Posting this here hoping some of you will be able to help vote for my son.
It looks like there’s one free vote available and they want donations for any more than that. Definitely not looking for more than the one free vote to be clear. Per rules I can’t “buy” votes so this is something I am just sharing on my personal pages for now.
They asked for a reply about why we entered and my full reply was too long feel free if you’re interested to read that below. There’s also more information on his profile.
Thanks all
Like many here we love animals and nature.
In the big picture it’s one of the reasons we chose to homeschool our special needs child.
As a child I spent as much time as I could outside everyday, no shoes and usually a bug net or critter keeper in hand. I enjoyed fishing and camping to get more out in nature as well.
Pretty much every night I had nature and animal shows I looked forward to watching until the programs went off for the day. As a learned to read I also had plenty of books with either animal facts or stories as well. I was the weird animal knowledge savant kid as long as I can remember.
While well meaning, I was always told to focus on improving skills I struggled with instead. Never really getting to fully love school and learning because of it. Also I felt too held back and bored being in the special educational program. I wish someone had realized I was actually gifted.
Knowing I didn’t want that for my son, we’ve embraced a path he can influence. As his interest form or change sometimes even daily. Our week isn’t a strict schedule with no down time to recharge. We’ve filled our personal library with plenty of books for him to learn everything there is to know about our amazing planet and beyond. He also has at his finger tips the ability to learn anything he could want.
We didn’t realize that getting pets would influence so much of his learning as well. When we got out first family pet, a Leopard gecko he fully immersed in watching videos about them. Picked up all the new vocabulary as far diet and care. He was fairly non-verbal, definitely never conversational speech. But he loved talking to her!
Since we’ve added cats, fish and a dog to our home zoo. He’s made leaps and bounds that we honestly never thought possible. Speaking without prompts and not completely relying on scripting. He’s incredibly smart and also has the most creative imagination.
We know this contest would be an experience of a life time for a kid like him. He’s likely to never get another opportunity like this.
Also if anyone else entered their kids for this contest I don’t mind if you also post your kids profiles below.