Apr. 27, 2009 M's First Lego Expo
 Here are both of my teams in front of their tri-fold boards
 One of the teams talking to the (un-intimidating) judges, the adults in yellow helmets kneeling down to hear better.
 Me and the teams with their medals Grandma took this snap of M by himself. I think he enjoyed his first Expo.
 That was fun.
Really Fun.
Lots of kids and parents said lovely things to me. If anyone were to ask me right now, if I'd do it again, I'd say yes.
But mostly I'm looking forward to doing whatever I want to on Saturdays! |
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Apr. 11, 2009 Good time at Lego Club Apr. 4, 2009 Productive Lego Meeting; Eat the Doughnuts First
Last Fall Our meetings ran in the afternoon to coincide with the older brothers' F.I.R.S.T. Lego League meetings. When our expo was postponed unit April, we went to a much slower schedule, switching to 10AM once the older kid's competition was completed.
We've been saving the snacks for later in the meetings, but today we ate them as the what to do to get everyone in the same room, content to sit still for my reminder of what they still need to finish before April 25 (Don't worry, it was much shorter than last week!)
I asked DH to pray for us, since we were "practicing Christians of various flavors," then worked through the check list. This week I let the boys' ask questions as we went along. Last week I made them wait until the end, because K had woken me up so many times the night before, I though my brain would ooze away if I didn't get the whole speech out of my head first. They followed much better getting things cleared up as we went along.
We had one boy from one team, two from another. This worked out well, because we also had lots of adults to go around. Mrs D, who had studied art, stepped up to help them understand scale, and to suggest some ways to handle some modeling difficulties.
we were short of workspace, so we let one group loose on the table top, and put the other boy on the floor in the baby's enclosure (she and another younger sibling were racing through the hallways, this way his Lego were safe.)
I mostly organized the bricks and dug out parts. I handed off B's copy of
Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide, and the teams gave me a list of what bricks they need me to order for them this week.
What a fun, loud, productive meeting! It's coming together, Huzzah!
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Mar. 30, 2009 Learning to speak "Boy."
DH helped me out this Saturday with the Lego Club. He read the teams the brochures for the weather stations that they are modeling, to remind them what each part is supposed to do, so they can make a model that actually does some of it, not just looks like it. He got them thinking, modeling, researching, and laughing.
When I tried to motivate them, I got this question, "Mrs Guest, WILL we have time to go to the playground this meeting?"
Such is my sin-nature, I no sooner rejoiced that he'd gotten them moving, then I was jealous that he knew how and I didn't . I asked him what the secret was, he said to,"Speak Boy. One thing at a time."
Well, I do tend to give very complete overviews...
I need to just be thankful I've got a resident native speaker!
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Jan. 11, 2009 F.I.R.S.T. Lego League Tournament
The Providence Journal has a short video posted with B's team's robot, and a little bit of B's face on it at about minute 1:55. My mom is visible in the background taking pictures.
They were 31st out of 45 in the robotic category, but the team won the first place in teamwork, both for their conduct in the teamwork evaluation, and observation of their behavior in "the pit."
I'll interview B and DH tomorrow, we are all still a little sleepy! |
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Jan. 10, 2009 Today is Practically a Holiday
This morning had all the trappings of Christmas morning. B woke up early (4:30AM) DH made "thornball oatmeal," and B couldn't eat it. M and K woke up groggy but determined to hug everybody. It isn't even 9AM yet but I'm clean, dressed and have baked something sweet. DH and B have long since packed the car with special stuff.
What's the occasion? Today is the F.I.R.S.T. LEGO LEAGUE Tournament in RI at Roger Williams University.
Several team mates are sick. The family with the most reliable lap top has a boy with croup, possibly pneumonia. But B's speech is polished, might possibly be delivered in the 5 minutes allotted, and the robot can do some of the challenges.
My Mom will be driving me and the other kids down to RI at 10:00, K just finally finished complaining about lying down, so I think she's napping. M has been watching Curious George cartoons from the library since breakfast, he learned how to navigate the DVD with the remote today.
We will all probably eat a boughten supper tonight, although, as my Aunt and Uncle are staying at my Mom's house, so she might have us over for supper too in the general spirit of hospitality. Take out or leftovers otherwise! Well, maybe I have time to put some pizza dough in the fridge to rise slowly...that is the frugal way...we'll see.
