In our homeschool journey I have always wanted interesting learning experiences that sparked my kid's interests. We have created some new opportunities for groups, we have done things solo, we have joined in with other groups and we have done things in the general community.
It is not always easy to find great things for homeschoolers to do. Sometimes good endeavors are not open to homeschoolers so we are locked out, but lest you feel bad for homeschoolers in that case just know that many schooled kids are also locked out by virtue of the fact that their schools CHOOSE to not participate in some or many of the things that are open and available to them. (The highly ranked school system in my Connecticut town has no FIRST Robotics team, for example.) Sometimes homeschoolers can do things but they are too expensive to do on our own or we lack teacher resources -- I can't teach robotics and none of my homeschool friends can either.
So the point of this post is to share my gratitude for my son's FIRST Robotics team here in our new home in Texas. I heard of it through a mom of Boy Scouts in our Troop (whose kids have always used school). I am so glad she told me of this because I'd asked about such opportunities on the local homeschool chat list and Google'd around and got no information. Thank goodness I crossed paths with a science family in Scouts who had spoken to my son at a campout and wound up discussing physics and chemistry. The mom told me "Your son is brilliant and you are doing a good job homeschooling him". I responded, "He is? I don't think so, he just loves science."
When I attended the parent info session for the team I was surprised and impressed. It's a team that has 50-60 kids each year and they ask that you put in as much time as you can but they are not strict about mandating a certain number of hours as they know kids do many different things with their time and that they have homework. Obviously if you are not there much you can't have a major leadership student role and you will miss out on decision making. I get it.
My son's schedule conflicts are Boy Scouts (which he is Senior Patrol Leader for so must be at meetings) and the rowing team. Every spare minute he is at Robotics, which means directly after rowing practice he goes right to Robotics. (Thank goodness for effective deodorant.) Every day he doesn't have a conflict he's there from start to end time.
Seeing such a dedicated coach, who is a high school science teacher, was awe-inspiring. It made me wish that my son was in school, just to have access to a teacher who loved science so much. If only he could be guaranteed to have all teachers like that, I'd enroll him into school now. But it's a crapshoot who the student's teachers will be. After reading some student reviews of some of the other science teachers at the local public high school I was horrified by some and impressed by some, it's a mixed bag. I am also not convinced that traditional science classes are as alternative and beneficial as the hands on robotics team project, so you shouldn't judge a public school based on how great their Robotics Team is.
One day early on I went in to get my son because he didn't know I was waiting outside and his mobile phone was dead. I walked into the Robotics Lab to find over 40 kids all talking and laughing. The room was loud with happy voices. Teens were working and talking and having a ball. My younger son was with me and he seemed surprised it was so cool and everyone was having fun and he asked if he could do something like that. I reminded him that he has refused to join in on things being offered for his age range. If only all of school could be so great socially and learning-wise I'd enroll my kids right now. Seeing all those students so happy and jazzed up about robotics and just enjoying each other's company made my heart sing.
Something the coach said at the info session touched me. He said that this team allows some kids to shine in areas where they are talented. (Here is a place where no one is going to make fun of you for being a real science nut.) There are all different kinds of tasks and skills used for this competition and the team needs kids who can do all different things: computer programming, CAD, website design, people management, creative thinking, problem solving, and on and on. I can only imagine that some cliques in school look down upon some of them, calling them geeks and nerds. Here with the robotics team they are in their element and working together as a team, having fun working on a project collaboratively and winning competitions to boot.
Not only was I excited for my son to be around an inspiring teacher but there are other adult mentors who are engineers. I am happy that my son gets to interact with people in a career field he thinks he may wind up in.
As a 9th grader my son had a small role with the team. Not much is expected of the freshmen. However they taught him to use the lathe and other power equipment and my son discovered that he loves working with machinery and custom making parts. In the spare time he used scrap pieces to custom make items such as bullet replicas and a carved tube that he inserts the workings of a ball point pen into so it's an aluminum funky pen. He has been told by his teammates that he is good on the machinery.
This year I was not involved as a parent volunteer. They seemed all set with their team and offers for me to help more were declined. My extent of being involved was to cook and donate food for the kids to eat for dinner. It felt weird to be so hands off after all these years of homeschooling and being a major volunteer with Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts and working with homeschool co-ops and other things. I let go and let my son go off and do something without Mommy being attached at his hip. He not only survived but thrived.
My husband and I are not science people. I am so happy my son got to be around kids who love science and adult mentors and the coach/teacher who loves science. As I watch the team in action or even watch YouTube videos of their past events I can't help but think that our family could never, ever provide such an opportunity for our kids. At the very least I doubt I could raise the funds to make a new team (the entry fee for one regional tournament is $4000. which doesn't include building the robot and travel expenses or anything else)! So, I am very grateful that this team exists right in our town (it's so convenient)! I appreciate and give thanks to the FIRST organization for their rule that team participation is open to the entire community, whether the kids go to school there or to some other school without a team, or to homeschoolers. I am so happy that homeschoolers are not locked out.
The team is well organized with students as leaders of teams, thus the oldest students are learning leadership and people management skills also. It feels great to have access to such a great program and to be part of a team who works so well together. So far there has not been a single leadership or organization screw up that I'm aware of. There is no drama that I know of, if there is, the innocent bystanders are not involved (unlike some other orgs that we are currently involved in) -- thank goodness. There are no conflicts that I know of, not for our family and not for our son.
My son has had only positive experiences interacting with the other kids. He seems to be well liked and is treated well. He has made new friends on the team. I overheard multiple kids asking where he went off to at the regional competition; they wanted to be with him. So much for homeschoolers being accused of being unsocialized! I saw my son interacting with kids from different schools, different ages, and different appearances, which showed me that indeed my son does not judge people based on where they live, what school they attend, or their appearance, he accepts them all: the ones dressing in steampunk -- while my husband asked "Why does that kid have big goggles on his head?", who really looks geeky, who has bad acne, who has a different ethnic background, so forth and so on. My son realized that some of the kids are in the same Boy Scout Troop (although most seldom attend Scouts as they choose to be busy with Robotics and have homework also). My son feels accepted and happy; this has been another great social experience for him.
In case you are wondering, no, this positive experience has not yet led my son to ask to go to school. I was the one thinking perhaps homeschooling was not good enough and that he should attend that science magnet school that many of those team kids attend. I was thinking, "Robotics is so great if school can give more stuff like this, then he should enroll." My son has acknowledged that he wants to get more hours of sleep in a day than school kids get and he wants every evening free of homework so that he can do Robotics Team and Crew and Boy Scouts. My son feels that homeschooling gives him more freedom than school so he wants to continue to homeschool. As stated in a recent blog post we have decided to see about him entering community college in the fall of his grade ten year, part-time, to learn subjects that I am unwilling or unable to teach myself and classes that we feel are better done in person than done online.
About the competition: yes, this is a competition. It's a game with winners and losers. The process of preparing for the competition teaches kids things. Winning is great but it's the process that's important. This team has a good record of winning regionals and making it to World Championships for three of the last four years. My son is there to participate and learn and any winning is icing on the cake.
We'll see what happens when they start competing in regional tournaments!
So have I made it clear yet, how grateful I am for this opportunity for my son?!
Related posts:
Teaching My Kids Time Management Skills
A Few Ways Homeschooling Older Kids is Different
Deadlines Are Good
Also click the blog label "homeschoolers in competitions".