Lee County home schooler Haley Davidson said she enjoyed the sponge race, because it provided some relief from the Southwest Georgia summer heat.
“I like when we put the sponges on our heads (because) you get wet and it’s hot,” she said.
The 9-year-old, who has been home schooled since the middle of her pre-K year, said she had been looking forward to the field day all school year.
Davidson placed second in the Target Throw, where the children throw Koosh balls toward a target painted onto the grass about 10 feet away.
Her friend, Tessa Campbell, beat her out for first place.
When asked if she looked forward to the day during the year, Tessa smiles and nods excitedly, responding with an enthusiastic “Yes!”
The two will get ribbons for their places in the games.
“I’m going to hang it up on my wall,” Tessa says about the future of her ribbon.
The best thing about home schooling, she said in the shade of a building during an interview Friday, is that the home schooler’s day is much less structured than that of a child attending public or private school.
“We get to finish earlier than regular school kids, like at 11:30 and stuff,” she said.
While at the event at Beattie Road Church of Christ, kids could be seen in potato sacks, hopping up and down across a marked stretch of field. Parents littered the sidelines as they watched their children play the various games.
Other children could be seen plunking Koosh balls across a short span while others catapulted plastic softballs as far as they could for the Distance Throw.
On the farther side of the field, older kids ran wet sponges across another marked span to fill up buckets across the marked off section.
Pat Fenner, the home school association’s president, said about students in about 15 counties were members of the association this year. The field day gave the members’ children a way to go out with a splash.
“It’s pretty much the kind of end-of-the-year celebration a lot of the public and private schools do,” she said. “It’s just kind of a fun way to start the summer and close off the school year.”
The final event of the day was a large water gun fest where all the kids soaked each other, Fenner said.
For more information about the association, visit www.homeschool-life.com/ga/swgha