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Oct. 15, 2008 Yoda at the Mall
OK, this is not exactly educational, but it was fun
The kids made "jumbo blocks" to hand off to the "Master builder" who made the jumbo sculpture of Yoda, intensionally picsillated and like the little Yoda. Then we spent our allowances at the new Lego store at South Shore Plaza
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Oct. 4, 2008 And the Real Problem was actually...
Me.
Last week, I scolded a boy in Jr F.I.R.S.T Lego League for not taking turns building the project, and for grunting at me. Actually, he was grunting at another little boy for grabbing the project from him, and he had not heard the instructions to take turns with the building and looking for parts. Meanwhile the other little boy had been waiting for 5 parts for his turn to add the part that should have been his 4 parts ago...
So, the problem was my own impatience in finding out all that was going on. And coming up with WAY too complex a scheme to have 3 little boys build a complex model. And not telling the parents how to help, or repeating the expectations to all the boys once they got there.
But this week was lovely. I picked out the pieces for two models before the kids got there, so they didn't have competing piece sorting. The boys worked in two different rooms. We had a reader's chair (with an adult reader) set up for them when they were done building and showing off what they had made to each other. The sun shone. We went to the play ground after snack time.
Note to self for next year: 5 kids max on the team. Start in October when the challenge is up on the web site, even if the robotic team is already up and going. Sort pieces ahead of time. Do repeat the plan for the kids once they are all together, maybe the hush before cookies land on their plate? Stretch out the pause between feeling frustrated with non-verbal little boys and saying anything: You are the Grownup!
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Jul. 31, 2008 Lego Form, if any one wants it
This is the season for new F.I.R.S.T. LEGO Teams to form. We found this a good flier to let the other parent in the club we founded know how we wanted things to go. I mostly used ideas from the young peacemaker.
Anyone is welcome to borrow it for their own club.
FLL Homeschool Team - Goals, Plans, Etc.
Welcome!
We are here to form a homeschool First Lego League Robotics team. We look forward to working with you for the benefit of all our children. It will hopefully be an enjoyable and rewarding time. This will be our first year running a team, so please be patient if things are a little disorganized!
My Promise as Coach or Parent (copied from the First Lego League Coaches' Handbook)
The children come first. FLL is about children having fun and getting excited about science and technology. Everything my team does starts and ends with that principle.
The children do the work. This is their opportunity to learn and grow. The children on my team do all the programming, research, problem solving, and building. Adults can help them find the answers, but cannot give them answers or make decisions.
My team is comprised of ten or fewer members (all team members participate on only one team), registered as an official FLL team, and all team members are no older than 14 on Jan 1 of the Challenge year.
I will encourage my team members, other coaches, volunteers, parents and team supporters to develop and practice a set of FLL Values that reflects FIRST's goal to change culture in a positive way by inspiring others through our team's actions and words.
FLL Values for team members (copied from the First Lego League Coaches' Handbook)
We are a team
We do the work to find solutions with guidance from our coaches and mentors.
We honor the spirit of friendly competition
What we discover is more important than what we win
We share our experiences with others
We display gracious professionalism in everything we do.
We have fun.
What is Gracious Professionalism?
Win-win attitudes and behaviors
Respect in action
Behavior Expectations for Team Members and their Families:
Our goals as a team line up with the goals of the First Lego League. We are here for the children; If they have learned a little about physics / mechanics, about the engineering process, about working with a team, and have enjoyed themselves, then we have been successful! We are here to build up ALL the children on the team. We are not here primarily to win a contest (but I won't complain if that happens!) We want the children to learn to work together, to encourage each other, to build upon each other's ideas, and to challenge each other. We want children to be able to express ideas and thoughts without fear of being made fun of or criticized, either by other children or by adults. (by the way, we are all in this together: not only does our team's behavior and attitude at FLL competition affect scoring, but the coaches' and parents' behavior affects the score as well!)
This healthy team atmosphere will not happen if there is any negativity, put-downs, or sarcasm during meetings! Consequently, we won't tolerate obscenities, vulgarities, blasphemies, rough joking, name calling or excessive sarcasm from anyone on the team. Parents, be sure to remind your children of this. A child will be reprimanded once, referred to their parents for them to discipline as they see fit on a second time, then asked to leave the team on a third time (in which case we will refund their parent's money and make their slot available to another child). We may or may not keep careful track of the number of offenses.
