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

• Curriculum for Elementary School (132 KB DOC)

• Curriculum for Intermediate/Middle School (156 KB DOC)

• Guidelines for Inventors (39 KB DOC)

• Inventor’s Log (85 KB DOC)

OPTIONAL DOCUMENTS (These are older documents available for free from their website. Please continue reading below…)

• Invention Plan (43 KB DOC) – You may wish to use this form to inform and involve the parents

• 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

• 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.