Contests
Entering contests is a fun activity for kids. They can practice their writing skills, learn about new subjects, and may even end up winning a great prize. We've collected some of the most interesting, challenging, and fun contests available for kids to enter.
Contests for Kids
Global Virtual Classroom Contest
The Global Virtual Classroom Contest is a global team cooperation and website-building activity for students from 7 to 18 years of age. Using Internet technologies to communicate, up to 100 teams of three schools each will build Websites on topics of their choosing. Each team will consist of three schools from three different countries. Team websites will be judged by a panel of VIP judges.
Intel International Science and Engineering Fair
The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) is the world's largest pre-college celebration of science. Held annually in May, the Intel ISEF brings together over 1,400 students from more than 40 nations to compete for scholarships, tuition grants, internships, scientific field trips and the grand prize: a $50,000 college scholarship. Science Service founded the ISEF in 1950 and is very proud to have Intel as the title sponsor of this prestigious, international competition.
We the People Ideas of America Essay Contest
As part of its We the People initiative, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) invites high school juniors to participate in an essay contest that invites them to reflect on The Idea of America.
UCTheFuture - Life in the Year 2047
This contest involves electronically or manually submitting a graphic depiction (drawing, photo or other image) along with a 50 to 100-word description of what an aspect of the world will look like in the year 2047. A $1,000 prize will be awarded to the winning entry chosen from the first 50 entries submitted and selected for viewing on the UCTheFuture web site.
MATHCOUNTS®
MATHCOUNTS® is a national math enrichment, coaching and competition program that promotes middle school mathematics achievement through grassroots involvement in every U.S. state and territory. After several months of coaching, participating schools select students to compete individually or as part of a team in one of the more than 500 written and oral competitions held nationwide and in U.S. schools overseas. Winners at the local level proceed to state competitions, where the top 4 Mathletes® and top coach earn the right to represent their state or territory at the national level. At all levels, MATHCOUNTS challenges students' math skills, develops their self-confidence and rewards them for their achievements. Students enrolled in the 6th, 7th, or 8th grades are eligible to participate in MATHCOUNTS competitions.
USA Computing Olympiad /International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI)
The IOI is the premier world wide high school computer programming competition. The USACO supports pre-college computing around the world through computer programming competitions and training materials. The USACO holds six Internet Contests during the academic year, and in the late Spring conducts the US Open, a proctored exam. Based on the results of these contests, 16 students are invited to an all-expense-paid training camp in the early summer, where 4 students are selected to be the US Team at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). To access the current year's information, click on the link on the left-hand menu.
Arbor Day National Poster Contest
Join over 74,000 fifth grade classrooms and home schools across America in the Arbor Day National Poster Contest. The theme chosen will increase your students’ knowledge of how trees produce and conserve energy. The free Activity Guide includes activities to use with fifth grade students to teach the importance of trees in producing and conserving energy. These activities correlate with National Science and Social Study Standards. The Guide also includes all of the information you need for poster contest participation.
ExploraVision
ExploraVision is a competition for all students in grades K-12 attending a school in the U.S., Canada, U.S. Territory or a Department of Defense school. Homeschooled students are eligible to enter. It is designed to encourage students to combine their imagination with their knowledge of science and technology to explore visions of the future. Teams of students select a technology, research how it works and why it was invented, and then project how that technology may change in the future. They must then identify what breakthroughs are required for their vision to become a reality and describe the positive and negative consequences of their technology on society. Winning ideas have focused on things as simple as ballpoint pens and as complex as satellite communications. The student teams write a paper and draw a series of Web page graphics to describe their idea. Regional winners make a Web site and a prototype of their future vision.
What IFFF? Kids Film Competition
The International Family Film Festival offers a kids film competition, designed to promote and encourage the creation and sharing of family film product through film exhibition, professional and children's hands-on workshops, seminars, forums and engaging post-film discussions. Film competition categories are individual or class projects for grades 3-6, 7-9, and 10-12. Film categories include Drama, Comedy, Animation-Computer & Animation-Classic, Documentary, and Educational. Final projection film/video has to be on VHS.
Let's Get Real
Let's Get Real™ is an academic competition and an opportunity for teams of students to gain experience working on real business challenges. Corporate sponsors supply real challenges for which teams submit solutions in business format. Each team chooses from the list of challenges the one(s) it finds most interesting. Challenges might include areas such as environmental issues, manufacturing, distribution, engineering, software creation, human resources, health and safety, facilities design, public relations, or any other areas deemed important to the corporations involved. There is no entry fee for teams.
Making Contests a Part of Home Learning
Contests in Your Curriculum
Contests offer a new educational experience for the homeschooled child. Entering a contest increases motivation, develops research skills, adds excitement to assignments, develops character, and enriches your curriculum choices. Learn how to choose which contests to enter, which contests to avoid, and how to get the most out of entering contests.
Featured Resources

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. We get commissions for purchases made through links on this site.

Learn and Do Unit Studies
Hands on unit studies on a variety of subjects, including science, life skills, arts and crafts, and animals and insects. Also offers free mini units available for download.
MCP PLAID Phonics
MCP PLAID Phonics from Modern Curriculum Press incorporates best practices for teaching essential phonemic awareness and phonics skills with lots of flexibility. Find information on these products here.
The Absorbent Mind
In response to the crisis in American education, more than five thousand public and private schools across the nation have adopted the timeless Montessori Method of teaching, of which this book is the cornerstone. Written by the women whose name is synonymous worldwide with child development theory, The Absorbent Mind takes its title from the phrase that the inspired Italian doctor coined to characterize the child's most crucial developmental stage: the first six years.A new foreword by John Cha...
The Exhausted School: Bending the Bars of Traditional Education
These 13 essays, presented at the 1993 National Grassroots Speakout on the Right to School Choice, illustrate how education reform actually works. Written by award-winning teachers and their students, these essays present successful teaching methods that work in both traditional and nontraditional classroom settings. “Gatto’s voice is strong and unique.” — Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul
Homeschoolers' Success Stories : 15 Adults and 12 Young People Share the Impact That Homeschooling Has Made on Their Lives
Despite their growing numbers, many homeschoolers still find their experience somewhat isolating. This collection of short biographies aims to alleviate some of that loneliness. While the stories profile modern-day homeschool grads and students, famous homeschooled personalities from the past are offered up early in the book for historical inspiration. John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, photographer Ansel Adams, poet Robert Frost, and...