We are into our second week of robotics using the NXT micro controllers. We are using this book and building (and programming) the robots to undertake 5 missions. Each mission takes 3 sessions to complete. Our first mission is to navigate a tunnel and wait 30 seconds on a pressure plate to activate a secret door. One of the Dad's is an IT engineer. He is teaching the kids how to program. We have another fantastic IT engineer solving our technical issues! and the rest of us do the best we can to assist in understanding the building instructions in the book and finding parts!
Today was filled with many ah-hah moments as the children discovered what all the programming blocks do. I enjoyed watching the dads spend time with their children. Usually we are a bunch of moms with our kids. Having the dads participate adds a whole new element that is great for for the boys. It was a real family event.
Next week we finish programming the robots. Then of course we will film them accomplishing the first mission and take a lot of photos before dismantling the robots for the next challenge. It was a lot of fun to watch the boys getting into it. The more they learn about it, the more they are getting into it.
Recently Tristan was invited to join a group of young break dancers to form a crew. His crew is going to meet once a week for 2 hours and train together. The crew is being trained by his teacher and mentor Luis and crew of the current Battle Toadz. Tristan is more than excited to have a crew of serious dancers to train with. His two best buddies have been invited too.
Breakdancing is not just a street dance these days. There are breakdancing groups all around the world. In Korea, breakdancing is a state sponsored sport where the athletes are paid the minimum wage to train. There are international competitions where breakdancing teams come from all over the world. Recently, there has been a push to set up statewide breakdancing franchises across the country. Each franchise will have a team. Only four states have franchises thus far and Connecticut is one of them. Tristan's crew will be the first rung on the path to joining the CT team.
I am thrilled that he will be hanging out with a group of mainly boys and be mentored by older dancers passionate about their sport.
Right now Tristan is concentrating on building his core strength and balance. He trains hard. He dances less than half of his 90 minute lessons.
Tristan's crew will start training in April. In the meantime Tristan has been training with the Battle Toadz. United Outkast members mentor the younger team. It has been fun watching Tristan get to know the dancers.
There is a dancers code. In order to be on these teams you must be dedicated, kind and supportive of other team members. It s a very cohesive group with its own culture. No one drinks or takes drugs for example, even when they celebrate. They work too hard. They are always trying to better themselves. Tristan knows that you don't talk when you train. You make sure your shoelaces are tied. You are always making the most out of your training. You listen to advice.
You are a role model for younger members.
You don't miss a training.
It is a great feeling to see him aspiring to be his best self.
His next competition is coming up in the next couple of weeks. He is battling with his teacher (in a team of 2) against other experienced break dancers. I can't wait.
You might have noticed that I haven't been writing much about Lucky Tails lately. I guess it is because Claire has had a challenging couple of months with her dogs.
Roxy was adopted very quickly but the others have proven to be difficult to find homes for.
We are waiting to see whether Zucchi will go to a new home on the weekend after an unsuccessful trial at a new home 2 weeks ago. There has been no interest in Mocha. Both of these dogs are brindle Pitbull mixes. Not the most popular combination.
It has been hard watching Claire juggle finding long term foster care for them and coping with one disappointment after another. Still, valuable lessons are being learned and she is continuing, albeit more cautiously. She will be choosing more marketable dogs to rescue in the future. It is a shame that there are just so many abandoned dogs in need out there and so many euthanized every day.
Meanwhile Mocha has been staying with us these past 8 weeks and she has grown on the whole family. She is a very sweet, exceedingly loyal dog. She follows you around and is always so excited to see you. Her constant happiness is contagious. She is cuddly, affectionate and gentle and has some adorable quirks. She lies on the floor for example like a stretched out frog. George is teaching her to fetch and she learns quickly. She also gets on very well with Tuggles and keeps him fit, chasing him all around the yard. Everyone wants to keep her. I would prefer to have one dog (just Tuggles), but George is wearing me down as he has fallen in love with this little one. I am still holding out.
Her legs crack me up. She looks like a mechanical dog! So cute!
I think it was at Christmas time Claire started to write her book. A year or two ago she started writing one about this girl and gladiator fights. She had a notebook full of pictures and ideas. Since then she read the Hunger Games and the Divergent series which sparked a new yearning to write a book. She has partnered up with her best friend and they have been spending countless hours face timing and discussing all things book related. Claire has used this book as a guide and has been writing everyday. She writes 3-4 hours every day, mostly at night and sometimes quite late.
This project is a series of 3 books. She is over half way through the first draft of the first book which is currently 73,000 words. The parents have only been allowed to read the first chapter of the 25 they have put together. We know the title and are not allowed to divulge any information. All I can say is that it is a fantasy fiction in the style of the books that she likes to read. They plan to release it June 3rd.
Writing a book is all consuming. She hurries to finish her compulsory work so that she can write. Her characters seems real to her and she is constantly talking, planning, researching things for the book.
...sometimes I find myself saying "come back to reality, Claire!" Marlin, her writing partner ordered her to take a two day break! But now it is writing as usual every night.