When relative strangers gather around a goal, even when it is for the benefit of their children, there are bound to be some disagreements and awkward bits. Here is how we want us all (parents and children alike) to deal with these things: Go directly to the person who bothered you and explain the problem, unless you can forgive them without mentioning it. Try to do this within 24 hours of the offense. Do NOT discuss the problem with anyone else unless you are seeking coaching on the best way to deal with the problem (no gossip). If the problem person won't work with you on the matter, get a third person to work with both of you as coach, arbiter, or mediator. The goal is positive progress, forgiveness and friendship. The means to do this are to admit what parts of the problem are caused by each of you, apologize and seek forgiveness. Real forgiveness is when you promise your acquaintance to think charitably about them, to not bring up the matter again to hurt them, to not gossip about them, and to resume the friendship enthusiastically.
Volunteer Jobs for Parents (this is NOT an exhaustive list, we will think of more as time goes on, so will you)
Coaches / Technical
Can help Dan with Coaching and/or the technical aspects of making a robot, researching the team project, etc.
Kid Wranglers
We need at least 2 other parents on site each build meeting besides Dan. Mostly for crowd control. There are some cringing-ly expensive pieces of equipment (and some very dangerous ones) in the lab, one bit of wrestling in the wrong place could make us all have to sell our cars and family heirlooms to replace it. This is a great job for Dads. We can rotate. We could even take the kids hiking at the pond behind Dan's work after snack so they get some wiggles out.
Snacks
Got to fuel those creative brains! We don't need to be nutrition nuts, but lets not serve sugary/caffeinated drinks, oxygen is stimulating enough for herds children at this age. I think a snack at the 1 1/2 hour break would be just about right. Could even be pizza. We can rotate.
Fund Raiser / Treasurer
Come up with creative ways to raise funds for the team. Manage team finances.
Web Tracker
- Being the official web tracker of interesting ideas and developments on the web
www.usfirst.org
www.firstlegoleague.org
www.ceeo.tufts.edu
www.legoengineering.com
www.education.rec.ri.cmu.edu
Other Useful Roles:
- Printing off papers
- Making tee shirts or hats or some sort of team spirit thing-y with the kids, using their designs.
- Lead a brain storming session
- Work out our travel arrangements in January
- Help us find a good field trip site
- Help children with building /decorating the tri-fold presentation board.
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Jan. 15, 2008 Interview with DH: How the Tournament went
ME: How did the tournament go?
DH: We were about halfway down in the pack, which was fine for a rookie team.
ME: What were the boys like when they arrived at 7:00AM?
DH: They were all very excited, enthusiastic, and loud. They are boys.
ME: What did they think of the other team's projects?
DH: They saw one of the better team's robots, and I think it spurred them on to make instant upgrades to their own robot and program, which turned out to be abit of a problem.
ME: In what way a problem?
DH: Well, my job is testing things, so I knew there would be trouble with them not making any tests, and all the programs being different. So I was trying to make them stick to what they had so they would know it when they ran the robot.
ME: And did they have trouble?
DH: Yeah, they had some trouble especially on the second run after all the changes had been made and before any of the boys had had much practice. So for the 3rd run I told them not more changes, just practice what you have.
ME: Tell me about the tag game outside.
DH: Well the gym they were in was very loud with the contest, music, crowds, the boys had been in there all day, and they were gettitng a litte bit hyper, and some tempers were flairing up, so uhh, after the second run, we had an hour and a half before the third run, so I took them outside were it was quiet and cool, and let them run for about 15, 20 min, to run off some of that nervous energy and calm down. It seemed to work, they were a lot less jumpy after that.
ME: How did their 3rd robot run go?
DH: That one seemed to go very well, one of the programs that hadn't worked before ran flawlessly, there was a lot of enthusiastic clapping
ME: Who was clapping?
DH: Oh the team and the local spectators, the parents, and especially me their coach.
ME: How did their project presentation go?
DH: They said it went OK, though I was not allowed to be there during any of the presentations. They didn't get called back to present again, so I guess it needs some improvement for next year.
ME: What did the other parents do that you particularly appreciated?
DH: Well, P did what he'd been doing all year: show up and really help me out hearding the boys around. And T helped out to doing the same thing, and 3 other parents volunteered for the pit area guards. Sh and Sh made cool tee shirts fo the entire team.
