I am often asked how we got started in this business and I must say that it all started very innocently 10 years ago when my husband took a buy out from work and I was going to have him at home all day. A thought I dreaded, how to keep him busy!
I worked full time at another business we had at the time and I suggested we do a summer camp during the days with children. Having had 4 children of our own, and not having "sports oriented kids", I knew that there was a need for something else in the way of after school and summer camp programs. So, with his experience as a computer programmer and my ability to organize things, we opened a summer camp teaching LEGO robotics. We had no idea what we were doing and when some kids came for more than 1 week, we realized we had to get more serious and actually teach and not just play.
That philosophy has now carried us through 10 years of working full time, teaching robotics after school and summer day camps. We teach coding, using the LEGO robots to catch the kids' attention, and hook them into learning. When they have learned certain levels with us they are then able to apply to be on a competitive robotics team. YES....competitive robotics! We compete with children aged 9-14 in something called FIRST LEGO League (FLL).
After the first couple of years I wanted a reference of the kids we coached and so created this FLL site to highlight the teams and their achievements each year, hoping that other FLL coaches out there would use it as a reference. I wanted it to help guide their teams through the project, robot and core value activities and improve their teams experiences and skills so that the competition we would face would be more fierce, and ultimately make it more fun!
Now, after these 10 years, 35 teams, and having great success on the World competition stage, I feel I am ready to have a voice and actually share my coaching thoughts, advice and suggestions to our small world of FLL lovers.
So here I am, nervous, but excited about this new challenge I have placed before me!
I worked full time at another business we had at the time and I suggested we do a summer camp during the days with children. Having had 4 children of our own, and not having "sports oriented kids", I knew that there was a need for something else in the way of after school and summer camp programs. So, with his experience as a computer programmer and my ability to organize things, we opened a summer camp teaching LEGO robotics. We had no idea what we were doing and when some kids came for more than 1 week, we realized we had to get more serious and actually teach and not just play.
That philosophy has now carried us through 10 years of working full time, teaching robotics after school and summer day camps. We teach coding, using the LEGO robots to catch the kids' attention, and hook them into learning. When they have learned certain levels with us they are then able to apply to be on a competitive robotics team. YES....competitive robotics! We compete with children aged 9-14 in something called FIRST LEGO League (FLL).
After the first couple of years I wanted a reference of the kids we coached and so created this FLL site to highlight the teams and their achievements each year, hoping that other FLL coaches out there would use it as a reference. I wanted it to help guide their teams through the project, robot and core value activities and improve their teams experiences and skills so that the competition we would face would be more fierce, and ultimately make it more fun!
Now, after these 10 years, 35 teams, and having great success on the World competition stage, I feel I am ready to have a voice and actually share my coaching thoughts, advice and suggestions to our small world of FLL lovers.
So here I am, nervous, but excited about this new challenge I have placed before me!
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