In January, our teams in Grades 2 through 5 participated in the Continental Math League (CML) math contest. Grades 2 and 3 had their first meets out of three, while Grades 4 and 5 had their third meets out of five. CML has recently published the current standings for all teams in the country.

CML is a difficult contest, in particular, for our older kids who compete in the harder Pythagorean Division. While very few students in the country get perfect scores, the best part about CML is that many students get to contribute to the team score. So, the success of the team is not determined by how well the few top students do, but how well everyone on the team does! And so, I am most proud of the fact that on our teams, 41 out of 54 students have already contributed points to the team scores.

Not surprisingly, our teams are doing very well. Here is the summary of the team results:

• Grade 2. Our team is T-1^st in Illinois, T-2^nd in Midwest Region, 16^th place nationally. Two of our students are among only three in Illinois with a perfect score.
• Grade 3. Our team is 1^st in Illinois, 3^rd place in Midwest Region, 18^th place nationally. One of our students is among only two in Illinois with a perfect score.
• Grade 4. Our team is 1^st place in Illinois and Midwest Region, 6^th place nationally. One of our students is the only one in Midwest Region with perfect scores in all three meets; three other students are among a handful with 17 points out of 18.
• Grade 5. Our team is 1^st place in Illinois, 2^nd place in Midwest, 13^th place nationally. One of our students is among only four in Illinois with perfect scores in all three meets, and another student is among a handful with 17 points out of 18.

We are very proud of our students and their accomplishments! It just goes a long way to prove that when kids have fun learning math, they become really good at it!