If you would like to see more pictures at the competition please go to www.homeschoolblogger.com/thegenius.

That's my son's blog.

Here are some picture, but please go to my son's to see more of the team:

After two rounds, we were still in second place.

A judge is talking to the children.  They are explaining their research project.

We got the "Against All Odds" award!

Well, we competed in the Montclair Qualifiers this past Friday.  This year the team I took to competition was so much better than the team last year.  Our highest score was 260 and we ended up in 6th place.  The highest score last year was 51 and we ended up third to last.

The difference between the two seasons is this:  my older son was the lead programmer.  He taught the rest of the team how to program, including a 14 year old.  It was good because the team last year elected a boy who claimed he knew how to program, but did not know how to program an NXT.  Last year, the lead programmer got an NXT for his birthday during the season.  He did not want to help the team by allowing us to use it so we could each work on programming.  He would bring his NXT to show his friend the different things he got the NXT to do.  Hardly any of the boys wanted to share or try different things to help the team.  The children just did not know how to work as a team.

This year, one of the boys got an NXT during the competition, but he shared his robot with others.  All the children had an opportunity to work on the robot.  Right away, the season had a better start because the children were willing to share.  However, the season did have its problems too.

I had one child that was very focused on playing the entire season.  He was bossy, demanding, and rude. When he did not get his way, he cried to his mother.  I had another child who was disrespectful in that he threw around my garbage cans, pulled up my mailbox, and pushed my son's soccer net into the middle of the street.  Of all the children, three were really dedicated to programming and some research.  Most of the children goofed around. 

I learned from all of this.  The major thing that I learned is that I should not just take anyone on the team.  This program is for children who have a certain mind set.  I know that a few of the children will not return.  I would not want them back either.  There were about 2 children who really concentrated on programming.  Only 1 or 2 who concentrated on building.  All the other children played around.  I will truly look for good children who are well behaved to join my team.  So, I may just have 4 children next year.  Those children were the workers on the team.  The research workload will be more, but I think that we had a heavy load because not a lot of children did that much research anyway.

The type of child that you want competing in an FLL competition has to have a high achieving personality.  I realize that not just any child can do this.  They have to want to do it no matter what.

This year I had to not only help children learn how to program(my older son did that not me), but also I had to teach them how to do a research paper.  Half the children did not know how to spell or write well.  A few of the children did not know how to behave.  So, it was a huge challenge for me.  I will proceed with caution the next time I try this program with children I hardly know and children that I know are rude (having the rude child was my fault).

Thanks for reading!

This may seem easy for some people, but it was difficult for my son at first.  We were not getting it.

This problem comes from Primary Mathematics Challenging Word Problems 5.  Here it is:

The ratio of the number of cars to the number of bicycles is 10:7.  Each car has 4 wheels and each bicycle has 2 wheels.  If all the cars and bicycles have a total of 486 wheels, how many wheels do all the cars have altogether?

Here's the trick: The ratio is really 40:14.  That is the number of wheels on a car to the number of wheels on a bicycle.  So, 486/54=9.  40x9=360.  There are 360 wheels altogether on the cars.  This problem kept my son stuck that he did not know what to do.  It was when we thought about it, we discovered the 40:14 ratio.  The children from the FIRST Lego League team arrived.  We solved the problem.

Another great adventure in homeschooling!

I am in madness right now. 

My sons are on a FIRST Lego League team.  We have a situation where the children are now doing the every day the children will be coming to my house to practice the robot and my friend's house to practice the skit.

We are going to be in non-stop mode.  This Saturday, my sons have their piano recital.  That will be from 6PM to whenever.  Their piano teacher has a lot of students. So, it  may take all night. 

Monday, the madness begin every day next week. Our competition is on Friday, December 4th at 5 PM.  Anyone who is reading this entry, please pray for us!!

Thank you.

I have been trying to figure out how I can refine my report.  I want to stop putting the label of grades with my sons' work.  I want to share that I have had a tough school year.  I started a new FIRST Lego League team.  It has been a difficult road trying to teach and train young children how to work professionally and act graciously to each other.

OK, here are some pictures of the team:

We went to the municipal building in order to speak to the Director of Public Works in our town.  This was part of our research project.

Another picture:

In this picture, the team is working hard to try and solve some missions.

Programming!!

Building!!

On Thursdays, the boys go to the homeschool music program.  Here are some pictures of them in the Junior Ensemble group.

The boys at the music program!!

Playing music!

This is my weekly report.  It consists of pictures of the activities that we have done through out the week.  We are extremely busy due to the FIRST Lego League competition.  My sons and I have decided that this will be our last year.

Thank you to all who read.