"Do not yield to discouragement in the face of difficulties and do not abandon yourselves to false solutions which often seem the easiest way to overcome problems. Do not be afraid to make a commitment, to face hard work and sacrifice, to choose the paths that demand fidelity and constancy, humility and dedication. Be confident in your youth and its profound desires for happiness, truth, beauty and genuine love! Live fully this time in your life so rich and so full of enthusiasm."
"Let us look with greater hope to the future; let us encourage one another on our journey."
~ Papa Benedict XVI

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

FIRST Lego League

This is our 4th year in FLL.  Each year we head into season excited, challenged, and full of hope.  As the season progresses, none of that changes ...i would probably add stressed to my own list but over all its a wonderful experience. 
This year we have a completely new challenge, 2 teams, with lots of wonderful new friends!  And i have to give the kids a lot of credit, with myself being out for about 5 weeks with baby and then illness, our own kids being out for a couple of weeks due to illness, and then multiple families taking vacations (gotta love homeschooling!) in October, things have been crazy but the kids continue on! I'm very proud of all of them! 

We have 15 FLL kids and 4 JrFLLers for a total of 3 teams.  The 'veteran' team and the Junior team head to regionals Saturday, Nov 12th while our 'rookie' team competes on the 19th.  From each regional event in our area, 8 teams will be heading to State.  We'll keep you posted!

On monday several of our kids participated in a local scrimmage with 6 other FLL teams.  There were 4 Veteran teams and 4 Rookie teams in attendance.  Both of our teams did a wonderful job.  Our Veteran team came in 2nd and our Rookie team tied for 4th out of 8 teams. 
We learned a lot.  And some of those things could only be learned while competing.  For example, the stress of the run.  Until you are under the clock with people talking, teammates 'coaching', refs watching, and you trying to remember marks, program order, attachments, etc you really have NO idea.

We coaches saw kids step up and try, kids inviting teammates to participate.  We saw them realize they need to practice, and just how much we need to teach file management ; )  We saw things click as to why something wasn't working, or how they could better improve something.  And yes, we saw stress, and fear, and thoughts of failure, but gracious professionalism ran its course as well.  We were so very proud of all of them on Monday... can't wait to see how they do at Regionals!


















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