ME: Are you going to do it again?
DH: I did some figuring: between B being able to do this for the next 4 years, then M being old enough for FLL, then our new one, I may be doing this though the year 2021.
ME: is there anything else yo want to say about the experience?
DH: Yeah, Lego robots are cool, and I intend on making my own robots now that the competition is over - just so that I can better understand them for next year. It has nothing to do with that they are fun to play with. Honestly.
ME: Yeah, Right ;-)
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Jan. 12, 2008 Lego Tournement Preparation
Last year My Mom, the boys and I came down to the F.I.R.S.T. LEGO Tournement at Roger Williams University to see DH dressed in black and white stripes as a referee. He has been volunteering there for the last few years. B and I participated in the Jr F.I.R.S.T. Lego League, and always come to the robotics tournement to enjoy the spectacle and see what people came up with as ideas. We cheered the teams, toured the University Robotics department, and came home at a decent hour. DH dragged home late, but happy, we saw him for a few seconds on TV.
I remember walking the quad with my Mom and the boys, wondering how on Earth we could recruit team members, pay for the start up kit (over $500) get a custom table built, find a meeting place, and pull off the opportunity for my B this year. He was officially old enough. Most teams are sponsored by an existing civic group, a public school, private school, Boy Scout team, church...
Coaching a Jr FIRST Lego League team for 3 years had been a major production for me. Recruiting families was hard (Hmm, 3 hours a week on LEGOs, or Piano? But I have girls. HOW much money do they want for registration? If little girl X joins, then it's worth it to my daughter to join as well. Can I bring the baby with me to meetings?) Getting the children to jell as a team was hard (No children, we are listing the team's brainstorm, we don't need two identical lists, one of you recorders should sit down. Both of these models are beautiful, but a team may only present one model, someone has to compromise), getting them to pay attention was hard, finding appealing projects, lining up a field trip, dealing with fantastic expectations (You mean there is a connection between how hard I work and if I win a prize?). Not imposing an adult vision on the project, while coaching the children through all the steps they had to complete was VERY HARD.
The experience was rewarding however. Each year the competition required us to investigate an area of science or technology that is somewhat neglected, to try very hard to find local experts, and to explain it to children. We have investigated nano-technology, handicaped accessibility, the ocean, and this year, where our energy comes from. We have toured buildings in our town, networking with city hall and the library staff, visited a lab at MIT, played scale games with "2x-ing" ourselves with chalk outlines on the parking lot, explored areas of math and science usually not touched on until high school or college.
B formed friendships. My husband and I developed organizational, management, and coaching skills, we helped out a volunteer organization, and we occasionally had fun. The children almost always had fun, but that was a side benefit for us. Fun is harder to maintain and channel than Rewarding, but that is another topic.
This Spring when we found I was pregnant, my DH said he would coach the team for me. While this meant I didn't have to come up to speed on mechanics and the particular programing language, I felt bittersweet about it. After all, the robotics were cool, and I wouldn't get to play with them. DH also told me not to sponsor a JR FIRST Lego League team, because our own kids would not be in it, I was pregnant after all, and why split my energies. I had to grudgingly admit he was right. Part of me still feels that if I work hard for the benefit of the general community, I am being altruistic and noble, but if I work hard only for my family, then I am being selfish. I know that most people do wind up volunteering to benefit their own children, and in the process benefit other people's children. I've read John Piper's ideas about how it's OK to enjoy the good work you do. But part of me still feels selfish for homeschooling in the first place.
However I felt about it though, if our son was going to continue into Lego robotics in a team setting then we needed to create the team. A team can be an important method of accountability. So many of my friends have told me that when they just bought the Lego robotics kit for their kids to explore informally, it sat in the box after Christmas once the coolness factor wore off. I figured one way for kids to continue on with the resource was to have a competition to aim at.
Even with my husband coaching, I still "got," to do the e-mail communications, recruit families, and mind M during meetings (he was and is not thrilled to be too young yet even for Jr F.I.R.S.T. Lego). We had decided to hold Saturday meetings; loosing all Saturday mornings for preparing for team meetings, and all Saturday Afternoons to meetings got old pretty quickly.
