My daughter used to really love Lego Robotics, so one year for her birthday we purchased her a robotics kit. A few years later, my son received the kit as a hand-me-down and has love it every since. He has the ability and patience to read the manuals, put the pieces together, and really figure out the programming, something I have no interest in doing. But let this be an encouragment to homeschool moms. Don’t be afraid to let your children do things you can’t. All of my children have exceeded me or at least did differently than I did in particular areas, whether it’s math, foreign languages, or robotics. The beautiful thing about being in a homeschool is that you can let them play and explore and spends large amounts of concentrated time on things while they explore and figure things out. Their academics don’t suffer, and in fact, I think it’s a huge advantage that they eat and sleep as their bodies and our family needs dictate as well.
A real conversation that just happened with my 11-year-old son:
“Mom, I am working on a robot and I don’t want to overheat the motor .How long should I delay between rotations to keep it from getting too hot?”
Me: I have no idea.
David “Well, I think I should put in a 20th of a second delay, then your brain won’t process the delay, but the motor gets a rest. That’s what I will do.”
Me: Um. Ok. If you say so
Insert three minute delay
David: “Ugh. I did that wrong on so many levels.”
Me: Ok
David: “I know how to fix this, don’t worry.. I will take me all night to fix this problem. But I will get it.”
Me: OK
Three minute delay:
David: “Mom, it’s all coming together, I will use TWO buttons to control the different aspects of this program. One will control the backward and forward motion and the other will control the shooting of the lasers, but don’t worry, they are not real lasers. That would be dangerous and you would not approve.”
What is hilarious, is I don’t think these tiny motors overheat, nor would a delay of that length help if it did, but I really have no idea and as soon as I insert any kind of idea into the situation, I will be proven wrong. Better to just lay low and let him verbally process the whole thing.
#HomeschoolMom #NotAnEngineer #ThatsMySon
