Tag Archives: Lex

A few more First Lego League Competition photos

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One of Lex’s coaches put a bunch of pictures online from the FLL competition. Here are two I like a lot. :)

Lex's expression in this one cracks me up. It was just a momentary camera snap, just a passing expression, but so funny. He wasn't at all annoyed. He also looks much older in this picture. :)

Lex’s expression in this one cracks me up. It was just a momentary camera snap, just a passing expression, but so funny. He wasn’t at all annoyed. He also looks much older in this picture. :)

This one caputures Lex and FLL perfectly! He had just started his mission running and was excited to see it succeed (or IF it would succeed!)

This one caputures Lex and FLL perfectly! He had just started his mission running and was excited to see it succeed (or IF it would succeed!)

We also got a copy of the final scoring rubrics for the project, core values, and robot design presentations. The kids did amazing! Their robot didn’t score a ton of points on the field, but they did outstanding in the presentation. The comments included, “The team had vivid enthusiasm and were clearly having fun,” “The team was phenomenally compatible with each other,” and “respect and inclusion.” I’m so proud of how well they worked together, how well they support one another, and how well they perform. I couldn’t ask for better teammates or coaches for Lex.

One of the older kids suggested Lex take home the trophy for awhile and the coach agreed. When I questioned “wouldn’t an older kid, on their final year, rather take it first?” but the coach said they thought Lex would like it. Boy were they right! His face lit right up when I told him and he was so proud it carry it out of the building. Happiness is.

First Lego League Competition

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We just wrapped up another year with Lex and his FLL team. This year they called themselves Reduce, Reuse, Robotics! They change the name each year to fit the theme. This year’s theme was TrashTREK, all about finding a better way to handle trash, or create less of it in the first place. They changed the requirements this year and we had to compete within the state of Vermont, so we were at a different place today, but mostly it’s all the same. The kids did a great job and had lots of fun.

The day was split in half with the projects and presentations in the morning, and then the robot competitions in the afternoon.

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Their project this year was on how to increase recycling in school. Their idea was to have a team of students run the recycling program, and to make it more fun! I volunteered to run the project part of the competition this year and it was fun. We didn’t win any project awards, but we did ok.

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Revving up for the Core Values presentation. This is one that the coaches and families can’t watch. The kids go in and are presented with a challenge (completely unknown before that moment) and they have to work together to solve the problem. I heard rumors after the fact that this year’s challenge involved hula hoops. I haven’t gotten the full story yet.

It’s always a long day with lots of waiting around. They have a total of 37.5 minutes where they’re actually doing something, and the rest of the day is spent waiting. Good thing there are usually lots of things to watch and see and do!

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Turns out there were a few hockey games going on in the same area we were in at Norwich University. We watched a bit of hockey off and on, but I think they had the most fun cheering on the zamboni! (that’s what they are doing here)

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Lex, driving a First Robotics Competition robot. This what the high-schoolers do after they’ve aged out of FLL. Eve got a turn to drive too. The whole thing is controlled by that game controller in his hand.

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Meet Bud the robot Bud (Abbot), his friend Lou (Costello) was back at the lab. Eve LOVED this little guy!

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Bud can sit down, stand up, walk forward, backward, and even sideways! He can also hold your hand and walk with you, recover and stand back up when he falls, and…

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Bud knows karate!

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Eve was fast friends.

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If anyone has $16K laying around and is looking for a gift for Eve….

After lunch it was robot time! They had three separate matches, each 2.5 minutes long. It’s hard to get good pictures because the set up wasn’t great, but Alan took tons of pictures and videos that he posted on Google+. Some of them may be better than what I got.

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Time for the actual robotics competition!

Between matches we did decided to get some fresh air!

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Rolling down the hill. Everybody needs a break sometimes.

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Lex and his friend were in awe at being so close to a school bus. They even stuck their heads right under (it was safe, don’t worry) and got a good look!

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Hahaha… they tried hard to take down the goal post! Fortunately they were not successful!

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Eve thought this would be a good way to go down the hill. Guess who is now completely covered in grass stains!

By the end of the day everyone was wearing out! We had about 40 minutes to wait before the closing ceremony and I saw a whole lot of tired kiddos!

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By the end of the day they were all getting worn out. This scene made me laugh with five of them behind the table, snugged with the jackets, and cozying up together to read and play on the iPads.

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I love that they are playing chess together on the iPad! Of course, they played plenty of Minecraft too!

During the closing ceremony they give out the awards. The team didn’t have strong robot this year and didn’t earn many points, so I think everyone was surprised (and excited!) when they heard Reduce, Reuse, Robotics called!