To get families to join us, I had to step out of my Homeschooling comfort zone - the Evangelical Christian groups. The time commitment, money commitment, and whacky-ness of the idea just didn't appeal to most of my acquaintances. Lego sounds like a toy, a waste of time. If you aren't a techy geek, why would learning programming and mechanics be an academic enough pursuit? If you've already bought an expensive science home school curricula, you don't want it laying around on a shelf mocking you, so a team effort is redundant. Saturdays are precious. Also, as it was my first year figuring out the finances, giving a range of expenses didn't fly well.
So, since it wasn't going to fall into my lap, I had to think of another way to make it happen. I put out a e-mail on my state's inclusive homeschooling list. My husband and I had decided that we would buy the robot kit, and commission a man from D's work (D is my husband) to build us the table. That way the ownership was clear once the competition was over - we keep the hardware. Only asking the other families to split the national, and state registration fees, and incidental fees made it cheaper and more appealing for them to join us. I also listed all the ways parents should be prepared to inconvenience themselves, so there were not too many nasty surprises. The response was so enthusiastic, that we had to figure out a fair way to limit the team size!
We investigated meeting at the YMCA, the library, and DH's work. We settled on his work because we could store things for free, and use the lab computers and break room. Our town's policy on library use is that only groups free and open to anyone dropping in may use the space, since we collected dues and limited membership, that was that. They did let us use their building as our project subject, give us a tour, and let us present our findings in the lobby though. Once we got closet space at DH's work, we didn't investigate the YMCA much more.
The one downside of the location is that when the 8 little boys get rowdy, they are in a lab with expensive equipment, and lots of valuable samples. DH has had to make them run laps in the parking lot. It is a good thing that 3 other Dads have become regular assistant coaches!
I was very nervous about how we would all get along. I took a leaf from the Peacemakers' website
and wrote a paragraph about how we meant to deal with conflict, what behaviors were acceptable and not, and how we would deal with those. Just putting the expectations out there helped a great deal. We haven't actually had to ask anyone to leave the group, though we have had to reprimand a few children, but since we already told them and their parents our expectations, they have accepted it. Clear unapologetic leadership has worked better than sorting ourselves by philosophy and hoping that will solve all our problems without our having to talk to each other about the problems.
Since we were not an explicitly Christian team, we have miss praying with the children. It gets hard to know when you have started a meeting, when to eat snack, etc. We have occasionally used scripture to council the children, especially the other evangelical boy, N. N compared his weekly church time with B and was happy to find some one else his age who had to spend as much time in church. The practicing Catholic families were very similar in their parenting expectations to us, so they were easy to get along with. Many of the parents have said things like "wow, I guess all 10 year old boys act this way, not just mine." The parents have been great: bringing snacks, assistant coaching, finding resources, suggesting ideas, working at today's Tournement.
A few weeks ago, DH told me that he understood why I'd had such trouble getting the Jr F.I.R.S.T. Lego team to jell, not impose an adult vision on the children while coaching them through the steps they had to complete and also managing their fantastic expectations. It's nice to be understood.
Last night DH had to go down to Roger Williams to help set up. We hadn't recruited anyone for that task. (Although at this very minute 4 parents are helping to keep order in the "Pitt area" and 2 are guarding the "Pitt area" so it's not like they are slouches, just D got stuck with the night job) A book on leadership I read recently said that a leader is the one who does what other's can't or won't do to accomplish a task that he wants done. That quote made it all seem noble, not like we've been had. DH said the other coaches were talking about their teams, and how hard it is to get them to to jell, recruit families, not impose an adult vision on the children while coaching them through the steps they had to complete and also managing their fantastic expectations. Then they said, "I don't know why we are competing tomorrow, the HomeSchool teams are just going to wipe the board and win all the trophies anyway." DH spoke up and said, "Well, I have a homeschool team, and we have had all the problems you've mentioned!"
"Wow!" they said, "I guess all FLL teams act this way, not just mine."
So, DH and B got up this morning at 5AM to pack, and hit the road. B had more trouble sleeping last night than he did on Christmas Eve. DH looks very, very tired indeed. He got in last night at 10:30 after working a full day at work. M, Mom and I are planning on traveling down to see the robotic competition part, then head home before I'm wiped out. DH and B plan on eating supper at McDonald's, as a special treat.
