Introducing MADI to Kids

Everybody likes a challenge, right?

Sometimes a challenge is a test of your strength or endurance. Somebody can challenge you to a fight. Sometimes a challenge is an obstacle or a problem. And who needs all those kinds of problems? But Destination ImagiNation is COOL challenges and the obstacles are fun ones. There are 5 challenges to choose from and thousands of teams all over the world challenging their creativity!

In DI there are lots of right answers!

New things you never got to do before and you get to contribute stuff you are good at!

Does anybody like to:

Use tools like a hammer or power saw?
Use your imagination to think up weird stuff?
Picture a dog (flower, light bulb, some other common thing)
Show a poster or slides of 10 or 12 different types of that common item.

Ask "Is that what your dog looked like?" There are as many different ideas of what a dog looks like as there are people in this room! So is this gentleman here right because his idea of a dog is the same as mine? And is this young lady here wrong because in her imagination she pictured a different dog? NO, of course not everybody is right there was no wrong answer when we are imagining! Do the two paper plates quick thinking (Demonstrate what 2 paper plates can do or look like)

Do the "zipper machine" exercise!

Pull 4 kids to front of room. Huddle. Tell 1st kid he is the beginning of machine, 2 are middle of machine and 4th is output. Totally non verbal. Miming what the 'building' of a zipper looks like. Emphasizes team work through cooperation.

Happy to talk about DI it is terrific fun but it has a serious side. DI builds brainpower like sports builds muscles:

Use problem solving
Develop critical thinking and divergent thinking
Stretch your imagination
Build up your creativity

You’ll be part of a team that works for several months collecting ideas and information and making stuff for your presentation of your team’s challenge. There are 5 team challenges to choose from. The challenge your team picks to work on might be to build a roller coaster for tennis balls, make a tower out of spaghetti, invent a new musical instrument, or write a play about what it would be like to have a different species as part of your family!

Then at the tournament in February, you get to show a group of judges what you have done. A little added fun is that the judges will give you one more prop that is totally new to you and you get to add that into your skit right then that is called IMPROVISATION. There is another part of the tournament that is kind of like that paper plate thing we just did, called an Instant Challenge. Every team gets to do one, just for some quick brainstorming on the spot.

But do you want to know the very best part? No adults can tell you what to do! YOU have to have all the ideas, figure out which ones will work and then do it all yourself without any parents or teachers helping you cut, hammer, wire electric circuits, paint, write, sew or build! They can teach you how to do one of those things but then you get to do it all by yourself!

If this sounds fun to you tell mom or dad! They can come to a meeting to find out all about it. We’re allowed to help a lot you know how parents really need help sometimes! And get your friends together to talk it over see if Destination ImagiNation is someplace you’d like to go!