Anyone have kids in First Lego League?

[Jeff Monson]

There was a competition in our city last weekend and my son and I decided to go check it out. It was pretty cool to see the teams of kids and their robotic lego cars. Anyways we were a little overwhelmed and didnt realize to ask any questions about how to get involved locally. I did some searching on the net and found quite a bit of information. I really like the mission of the first lego league and the opportunity for the kids to learn. So does anyone here have a family member or relative that is involved?

[Allen Koriakin]

My son and 10 of his friends where sponsored by SAP which paid for almost all of the fees for the competition and equipment we needed. This will run you almost 900 dollars if you don't have the Lego kit that you need. You can reuse the kit after the first year which saves you about 325 dollars if you come back the next year.

Every year the theme changes so what you saw this year will be completely different the next. This was my first year and let me tell you it was a ton of work. Building a robot for the competition was about 25 percent of the work that needs to be completed before you go to competition. The kids have to do research for the project that they choose and then they have to communicate the solution to the problem back to the community that you live in. They also have to prepare a 5 minute skit to give during the competition.

My advice would be to check out the official website if you are planning to get involved and then find at least 2 or 3 really dedicated parents to help you guide the kids in the right direction. Our team put in about 2 hours a week and we found this to be just too little time to get everything together before we got scheduled to compete. I think you need more like 4 to 5 hours a week from mid August until early December to be really successful. You can have between 4 and 10 children per team. You can send me a PM if you would like to hear more about my experience this year.

Allen Koriakin