My Son and the National Geographic Bee

My oldest son is a regular smarty pants. Really. When he was 3 1/2, I taught him to read. From then on there was no stopping him. He. Reads. Everything. He had read the entire Chronicles of Narnia Series by the time he was seven years old. I am so very thankful for his love of books and learning.

Up until this year, I had heard of a Spelling Bee, but never a Geographic Bee. Early in the school year, schools across the nation test children grades 4 and up on their geography knowledge. The top scorers then participate in a school Geographic Bee, sponsored by National Geographic of course.

We weren't really surprised when he made it into the Bee, he has loved maps since he was five. What did shock us, was when he won...and beat out all the fifth graders. Wanna know the question he answered to win?

"What country holds the worlds five highest mountain peaks?"

Do you know?

We had recently had a discussion about Mt. Everest at our house. Afterward, he did a little more investigation on his own because his curiosity was piqued. During this he discovered that one of the countries that Everest touches is Nepal. He had read enough on the topic to reason through the answer and conclude that Nepal had the 5 highest mountain peaks. He was right.

The teacher guiding us through this process informed us that the next step would be a written test. If he scored high enough on this test, he would qualify to go on to the state competition. In over 10 years of teaching, she had never had a student make it to that level. She began one on one tutoring with him once a week. At home, we had discussions with him about how proud we were of how far he had come. We also talked about how difficult the test would be, and that no matter what happened he should be proud of himself.

Well, wouldn't you know it, we got word a few days ago that he qualified! He is going to compete against 99 other kids, two days before his 10th birthday. He will be among the youngest in the room. Very few fourth graders ever make it this far. We are so very proud, and absolutely amazed. What in the world will he become?

There is a National Geographic Bee Webpage that has daily questions from previous Bees. Today's first question is...

The Jaffna Peninsula, a region inhabited primarily by Tamils, forms the northern tip of what island country?

Do you know?
Me neither...
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SRI LANKA

What am I supposed to do with a kid who is already smarter than me at 9 years old?