I am exhausted tonight and very content. This is a long post but it all ties together and has been quite the journey for our family. And can I say that because we all worked and pulled together the celebration at completion was joyus for us all! Now to the memory.
As previously explained the kids are in speech competition season in FFA. Of course they compete and expect to do well. An added bonus of the district competition is the Parliamentary Procedure contest which is an exhibition using Roberts Rules or Order to debate various "hot" topics in ag. Harold had not learned the rules because he is shop guy but still wanted to compete. Thus we took matters into our own hands and had a parli practice at home for Family Home Evening.
Here Reed is moving the motion that we should read everyday for 1 hour.
Addie is moving that we should have dessert on any day that ends in Y. Obsiously these motions passed with the delegation being strongly in favor.
Livy moved a motion too as did the older kids. Everyone debated once and it was really fun. I was the chairwoman of course.
On a heavier or more challenging side was an opportunity that became available for Anna. Since there was only 1 extemporaneous speaker from the chapter the teacher offered for Anna to compete just to try the competition. This is the top tier of speakers in FFA, in my opinion. They are smart, quick on their feet, expert story tellers and brave!
We thought it over on Friday and on Saturday we began in earnest to tackle the monster of a contest this is. 30 differnt topic areas any one she could randomly draw for a speech. The speech was to be 4 minutes long but not long than 5 with 3 minutes of questions. 30 minutes to prepare and only 100 pages of articles to be taken to prepare the speech.
We began with Google and grandparents. Anna interviewed my dad, my brothers and spent some hours with Mark and Aliza searching magazines at grandmas. They had a great time and found a lot of information. I worked for hours on Monday and Tuesday like more than 12 copying and pasting relevant facts, figures, opinions, and explanations about a sundry list of agricultural challenges in oregon at this time. It was great. I have sick kids and they were content watching movies or sitting on my lap while I copied and pasted. She took some time to prepare speeches to practice writing and delivering speeches and I was very impressed with her ability to compose thoughtful oratories. The whole idea behind this late plan was for her to gain experience and to try her hand at a new contest no expectations just try it and see where you land.
I volunteered the day of the contest to check the notebooks I was surprised and relieved to see that she was equally prepared to what I thought was the best and far more prepared than most. She was nervous but had the large task of secretary for her parli team so didn't have too much time to stew. Iw was proud and cringing for her parli team. This was beginning level so a lot will be learned and ironed out in the next few years I'm sure.
When the day was done they swept the third place showings. A lot was learned and some great experience is tucked securely in their belts of life. Anna had a great speech. She was short on time meaning she spoke 3:10 minutes. Her facts were solid, her understanding was strong she is just young. She did not explore the opposite view to her own in her speech, and she needs to look up a lot more than the 30-45 seconds she did while sharing her prepared thoughts. She has room to grow but this is a pretty great perch from which to start. I'm very pleased with her effort and willingness to try and put in time working towards a challenge. (Again this I was the only parent who came to watch the speakers in my kids contests, other parents from our town came to watch their children in other areas.)
Harold was not thrilled with 3rd, he really wanted to go on in Creed but missed about 5 words. He answered his creed question well. He however struggled a bit with his questions in prepared as they were very technical. He is a charismatic speaker with a pleasant speaking voice. His large stature makes him a commanding presence especially in light of the fact that most speakers nowadays are young ladies. He really enjoyed the location of district as there was a pool table. He spent most of the day talking and shooting pool with fellow members from around the district. There were also ping-pong tables, foos ball, basketball, and rock painting for geo-caching. It was a great venue that allowed plenty of interaction activities to get these normal nervous youth off their cell phones and talking with each other.
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