Contest publishes several wonderful books created by children each year. Each winning student also receives scholarship money and full royalties on his or her book. For the history buff, the Concord Review is a professional journal that publishes high school students' history research papers. Often college scholarships are offered, as in the National Merit Scholarship program for high school juniors who take the PSAT exam. Again, the thing to keep in perspective is that the better the prize, the fewer the winners.
Contests are local and national.
Locally, our daily paper ran an editorial cartoon competition for high school students. Nationally, NewsCurrents sponsors an annual editorial cartoon contest for kids. It's up to you to decide which type of contest you want to encourage your kids to enter. Following is a listing of some of the many contests for individual students which we've looked into over the years. Write for information on these programs, and see what fits in with your style of homeschooling.