My Week In Video

Enjoy our week in video from the perspective of a 15 year old.

Trust me. It is very entertaining. And it has good music.

PEACE AND LOVE

Robotics

Gigi, our team mascot wearing the 2010 JDRF t-shirt, our team uniform.

I haven't blogged much this fall. Honestly, life has been just surviving for me and I have no brain power to come up with something interesting or poignant. But this week, I am struck by some of God's goodness and I wanted to share it.

Rob and I strategize when it comes to parenting. We are big believers in "feeding the muse" of each particular child. Zac is gifted at math and science, so robotics seemed to be a good fit for him. But there was one problem..... our homeschool coach decided to take a break this year. Rob, in sacrificial fashion decided to form his own team. Now you have to understand that Rob HATES, ABHORS to build anything. But he knew Zac needed to do this and we started to form our team. Six boys, ages 12-15 make up the Replicants team.

As regional competition approached, we realized the team needed to do A LOT of work. So one week before regionals, we opened the house up to the team virtually around the clock. Rob did none of the work, he simply encouraged them to complete their tasks. To make a long story short, we arrived at the competition and it was obvious that coaches and parents had helped their team a lot more than we did. The diplays were pretty amazing. It was obvious that most of the teams had done this before, as teachers and engineers coached large, organized teams. After a very long day, awards were presented. I sat there a little depressed because I always struggle with the idea that our country is so bent on winning, parents literally do the work for the kids. I knew for sure we would not win. Then the announcer named Replicants for first place in Robot Design, followed by a second award for research. Of the 30 teams, we were one of 10 to advance to the next level, state competition. It will admit, I was surprised, but when we received our scores, it turns out our team placed first and second for most categories. The only category in which we did poorly was actual robot performance. And the boys did all of this work completely on their own. I am so proud of them.

The best part about this experience is this. Each year, Lego League chooses some type of theme upon which the teams base their research. Past themes have included the environment, nanotechnology and transportation renovations. This year the theme is "Body Forward." Teams needed to research medical problems and develop solutions. Naturally Zac wanted to choose Type 1 Diabetes. Through the coarse of completing this competition, Zac had a forum in which to share some of the challenges of living with Diabetes. There is something very healing for our family in "normalizing" his disease and having a safe place to share. What are the chances that the ONE year we decided to participate in Robotics, the theme would allow for this? I know it is not a coincidence.