I believe that academic competitions are a wonderful avenue for our bright kids to test themselves agains others. One, relatively new in USA but widely popular in Europe, is called Math Kangaroo. Check it out at www.mathkangaroo.org
maybe there is a site near you. If no, you can open a site yourself. I did it last year in Utah and within 2 short weeks was able to attract 28 kids to participate. Check it out, it serves kids from grade 2-12. I can answer any questions you might have from an organizational perspective.
Ania

There is still time to register for Math Kangaroo !
Competition will take place on March 15, 2007 in the evening.
Registration deadline is December 23. It cost $20, which includes t-shirt, certificate of participation, two small prizes and a letter to the school principal (great way to have your child stand out from the crowd), not to mention prizes should your kids place in the top 10.
Go to www.mathkangaroo.org
I truly recommend it!
Ania

Hey, yesterday I could access Math Kangaroo at the link here, but today it says that the domain is expired! Any idea what's going on?

Being nosey, I clicked on it, and got this...

"Thank you for your interest in the international mathematical competition for students grades 2 through 12 "Math Kangaroo 2007".
Due to technical problems our web page has been withdrawn for few hours. Please check tomorrow. We apologize for all the inconvenience."

You are right, web page is not accessible at this time. This morning it was still working as I did register some students at my school. Check back tomorrow :-)
Ania

www.mathkangaroo.org is back up. Check it out.
Ania

Well, the competition is over. This year Utah had gone from 1 to 2 sites and between those two sites we have seen close to 70 kids! I consider this amazing, especially since I started the whole thing here last year thinking that just mine kids and those of my friend's will participate. As I am reading through these posts, I can see that a few of you have signed your kids
for participation . How did you like the event, what do you think
about questions? The pictures should be up shortly.
Ania

The results are in (well, sort of:-). Any of your brilliant kids participated? Would you like to share? This competition is different, isn't it?
Ania

Hi Ania,

My kid's class participated (1st New Mexico participants). I really couldn't get much out of my 8 yr old or the teachers (it was a busy time of year), but they said they liked it. They thought the process of participating was very smooth and uncomplicated.

The middle school math teacher didn't participate because she was at a conference that week (I would have thought it'd be something a substitute could administer). Maybe next year.

The teacher of my son's class ended up being very pleased about the Math Kangaroo contest and delighted that her students did well. They're planning to do it again next year--so that's good.

Are there other math competitions anyone recommends for elementary school kids (4-5th grade?). The students already do Continental Math and the other one I was looking at was the Math Olympiad. Let me know if you recommend others.

Cym