I'm so thankful we were able to get this far, B has a team, and will be marching in that parade this year, not just watching it. Whether or not they place in any award, I'm satisfied that DH and I and the other families achieved this opportunity for him and the team.
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Dec. 6, 2007 Energy Audit of the Library
As a part of the project of the F.I.R.S.T. Lego Team, we had to tour a public building. Next we, or rather the children need to brainstorm some ways to save energy for the building, display it in the foryer, and then tell the judges on tournament day about the whole process.
The boys met up with the library director in the children's room. We were supposed to meet at the circulation desk, but I think the knot of boys being told to use library voices was unmistakable.
The building was renovated in 1993, so there isn't a whole lot we can suggest for updates to the technology. Oddly enough, the building's R-6 value walls make it hard to shed heat in Summer, they only need to heat the building 4 months of the year. The 50 or so windows make for a greenhouse effect. The director mentioned that getting the South side of the building to cool down, and keep all the people comfortable is a big topic of discussion at staff meetings.
Fun fact: in WWII, the fireplaces were actually used to heat the building.
I was proud of the boys, they were careful to keep quiet voices, took lots of notes, and asked good questions. |
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Nov. 28, 2007 Short notice TV appearance
Last Summer DH and the boys met a local TV host on one of their Saturday rambles downtown. The host was intrigued with the F.I.R.S.T Lego team DH was organizing and asked to interview him. DH suggested that he'd actually get more info out of Mrs G, the tournament organizer, and the host wound up asking both of them and as many boys as were available from the team to come to the studio, only by the time we got the message, it was lunch time of interview day for a 6:45 PM interview!
N, B's team mate was able to come with B and DH and Mrs G, they
interviewed Mrs G and DH first with the kids out of the studio
(they watched on a monitor in the hall.)
First the interviewer asked if DH and Mrs G thought the boys could sit silently in the studio during the adult interviewer. Mrs G said, "No, they can't."
The interviewer said," I see
you are a realist,"
"No," she replied, "I'm a
teacher."
DH heard B and N making rocket ship noises as they played with Lego in the hall before the sound proof doors closed. Mrs G was right.
After the adult interview, they set up the table with Lego puzzles, then
had the boys demonstrate the challenge for the cameras as she read it
from the official rules. B even corrected her when she goofed, I
guess he has become a good lawyer. Then N and B showed the robot
trying to set off the the first challenge, it worked once, failed another time,
both on camera, then they discussed with Mrs G ways to make it work
more of the time.
DH thinks it was a pleasant, low key experience, and the coverage
should be positive and easy to follow. After it airs on the Attleboro cable,
it will be available on the internet.
I suggested that B describe the
studio for his paragraph writing exercise, and he actually said, "Why
Mom? the studio was kind of boring." I guess the host did a good job at
making the boys feel at home! Maybe writing paragraphs is what is
really boring to him. |
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Nov. 17, 2007 Holding Down the Fort and hosting FLL today
It's my turn to be the solo parent, but only for the weekend, not two weeks like my husband just slogged through. I bought some unusual breakfast foods, and we have a project to keep us busy, so far moral has been high (accept for one Mommy tantrum when my little one wouldn't go down the hall alone to use the bathroom - someone must have told him ghost stories; he refused to cross the shadows where the hall light stop before the bathroom light starts. I was appalled by our electric bill last month and have meanwhile been carefully turning off lights.)
This morning I've gotten the birthday cake mostly asembled, its an angel food cake with a trench cut out the middle, filled with frozen strawberries, bits of cake, and glued together with jello. The fault line will be disguised with whipped cream. At 3pm the Lego team comes over to eat the cake, and watch the DVD about their project and some suggestions for presenting it to the judges.
In the F.I.R.S.T. Lego League, the kids have a "mission" to have their robot do certain challenges on a game board, and they have a "project" to visit a public building, examine where it's energy comes from then make suggestions for conserving energy, which they have to communicate twice, once to the public, then once to the judges (including how they told the public to save energy).
So, our big project for the day is to get ready for the FLL meeting at our house, since I don't have the key or authorization code to use my husband's job site like we usually do. The other parents are sticking around for this meeting, so I think I can handle the 10 little boys. Hopefully they will go home before the sugar hits their bloodstream ;-) Actually, all they need to get rowdy, is to be together, we usually feed them veggies and dip or cheese and crackers, and they still bounce off the walls.
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