New Homeschooled FLL Team Members

[evan_goff]

Greetings to homeschooled FLL teams!

I coach 2 FLL teams, and this is the first year that both teams will include a mix of traditional and homeschooled team members.
Obviously, everyone's schedules are very different (and as we know, time is not a luxury in FLL.)

Any recommendations on how to plan the team season to allow homeschoolers to take advantage of their flexible schedule while still coordinating their efforts well as a team?

I have some ideas to apportion project work and help both teams plan their robot development according to each mission to allow sub-groups within the team to work together and collaborate with the entire team once their piece is complete... your thoughts?

[Team of 8]

Hi Evan,

We are a brand-new homeschool team, too, so I will share what we are doing. Naturally, this is just what's working for our families, and we are learning along the way as coaches/parents.

We started meeting weekly in March, using a 4H curriculum to introduce the team to the world of robotics. I also include teamwork and communication games/activities, as well as a snack break. After we finished the "robotics" study, in about 4-6 weeks, we moved on to exploring the research theme. We have been working on that for about three weeks now and plan to continue doing so until the end of next month. Within that research time, we are not only using the libraries (and working on our own at home), but we are scheduling field trips.

I also try to incorporate a "teamwork" activity each meeting to make it fun for them and to build up that area. (I must say, though, that they are exhibiting a good team spirit since a majority of the team knows each other from other home school events. ) I am concerned, though, as we get into the "nuts and bolts" of the Robot Game/mission, I may see other sides of these kids as they all eagerly want to do the same thing, take charge, etc. Again, that will be a learning area for me as a coach.

We are meeting weekly now for 2 hours in the early afternoon and plan to increase it in September when the mission and kit is released. Thankfully, we have this flexibility as home schoolers, and aren't feeling any pressure (at this time) and are slowly working our way through this new adventure of FLL.

I hope my sharing is helpful in some small way. Best wishes!

[harrylegonxt]

is there any more room i home school and this is my last year and i took my other team to state last year live in idaho but we are moving soon and i want to do better this year

[dvz]

Three years as a mixed team, Evan, but we don't place any additional burden upon the HS families simply because of scheduling. We accommodate both by having early evening weeknight meetings, in addition to a weekend session. If any kids want to show initiative, regardless of their schedule, so much the better.