Claire has also been working on book cover design and making "edits" for Instagram accounts. This has involved learning 4-5 iPad apps and designing current art work that is uploaded onto Instagram sites. She has her own Les Mis related accounts onto which she posts her artwork and gets feedback from her followers. Of course I have been watching this closely. It takes up time and I worry about the opportunity cost of her time spent here. Then recently she was approached by an author whose book is being published soon by Random House and who asked Claire to do artwork for her. I am still watching....
I find myself marvelling at this little seed that is growing , changing and "becoming" in leaps and bounds around me. I don't believe that I can be anything but a guide as she forcefully carves a path out for herself. I asked her if she is still a dog rescuer at heart. "You might be a writer at heart!" I said. "No, I am a singer and a stage actress who also loves dogs!" she replied, "I am just writing for fun!"
This year I thought we would take a year off skiing. What with the trip to Australia at Christmas and Tristan's Minecraft club on Saturdays, and the dog rescue...I just didn't have the energy. This weekend however it seemed that the stars aligned to make it happen. We had no play rehearsals, great friends available to come, Minecraft cancelled (just this week), gorgeous weather and excited kids.
After a day of skiing, though the kids were exhausted. Done. Ready to curl up and play Minecraft, and write THE book! and the weekend was just beginning. And it was so nice. We sat around eating thick crusty slices of hot olive bread toast with cheese and dipping chocolate into our steaming coffees. We laughed about learning to play Canasta. We watched Oscar nominated films and walked out on the frozen lake to see if the fish were biting underneath all of that ice.
And on Sunday we ventured out to the boardwalk. I love this boardwalk. Even in the middle of winter it has its charm. It was the first time I had visited it covered in snow.
OK, it was a little bleak. I didn't enjoy it that much when it started sleeting. But I did enjoy watching the boys have an adventure, sliding around, discovering trees eaten by beavers, beaver lodges, frozen swimming holes, and exploring under bridges and downed trees. And afterwards we were definitely ready to visit the bakery for more fresh bread and strawberry rhubarb pie.
A couple of years ago I was running Lego League teams. Claire wasn't really into it but I was blown away by the NXT micro controllers and by the fact that kids had the opportunity to make cool robots with 5 different sensors, not only vehicles but robotic animals which I thought Claire might like. She did for a bit and her team made it to the state competition but overall...not so much.
But I still have my Lego League table, gobs of robotics lego, NXT micro controllers and sensors... and I thought it was time to dust it off and organize it. Tristan is just about the right age to get into it. The programming language is easy and I thought the time was right to see if I could get this going again. Also the new generation of Lego micro controller (EV3) is due out around September and it is amazing. Expensive but amazing and did I say amazing? (The current NXT's can and will be used for a year or two and parts will be available until mid 2015 so we will continue with the NXT at this point.)
I have been thinking a lot how to best run a class of 9-10 year olds new to lego robotics. Since I last did it, several great books have been written, online tutorials made and expert building instructions are all over the web. I am reading everything I can get my hands on from those First Lego League pioneers who have nurtured and instructed great teams over the years and in the process made fantastic robots.
I think rather can competing in Lego League the first year, we will spend the year learning in depth the physics, building techniques, strategy and the programming language with one on one parent involvement. I want the children to know enough, have enough skills by the end of the year to be confident that they can do the First Lego League challenges completely on their own going forward. Project based homeschooling has taught me the importance of making sure that children know enough before you abandon them on their projects! You want to ensure success AND that they have achieved it on their own. I want everything explained slowly, in small bites and ensure full understanding of concepts. I have two parents who are IT engineers who will be assisting in this. I am hoping to start in a week or two.
This year, the theme of our archeological dig (we refer to it as The Dig) coming up in May is the Maya Civilization! To that end I have been coming up with meaningful activities our kids will be doing in preparation for the Dig!
The Dig is a 4 day camp. Geof Pursell, archaeologist and educator extraordinaire, comes over with a ton of artifacts sourced in museums. He then digs an enormous hole and buries the real artifacts in such as way as to tell an amazing story about what has transpired throughout Mayan history. The kids dig out the artifacts layer by layer using actual archeological techniques and try to piece together the story the site is telling. They then make a museum with the pieces, play archaeology based board games, listen to stories and lectures and have a wonderful time.
Our first trip was to the Pennsylvania University where there is an interesting collection of Central American artifacts. They were hosting theMaya 2012 Lords of Time exhibit which had a excellent sampling of the types of artifacts found in the tombs of Mayan kings, a wonderful display about how the Mayans calculated time and this fun machine that the children used to make their names in Mayan glyphs.
We will be visiting the Museum of Natural History with Geof before the dig starts. Geof has a way of making everything you see meaningful. He shows the children how to look at an artifact and piece together its story based on what it was found with, what it is made of and where was it found. He has a way of making history come to life. I fall in love with history and storytelling when I listen to him relate his vision to the children. He is mesmerizing.
Also my friend Will Lewis, a master carver, is carving a wooden block print of our T-shirt design which will be a Mayan glyph. The children will also be creating their own print blocks (carving their own names in Mayan (in rubber, not wood). I am also interested in doing something interesting about how the Mayans calculated their time using giant gears which we could cut out on the scroll saw.
...and then of course...some of the children asked if we could make a giant timeline as we did for the Greco/Roman Dig last year. Oh...what to do? This is all very exciting!
