This past week Jacob’s school had a competition for a program they’ve been doing all year: Powerhouse Math.

Strangely enough, I couldn’t find much about the program when I Googled it.  Just a blog post by someone else in my neighborhood whose son earned a medal last year. But based on what I had learned earlier this year, it’s a program that teachers may choose to perform…or not perform…with their students.  Jacob’s class opted into the program.  Based on some of the examples Jacob described to me, it seems to work with kids’ logic skills more than the traditional math curriculum.

I had signed up to be a parent volunteer for this program, but my time requirements conflicted with other obligations I had on base, so I sadly had to say “Sorry, I can’t assist.”

Jacob brought home a medal and a trophy yesterday!  He was on a team that took first place for all of the 3rd grade classes (that opted into the program) and he also took the individual first place prize!

Jacob wore the medal on the school bus home. I’m tickled that he did this with such pride, since in my day I’d have probably been given a wedgie or had a sign stuck to my back if I wore a big medal that read “Mathematics”.