We are not a school team, but we did start trying to form our team in the spring also. We met a few times over the summer, and it was helpful to have that beginning. We plan to now meet throughout the year, maybe once a month or more, so the kids can have an opportunity to explore and experiment with programming in ways they did not have time to do during the season. I was looking at the techbrick site and noticed their tournament is not until Jan 31! They are in MD, but wow, that is a LOT more time to work on the missions and project. Sonya in Harrisonburg On Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 11:34 AM, Michael Blanpied <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > Lisa, > > I'll be curious too. I assume that FLL regionals and state tournaments are > in the fall to allow the international tournament to fall within the same > school year, or to not conflict with Odyssey of the Mind and other such > things in the spring, but that's just a guess. > > The timing does create a challenge for school teams. My first two years I > coached an elementary school team. The school would send announcements about > FLL in the introductory package, which families would receive around Labor > Day. By the time forms were returned, teams formed, and a first meeting > scheduled, we were into late September with only about 6-7 weeks left. I > pleaded for the school to solicit interest and form teams in the spring, so > that we could meet a bit over the summer to get to know each other and begin > work on background skills (robot building, programming) and begin to explore > the theme topic in a general way, but no dice. > > Perhaps a compromise would be to move the fall tournaments a couple of > weeks later, and shift States to after the holiday, but who knows. > > Mike > > > Hello, >> >> I have a question about the timing of our tournaments. Why do we have >> our tournaments during the busiest time of the year November and December? >> There must be a reason and I just don't know. It would seem to make more >> sense to have them later after we have had time to get situated in the >> school year and not during the holiday season. I was thinking March and >> April. >> >> Just Wondering, >> Fuqua Bot Boys >> Formerly X-treme Lego Bots >> Formerly Fuqua 4-H Robotics >> >> Lisa >> >> ______________________________________________________________ >> To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE YOUR SETTINGS, please visit >> https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or >> leave the list". >> >> If you want to join the VADCFLL-ADMIN-L mailing list - to which FLL >> administrative announcements will be distributed - visit >> https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-admin-l.html and select "Join >> or leave the list". >> > > ______________________________________________________________ > To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE YOUR SETTINGS, please visit > https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave > the list". > > If you want to join the VADCFLL-ADMIN-L mailing list - to which FLL > administrative announcements will be distributed - visit > https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-admin-l.html and select "Join or > leave the list". > ______________________________________________________________ To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE YOUR SETTINGS, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list". If you want to join the VADCFLL-ADMIN-L mailing list - to which FLL administrative announcements will be distributed - visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-admin-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".