The last few months of 2015 were a busy few......
A joined the robotics teams with one of the local homeschool groups. The team spent the fall semester learning how to program in RobotC, how to program a virtual robot to pickup blocks, move trees, identify colors, put out virtual fires, and rescue "people". They also built a robot using Vex and Hexbug products. The competition challenge this year is to play basketball. There are balls located on a ramp and around the playing field board. The objective is to get the balls into either the goal for 3 points or over the scoring line for 1 point. The team wanted to build a launching robot so they designed and built a catapult robot with a scoop. Also included in the actual building and programming of the robot is record keeping and documentation of what the team has done.
The team finally finished their robot late in December and we had our first competition just before Christmas. To date, we've been to 3 competitions. Each time, we've been improving in both points and confidence. The team has won 2 design awards for their robot and their documentation. They also placed 3rd in the autonomous programming - which is where the team writes a RobotC program to make the robot drive by itself to pickup the balls and score points. The main part of the competition is via driver control where the team members take turns using a remote to control the robot, similar to driving RC cars.
We have a few competitions left in this season and then we'll start preparing for the next year. While A has been building the robot and practicing driving, the rest have made several new friends and look forward to visiting with them each week. Z has also been building Lego robots and learning how to program them. To make that work, we had to pull out the old, old, old laptop - you know the one that has an operating system so old that it's no longer supported. Z has really enjoyed building and making his robot roll around the kitchen making lots of bell and whistle noises. Next year, Z is hoping to be able to compete with a Vex team too.
Besides the robotics team, we are still involved in piano and violin lessons. We've also moved into high school subjects and it's been a transition to more independent work and understanding that if you don't do your school work, you don't get to play/go to fun events/visit with friends. We've also had to learn that no matter what you think about others, you still need to be nice; even if you don't agree with someone, you need to be nice; and that when Mama is treated disrespectfully by other kids your age, you will suffer the retraining that she wishes the parents of the other kids would do. Overall, the increase in activities has been good, even if it's more stressful for Mama.
On the other side of things, 2015 was a pretty healthy year; we only had 1 ER visit and very few sick visits. It was also a realization year that I'm getting older - both Craig and I had our first eye prescription for bifocals. On the upside, my headaches are gone and I can grade papers or read paragraphs without feeling awful the rest of the day.
Welcome to 2016! May it be a great year!
A joined the robotics teams with one of the local homeschool groups. The team spent the fall semester learning how to program in RobotC, how to program a virtual robot to pickup blocks, move trees, identify colors, put out virtual fires, and rescue "people". They also built a robot using Vex and Hexbug products. The competition challenge this year is to play basketball. There are balls located on a ramp and around the playing field board. The objective is to get the balls into either the goal for 3 points or over the scoring line for 1 point. The team wanted to build a launching robot so they designed and built a catapult robot with a scoop. Also included in the actual building and programming of the robot is record keeping and documentation of what the team has done.
The team finally finished their robot late in December and we had our first competition just before Christmas. To date, we've been to 3 competitions. Each time, we've been improving in both points and confidence. The team has won 2 design awards for their robot and their documentation. They also placed 3rd in the autonomous programming - which is where the team writes a RobotC program to make the robot drive by itself to pickup the balls and score points. The main part of the competition is via driver control where the team members take turns using a remote to control the robot, similar to driving RC cars.
We have a few competitions left in this season and then we'll start preparing for the next year. While A has been building the robot and practicing driving, the rest have made several new friends and look forward to visiting with them each week. Z has also been building Lego robots and learning how to program them. To make that work, we had to pull out the old, old, old laptop - you know the one that has an operating system so old that it's no longer supported. Z has really enjoyed building and making his robot roll around the kitchen making lots of bell and whistle noises. Next year, Z is hoping to be able to compete with a Vex team too.
Besides the robotics team, we are still involved in piano and violin lessons. We've also moved into high school subjects and it's been a transition to more independent work and understanding that if you don't do your school work, you don't get to play/go to fun events/visit with friends. We've also had to learn that no matter what you think about others, you still need to be nice; even if you don't agree with someone, you need to be nice; and that when Mama is treated disrespectfully by other kids your age, you will suffer the retraining that she wishes the parents of the other kids would do. Overall, the increase in activities has been good, even if it's more stressful for Mama.
On the other side of things, 2015 was a pretty healthy year; we only had 1 ER visit and very few sick visits. It was also a realization year that I'm getting older - both Craig and I had our first eye prescription for bifocals. On the upside, my headaches are gone and I can grade papers or read paragraphs without feeling awful the rest of the day.
Welcome to 2016! May it be a great year!
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