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They won an award! Truth be told, we were all surprised! They won the mechanical design award again, just like last year, for their “super slidey slick thing,” (or “slidey thing,” as Lex prefers) which is a method of attaching the interchangeable pieces needed for the different missions. It makes it quicker and easier for them to switch attachments in the middle of the competition.

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I couldn’t get a good picture! Too many distractions. Eve being just one of them! :)

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Guess who got to take this trophy home tonight?! Oh yeah, I have one happy boy this evening.

It was a long, but fun and satisfying day! I even got a sweet thank you for helping with the project. :) Not that it’s about me, of course, but it did make me smile.

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Awww… Coach Tessa. :)

A parenting win

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I am typing this blog post on a brandy new laptop that Alan got me for my birthday! Yay!! This one even has a delete key and a caps lock, unlike my other laptop. :)

We are in the final week before Lex’s First Lego League presentation on Sunday. During the final week there are always extra optional practices that the kids can attend to finish up missions and projects. Lex has been excited for FLL this year, but in a somewhat different way than last year. He has been spending most of the practices working on the project, which is good, but I’ve started questioning why he isn’t working on the missions. I thought maybe he was focused on the project because I volunteered to run the project this year and he obviously hears a lot about it at home. :) Tonight he said he wanted to go to the practice, but at the last minute he backed out. We ended up in a discussion about why he had to go (the coach was waiting for him!) and why he didn’t want to go. He started with excuses about being too tired and just not wanting to, but eventually he said that the missions were just too hard this year and he didn’t know how to do them and he was bored at the practices. He was upset that the competition is less than a week away and he doesn’t have a mission and it’s too late to start one and they are all too hard anyway.

This is EXACTLY what we are working on with him and his anxiety these days! He is so smart and things generally come easily to him, so when they don’t he doesn’t really know what to do. We are working on strategies to help him in those situations because his current strategy is to shut-down, avoid, and cry. Exactly what he was doing tonight!

I was debating about letting him skip the practice (it’s optional anyway), but when the real problem came out I knew we couldn’t skip it! He followed me to the car, angrily, and sulked on the drive there. I asked him to think about some of the strategies he has been learning about lately and he grumpily did. When we got there he was in a slightly better frame of mind. I chatted with the coach a bit, explained the situation (and Lex’s anxiety) and the coach, of course, is great! He had a mission in mind that one of the other students was struggling with and he got Lex right involved. I hung around for a little while, then checked in with Lex before leaving. He was working on a mission, happily, and decided he wanted to stay until the end. When he got home he was really happy with the progress he had made and eager to go back tomorrow to keep working on it. Score!!

Sometimes it’s hard to know what is the right thing to do, when to push and when to back off, but tonight I got lucky and made all the right choices. Anxiety faced and overcome! He was and proud. So was I!

Attention to detail

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Lex regularly amazes me with his attention to detail.  Tonight he asked me why comics always write in uppercase.  Then he commented that in the Calvin and Hobbes books Moe always speaks in lowercase and bold.  Everyone else speaks in uppercase. Why is that?! Then he reminded me of a conversation we had years ago about why comics never use periods. They use question marks and exclamation points, but rarely use periods.   And he wondered what font Randal Monroe uses in xkcd comics.  His attention to detail astounds me. 

Math

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While doing is multiplication homework the other day Lex’s mind wandered to the concept of infinity. The idea that three times infinity is a smaller number than four times infinity. I guess he and Alan had been talking about it recently.

After talking about infinity a bit and pondering the size of infinity he said, “I like to think about mind-bending math. The stuff you literally can’t wrap your brain around. It kind of makes your brain hurt. I love that!”

The whole situation reminded me of a comment his teacher had made that he takes too long to do his math work in school. I suspect his mind is wandering to more interesting stuff and he looses track of the time. I certainly see it often at home!

Fax machines

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Lex asked me tonight if I knew what fax machines were.  Apparently they mentioned one in a book he read.  I explained how they worked and that they were common in offices before we had email.  He has trouble imagining life before email. :-)  I gave him the example of sensing contracts to be signed via fax.  He then gave me the example of sending a website address, written out on paper, via fax so the other person can go to the website.  He has trouble imagining life before the internet as well! 

Blue/white belt! (part 2)

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Lex finally got his belt test tonight.  They took him from the regular lesson and brought him into the small dojo for a private belt test.  I really appreciate how understanding they are and how willing they are to work with the kids.  Lex was so disappointed that he missed the belt test two weeks ago and he was worried he’d have to wait for the next one.   It was so nice of them to do this private one for him.

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They invited me in to watch. Lex did great. He was worried that he was rusty on a few of the katas, but he did them well anyway.

He rejoined the class after the test and at the end of class they gave him his new belt while everyone watched. There was lots of cheering. Sensei said that to earn a striped belt you need to demonstrate that you know all of the moves for all of the katas up to that belt, and to earn a solid you need to know them solidly with sharp movements and defined motions.

