Day 1945. After a very short night, the kids were up early. I went back to sleep after they had gotten up. At 8:45 my alarm went off, and I got up to get ready for us to leave the house.
Randy and Sammy left the house before us, just after 9 am. They had to pick up a book from somebody's home; a Christmas present. Tammy, Emmy and I left the house at 9:15 am, and we had our scooters.
We rode the subway for a few stops, then had a long walk ahead of us that was considerably shortened thanks to our scooters. It was drizzling a little bit, but not that much that it was a problem. I had never been to the place where we were going, so I had to look at my phone for directions from time to time.
We found the location about 15 minutes before the workshop was to start at 10 am. We left our scooters with the bikes outside the building and went inside. We took the elevator up and found the entrance, an open door.
Inside the premises, there was just one, young lady who was the one doing the workshop. We found out that she was from Kazachstan. She was very nice. After a few minutes another boy arrived with his mother. The teacher said that 3 more children were supposed to come, so we waited a few more minutes, but they never showed up. It was really nice that there were only 3 children.
It was a workshop for 5 to 7-year-olds to build LEGO robots that move, or have a light, music, a sensor. The other boy was 6 years old and already in school. There were two 3D-printers sitting in the room; it was the first time I got to see those in real life. The kids found a little Flipper game right away and started playing with it. Emmy immediately befriended the boy.
Then the teacher started the workshop. She explained what we were going to do and handed out a LEGO strike education box to every child. I ended up sitting with Emmy and helping him, while the teacher was helping Tammy. First, she showed us how to access the tablet, where there was a list of projects to choose from. Emmy chose a moving soccer goal, of course, while I'm not sure what Tammy's choice was called. The instructions of how to build the robot were also on the tablet. The kids figured all the tablet stuff out quickly. The instructions were just like the paper ones we had, when we were small. It showed what piece to get out of the box and how to put it together with what you had already built. At some point we attached the battery pack and the engine for the wheels. Emmy was doing better than I had thought in terms of understanding and his fine motor skills, but he couldn't have done it without my help.
Once it was built, we needed the teacher to show us how the programming worked, and Emmy figured it out quickly. You could tell it how far to go, how fast, and what direction, and you could add music. You could also add a lamp to your robot. Emmy was playing around with all that. Tammy spent more time on the programming, with the teacher showing her all kinds of stuff.
Then it was break time, and all the kids got a cereal bar. They played with the Flipper game again. Then the teacher said they could now build a Christmas tree that they'd then make spin. She asked whether they each wanted to do one, or do one together. Surprisingly they said "together", but that was not working as everyone had a different idea of what the Christmas tree was gonna look like. And then they all thought it was boring. So the project was abandoned.
Instead the boy and Emmy each chose another project to build another robot, while Tammy continued trying out all the programming that was possible, with the teacher's help. Emmy chose to build a vehicle, while the boy built an actual robot. In the end they put them on the ground, and Emmy wanted to do a race and was happy that his car won.
At 12 pm the class was over, we got dressed and left. We rode our scooters back to the subway and took it home. Just after 12:30 pm we were back home. I warmed up leftovers, and we sat down to eat.
I needed a break, but no such luck. Emmy wanted me to print out a few pictures so he could make a present for Tammy. Tammy also wanted some pictures printed out for her present for everyone. Then she also did some drawing, and Emmy still colored a Mickey picture for Sammy. Randy was getting the chocolates for the Christmas tree ready. I did piano practice with the kids, then we finished putting all the chocolates on the tree, and Randy put the star on top. It had turned out nicely.
We needed to cut out and bake Christmas cookies, so that we could decorate them tomorrow, but I had taken the butter out of the fridge late, and it had to be soft. So we got out the experiment box of the month and did the three experiments. It was the least exciting of all the boxes so far.
Then I went to the kitchen and made the cookie dough. The kids were impatient to get started, but the dough had to sit in the fridge for an hour first. It was nearly 6 pm, when we got it out, and I started rolling it out so they could cut out the cookies of the different shapes. They had fun, and I ended up baking three trays of cookies.
After they were done, I made their dinner, and they ate, then went into the bathtub. In the course of the afternoon I got more and more tired, not having had a nap, and I could barely function any more at the time I had to read to them and put them to bed. I then got myself something to eat and was energized a little. I did some more wrapping of presents - until Randy went to bed, but I don't have that many left to go to wrap tomorrow night.
Now it's once again after 1 am, way too late, and I have yet to take care of the kitchen.
