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First LEGO League - Who else has kids on a team?


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I'm coaching a team and my mom is coaching TWO. This is by far the hardest board I've seen - that bad cell challenge has my team ripping their hair out. I love the research topic though. So much better than transportation, imo. Competition is Dec. 11 and I can't wait. I love seeing how other teams tackle the diff. challenges. However, Dec. 12 I am packing up the NXTs and getting every single last tiny little lego piece off my basement floor!!!

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That is about where we are as well. The boys (six of them) are working 6-12 hours a week. At my house. I think we will probably do it again next year, but my ds is discouraged because their programming wiz buddy (who was 14yo) and was on the team last year moved last summer and now the programming is all on them.

 

It has taken him some time to get used to the fact that they probably won't be going to state this year.

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Okay... I am starting to see why ds is so stressed about this. We have a regional competition and then the top teams from that go on to the state competition which is the first weekend in December, I think... a two day affair.

 

Those of you who have regionals in a month, how long until your state competion after that? I am wondering why they don't standardize the dates.

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This is our first year. Our team of four boys is getting together 2-4 hours at a time 2-4 times a week! While I see the intellectual and team-work benefit and our son loves the robotics aspect, we probably won't be doing it again. It is just too time consuming for our family.

 

 

This is also our first year and where we are as well, except we meet 2-3 times per week for 3 hours each time. I was fine with that - meetings I can handle - but I didn't realize how much time my son would have to spend working on this at home! :001_huh: Each meeting he has new "homework" to finish before the next meeting! I'm trying to fit school in around legos and I'm not liking it so much. :tongue_smilie:

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I think we our Regionals are 12/4 with State on 12/11. Our homeschool resource center has, I think, 5 teams. There's one that's all girls and the others are all boys. From what I've seen, I think the girls team will do well. It's been interesting to watch how much of an easier time they've had deciding on their project and working well together. On all of the boy teams, each of the boys wanted *his* ideas to be the ones used and a good two weeks were wasted sorting that out. I'm not expecting much from ds's team, but I'm very interested to see how the girls do.

 

I was not a fan of the segregation of teams. But I know there's been a fair amount of research that shows that girls do much better in math and science when they are in a same-sex environment. So I'll be really interested to see how this whole thing plays out.

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We only spend 2 hours a week in team time here. That doesn't include homework - which varies. We also have a few weekend 3 hour sessions throughout the season. We have two more planned before competition. We still have lots of challenges to program, but thankfully our presentation is 90% done.

 

Funny that you mentioned the segregated teams. My mom has one all girl team and one mixed team. The mixed team is far ahead of the girl team. Way too much time on the girl team spent chatting. ;) It all depends on the kids.

 

The schedule seems really early this year - especially for robotics heavy states. Last year our competition was a week before Christmas. I could sure use those weeks now!!! Don't know why they changed the schedule. I know that some states just have a LOT of robotics teams and I guess that was just how they could accomodate them all. Just a guess. I'd love to hear the real reason.

 

Anyone going to int'l competition this year? We went to ATL last year and it was amazing!! My two year old even had a good time. If you're feeling burned out, that is the place to go get recharged. Seeing the fantastic kids, great attitudes and amazing science there will fire you up again.

 

Good luck to all of you with early regionals!!!

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Okay... I am starting to see why ds is so stressed about this. We have a regional competition and then the top teams from that go on to the state competition which is the first weekend in December, I think... a two day affair.

 

Those of you who have regionals in a month, how long until your state competion after that? I am wondering why they don't standardize the dates.

 

Regionals are early December (I can't remember if it's the first or second Saturday,) and we went to state in mid-January (I say "we," but I had absolutely nothing to do with it. :D)

 

I'm majoring in secondary ed right now with concentrations in math, computer science, and possibly physics. Once I start teaching, I plan to have Lego leagues and engineering contestants, and all sorts of good things. :) I can't wait (especially to recruit girls to the teams.)

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We are in a Lego club this year! Here are some blog posts about it...

 

http://www.veronicaboulden.com/2010/10/norah-had-her-first-lego-club-meeting.html

 

http://www.veronicaboulden.com/2010/10/norah-was-featured-on-her-lego-clubs.html

 

My daughter's only six and most of the other kids in the group are still pretty young, too, so we don't do anything competitive.... yet. :D

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Anyone else? Who is counting down until regionals? We have 8 days here.

 

This is our fifth year! In past years, both my husband and I were coaching and the house was chaos. This year, just my dh is coaching (along with two other adults) so the home atmosphere is a lot calmer!

 

This year's board is hard.

 

36 days to regionals (Dec. 4, 2010 - 90 days to state (Jan. 29, 2011).

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This is our first year. Our homeschool resource center has a team and they meet on Wednesdays for a couple of hours. Ds was really looking forward to it, but so far it's too much science, not enough LEGO. :)

A lot of people are surprised that it's not about the LEGO. It's about the engineering design process as a whole as well as the research component. LEGO is just the tool used to get there.

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We have really worked hard to set boundaries with our team - it can be all consuming if we don't watch. Last year (our fourth year) we happened to hit on a schedule that worked - one weeknight for 3 hours and then Saturday morning for 3 hours. The week before tournament is all hands on deck, every night. The boys had a fantastic year last year (320 point runs), so it seems we have struck a balance. This year regionals are 11 weeks earlier than last year, so I am not sure how they will do with the "lost" time.

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Those of you who have regionals in a month, how long until your state competion after that? I am wondering why they don't standardize the dates.

 

Each state partner sets their own dates. There have to be 12 weeks between the challenge release date & the first tournament, but as far as I know the only deadline for the end date is the entry deadline for The World Festival.

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