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I love this picture because it looks like Eve is cheering for him. I don’t know if she was or if she was just jumping around (I was focused on him at this moment), but in the picture she looks like she’s giving him a big hooray! :)

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Funny angle and zoomed. There were so many kids in the group today that I couldn’t get a good shot. Oh well. He’s got a blue belt with a white stripe now and a huge smile!

Pumpkin picking

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It was a beautiful day today so we decided to get carve pumpkins. I had planned to take the kids to the local farm stand and pick out a few, but Eve wanted to pick her own right from the pumpkin patch, so we turned it into a lovely fall outing. Things got a little dicey on the drive down when the skies opened up and everything got soaked, but by the time we got to the pumpkin patch it was blue skies again. Thankfully!!

When we arrived Eve saw a horse drawn wagon ride and decided we should do that first. The wagon brings people up into the apple orchard, but we weren’t much in the mood for picking apples so we just road the in the wagon for the full round trip.

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Grandpa Tom and Eve, enjoying a lovely day at the apple orchard.

Seeing dad and Eve in the wagon together reminded me of a picture from when she was a baby (I just spent ten minutes reading baby Eve posts, cracking myself up, but can’t find the picture. I think I have a hard copy I’ll try to add here later). I tried to recreate the picture, but Eve would have no part of it!

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I mostly just got a lot of this. She’s not very cooperative with the camera these days.

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I had to settle for this. Not quite the same, but the memory is there anyway. :)

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These two were happy to cooperate with the camera! :)

After our wagon ride we took a run through the corn maze. I was surprised that Eve so eagerly agreed to go, after she was so grumpy about the last corn maze we did! Fortunately this one is much smaller and only took us half an hour.

Then we passed through the pumpkin patch and Eve decided she’d rather get one from the pre-picked pile. Crazy girl! I thought it would be lovely to take a picture of them in the pumpkin patch, but we are nearing the end of the season and the pumpkin patch isn’t really very lovely anymore. Oh well. We moved on to the pumpkin pile and made our selections. The usual rule is to pick a pumpkin you can carry, but Eve chose a HUGE one and Grandpa Tom happily carried it for her. She’s a lucky girl. :)

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Weighing our pumpkins. We had 63lbs of pumpkin! I love this scale.

We also picked up some apple cider and dried corn to decorate the house.

Back at home Lex decided he was too tired to carve pumpkins right away, but Eve was raring to go. She also was eager to do it herself! She quickly decided some help with the scooping out the guts part would be ok, but she did most of the carving all on her own. I sat by, watching and hoping we would not see any blood! (Speaking of blood, while this was going on Lex was at the table and suddenly said, “Hey, I lost a tooth!” They are so much less eventful these days!)

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Ready to go!

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Scooping out the guts is hard work!

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She drew a bunch of sample faces on the white board (I should have taken a picture of that!) and eventually decided on a basic pumpkin face. There may have been a bit of persuasion in there as we all told her how tricky it is to carve curves and details. She learned pretty quickly herself once she set to work carving the face!

It is a very chilly night, but we slipped out quickly to light the candle and put Jack on display for all to see. Hopefully he’ll have a friend join him soon when Lex gets inspired to carve his pumpkin.

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Two little pumpkins sitting on a porch. She is also making a scary Halloween face, or so she told me.

Spelling

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In 5th grade they do spelling a bit differently. Instead of the usual list of ten words that the kids memorize for a week and then forget, in 5th grade they are given a list of 100 words that they have to learn over the course of the year. Each week the teacher pulls ten words out of a bag and those are used for the weekly spelling quiz. At the end the kids swap papers, score each others quizzes, and then swap back. The kids then graph their results on paper so they can see how their scores are improving. The goal is that as they study and learn the words their scores will go up each week. As an added bonus, if you get all ten words correct for seven weeks in a row you get $300 classroom dollars and the chance to opt-out of spelling quizzes.

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Someone is rich on classroom dollars now!

Guess who was the first in the class to reach that level?! Just seven weeks into school! :)

As I said, you get the chance to opt-out of spelling… OR to move on to a harder list. They are working now from a list of 100 content-specific words that cover math, science, literacy, and more. The next list is larger (I’m not sure how large as we haven’t seen the list yet) and taken from the Scripps National Spelling Bee word list. I was talking to his teacher yesterday and he said the Scripps words aren’t necessarily harder, but they are less common words (unlike the content words he uses in school all the time) and there are many more of them, which makes the list a lot more challenging.

Because Lex put minimal work into the first list and whizzed through it easily, we are encouraging him to try the next list. I think he needs more challenge in school, not less. :) I’m looking forward to seeing the list too!