up to the team to decide, parents/adults can NOT give outside assistance,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a former coach, I would say not to start until the kids are at least 3rd grade, maybe 4th. Younger than that, it really is babysitting. And mayhem. Younger kids can't stay on task long enough to get anything meaningful accomplished.

I don't agree with this at all. I'm the school coordinator for my DDs ES and I started it up when she was in K and have continued for 3 years. I also coach her team and we had a great team in K and 1st. The team created great results and our meetings were NOT babysitting. They worked hard.

[Anonymous]

I did this with 4th and 5th. Way more than 3 hours a week, especially in the last month. I may have had a third grader, at most one. I would NOT GO NEAR THIS with kids younger than that. There is great potential for mayhem, since the problems are very open-ended.

Then, if they win locally (not likely if you do the minimum), there's an overnight trip to States. If you don't plan on letting them go if they are invited, then you need to sort it out before you do the regional competition.

[Anonymous]

Do they require the kids to fundraise to pay for their overnights? I only ask because that's the only reason I can think of why my neighbor would ask me to help pay for their child's trip, that it's required. I've never asked any of my neighbors to pay for any of my daughter's gymnastics meets; it wouldn't enter my mind, but they're asking for handouts? And yes, I know them well and they can afford it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do they require the kids to fundraise to pay for their overnights? I only ask because that's the only reason I can think of why my neighbor would ask me to help pay for their child's trip, that it's required. I've never asked any of my neighbors to pay for any of my daughter's gymnastics meets; it wouldn't enter my mind, but they're asking for handouts? And yes, I know them well and they can afford it.

Huh? One overnight, and then only if they make states, you decide to go, and the state competition is far (some years yes, some years no.)

Fundraise: No. We didn't touch fundraising, and there isn't time, anyway. We booked ourselves at a reasonably priced hotel, each kid brought a parent.

Required: it is a huge deal if one of the kids can't go to the next level of competition because it means rewriting the skit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do they require the kids to fundraise to pay for their overnights? I only ask because that's the only reason I can think of why my neighbor would ask me to help pay for their child's trip, that it's required. I've never asked any of my neighbors to pay for any of my daughter's gymnastics meets; it wouldn't enter my mind, but they're asking for handouts? And yes, I know them well and they can afford it.

I wonder if this was the same team that expected the PTA to help finance its trip and was upset when the PTA refused. The team did major fundraising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do they require the kids to fundraise to pay for their overnights? I only ask because that's the only reason I can think of why my neighbor would ask me to help pay for their child's trip, that it's required. I've never asked any of my neighbors to pay for any of my daughter's gymnastics meets; it wouldn't enter my mind, but they're asking for handouts? And yes, I know them well and they can afford it.

I wonder if this was the same team that expected the PTA to help finance its trip and was upset when the PTA refused. The team did major fundraising.

Is it possible that there were kids on the teams whose parents couldn't afford the trip so all parents were asked to fundraise, even the ones who were able to pay for their own children?

[Anonymous]

I think, if we had had a kid on the team who couldn't have afforded the overnight trip (THERES JUST ONE), we would have quietly handled it ourselves or quietly asked the PTA. We are talking one night in a Holiday Inn and some food.

Unless the team is going to worlds (and there was NO F%$#ing WAY I WAS DOING THAT), there really isn't that much money to raise.

[Anonymous]

op here. Thanks for all the great insight. Keep it coming. Going to informative meeting this week and will be better prepared with questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did this with 4th and 5th. Way more than 3 hours a week, especially in the last month. I may have had a third grader, at most one. I would NOT GO NEAR THIS with kids younger than that. There is great potential for mayhem, since the problems are very open-ended.

Then, if they win locally (not likely if you do the minimum), there's an overnight trip to States. If you don't plan on letting them go if they are invited, then you need to sort it out before you do the regional competition.

School coordinator here again. I have to again say that we have done this with younger kids and had a great experience. I work full time so I don' t have a lot of time on my hands when I'm coaching my DCs team, but I did put some prep into making sure we had a plan for each meeting - some warm up activities, spontaneous problem practice and then time for the long term problem. Our kids and parents had a great time and the learned so much it was amazing.