Invention & Imagination Curriculum – CT Invention Convention is not limited to CT residents
Please note: The curriculum is NOT limited to CT residents, but the CT Invention Convention participants must be CT residents. The CIC (CT Invention Convention) provides a great innovative curriculum for students in Grades K – 8. The major difference between hosting a Science Fair and Invention Convention is that a student researches, reports & displays work of past Scientists for a Science Fair, while they are fostering the love and promotion of creative, outside-of-the-box and forward-thinking, problem solving, innovation, and imagination for an Invention Convention.
Of course, there’s a great benefit for participating a Science Fair and we support them. But, one must choose to participate in one or the other, we recommend participating in an Invention Convention.
You may remember that our eldest daughter invented/designed the Muslim-on-the-Go Portable Prayer Pack. We followed CIC’s whole curriculum, and we held a local invention convention in which the CIC founders/organizers were our judges. Six students were selected to compete at the statewide event, and 3 of the entries were our 3 daughters. Our eldest one 2 awards, Lincoln Financial Presidential Award & the CIC Recognized Student Award.
The full-day event will never be forgotten for our entire family. They had a scavenger hunt-type of activity for students to learn about each Engineering Department at the University of Connecticut. The speakers were motivational. But, the girls gained most from participating in their peer judging circle, something unique to Invention Convention.
Our daughter has been blessed to be mentored by a local handbag designer, Dori of S1Bags. our daughter has a mentor who took her under her wing! Our samples will be sent by the end of November. If all goes well, we plan to host a prize in her honor, as other little inventors did the same, who started humbly off at CIC.
To participate in the CT Invention Convention, registration opens October 19, 2009. All the information is available here, (From the page:)
REQUIRED DOCUMENTS
OPTIONAL DOCUMENTS (These are older documents available for free from their website. Please continue reading below…)
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Invention Plan (43 KB DOC) – You may wish to use this form to inform and involve the parents
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School Judging Sheet (43 KB DOC) – If you have a school invention convention to select students for the state convention, you may wish to use this judging sheet
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Student Activity Booklet (67 KB DOC) – This booklet may be useful for getting the kids’ creative juices flowing.
If you are local and available, October 17, 2009, I highly recommend that you participate in the Teacher’s Training. They have additional information not available online. Since I could not participate in-person, we were able to do it over the phone, thought it wasn’t as long nor as good.
UPDATE: Due to high demand, they opened a January 9, 2009 training date. Homeschool parents are more than welcomed to get certified training from them too
Regardless, the CIC staff is available to assist in anyway possible, so register and get the materials sent to you, or
Also, you can just contact them, and let them know that Ponn Sabra recommended you to them. Either Charlie, Honey (Honora) or Helen will answer, and they all know me. I know that they are working with other states and countries, so don’t be shy to contact them even if you don’t live in CT.
My girls and I look forward to hosting a homeschool invention class in the state of CT. So, if you are interested, feel free to comment below.
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Category: Homeschooling
I decided to homeschool my 7.5 year old son, near the end of January
2010. He was going to a private school, which did not have a 2nd grade,
so the two second graders in the school had to sit with the third
graders and take the third grade lessons. My son was doing well
with the third grade lessons and assignements. After sometime we became hopefull that he could
take the thrid grade test at the end of the school year, since he was
grasping the concepts alright. We requested the school to allow him to take
the third grade test at the end of the school year, since he was
working so hard with third grade work, doing third grade homework, and
doing fine with it, we hoped for him to take the third grade test as
well, just to give it a try, we didnt want to hold him back and wanted
to allow him to give it a try.But the school was adamant about having
him take the second grade test at the end of the school year. And even
though he was not doing any second grade workbooks or school work,
they still insisted that he would take the second grade test.
Slowly they started judging the child, and started setting him up for
failure, just to prove that he is not fit to take the third grade
test. We knew better because we helped him with HW at home, and knew
very well what he could do and what he could not.
We did not want inexperienced individuals to judge our child. And we
wanted our child to give a try to a higher level if he is capable. We
withdrew our child from the school, hoping that we can tailor a
Homeschooling curriculum for him, that would be a good mix of second
and third grade, he may take 2nd or 3rd grade test at the end of the
year, but we knew we were giving him a chance in life, a chance that
he wouldn’t get in the rigid school systems.So in january we were left
on our own for the first time, completely responsible for our child’s
education, and to add to that, was a daunting challenge to tailor a
custom made curriculum, to suit his educational and intellectual
needs. It was very overwhelming !!! For 2 weeks, i was using old books
at home, from previous years of my 7 yr old’s older sibling, i was
making copies, I was tailoring my own comprehension question from
library books, I was copying story maps, i was planning my own
activities, i was nervous that the school year was half done, and I
didnt have time and leisure to explore in detail anything that may be
available in the markets. I just didnt want my child to waste time right in the middle of the school year. I was doing alot and
couldn’t leep at nights trying to make sure I have everything
available for the nest day. I was making new schedule after every
couple of days, coming up with the best thing for my child. This
continued until Ponn Sabra, from Hamden, CT, suggested that I join
Time4learning. That was the best thing that was suggested to me. I
joined time4learning on February 15th, and my work has become much
easier, and I don’t even have to work much hard to keep my child
motivated. He was missing his friends from school and it was important
for us to make him realise that studying at home is just as serious,
if not more, like studying at school. This was his first time, ever
staying at home toi study, and I wanted him to get the homeschooling
concept right, and to make sure that he takes it as seriously, as he
had been taking his school work. Time4learning helped me doing most of
that.
He loves his lessons. And the best part is, he can jump from 2nd to
third grade levels whenever he want and whenever he feels he wants to
learn more. And even by the end of the year , if he doesn’t choose
enough third activities, my heart is at peace knowing he has the third
grade option open at the upper right hand corner of his computer
screen. And he can take a third grade quiz whenever he wants.
And even though at the end of the school year he may end up taking the
second grade test anyways, during his school year he can take as many
third grade quizes as he wants and prove to himself that if he has
learnt something, no one can stop him from taking that quiz.
ThankYou Ponn and ThankYou Time4learning
[Reply]
Salam,
I’m sorry I entered my time4learning review at the wrong page.
I just wanted to say thanks for sharing this wonderful information about the invention convention.
S.
[Reply]
Ponn Sabra Reply:
March 4th, 2010 at 2:14 pm
Salaam Sister,
I updated your comment (a comprehensive and interesting review of T4L) and placed it on the right post here: http://americanmuslimmom.com/homeschool-curriculum-time4learning-review-part-4-mamas-review#comment-669
JazakaAllahkhir!
We are so happy your son is loving it as much as we do!
[Reply]