Kids Activities

Katie and Stephen have joined a robotics team. The team has 6 or 8 weeks (I don't remember which) to build a robot. The robot needs to be programed to do various tasks. After it's completed, the team will go to various activities to compete with other robotics teams. The kids are really excited to be a part of this group.

The team is very generously sponsored by Stryker. Steve decided to join the team in October and has received rides to most of the activities from friends. Katie joined 3 days ago. When Steve joined, I explained that we were doing extensive remodeling on a home that we would be moving into in January. Steve decided to be part of the web design group because he would be able to do a lot of the work at home and wouldn't need to spend as much time at Stryker.

Katie joined the programming group. She will need to be at Stryker a lot. Saturday was the team kick-off in Grand Rapids. Sunday there was a meeting at Stryker (which no one told us about) and Monday there is another meeting at Stryker. I'm going to need to do some serious schedule adjusting. An adult babysitter will need to be located for some of these meetings. Joe is very good with Paige and Allie, but I'm uncomfortable leaving him in charge for long periods of time when Mike and I are both out of town.

I'm really glad that the kids have this opportunity. Stryker is providing mentors in programing, web design, marketing, and engineering. The kids will have the opportunity of working with these talented people and learning marketable skills from them. Robotics will help keep my high school students in touch with some of their friends on a day-to-day basis in the midst of the moving to a new area.

***Correction***

Steve did know about the meeting on Monday, but didn't tell me about it. He is having a lot of pain from his chipped tooth and went to bed without talking to me. We called the dentist's emergency line Saturday night and still haven't heard back from him. The office is closed on Mondays. Four of the kids are scheduled for cleanings on Wednesday. We may turn a couple of cleaning/check-ups into an appointment for Steve. I will be so glad when we move and change dentists!