Lego Camp!

Two weeks before school started, Cal and I were at the park when he stumbled upon a community center classroom group right in the midst of enjoying lego camp. It was all I could do to drag him away from the windows. He begged and begged to go in and join them, which was not possible. However, we did get a flyer from a camp counselor, and looked it up online once we got home. 

It was pretty difficult to find an opening, and I ended up signing up for a time in November by mistake! Cal was heartbroken as we drove home. I got back online (and on the phone, and went into the community center downtown), and we were able to snag the last lego camp spot in a neighboring town. I was so relieved. It was definitely worth the extra drive to get this kid to his beloved Lego camp! :)

 Cal loved the "free build" portions of the day, but I was impressed with how structured the activities were. The whole goal of the camp is to teach engineering concepts and vocabulary to the kids.  They had a specific project to work on when they arrived each day, with the instructor guiding them through the various stages of development.

 Some times the project was a plane, or a truck, or a conveyor belt, or a crane. Each time, they would go through the specific parts of the project so the kids were learning engineering vocabulary. I thought it was awesome!

Even daily cleanup was cool. The kids had to sort the pieces into various groups depending on type, and deliver them to the correctly labelled bin. It was actually quite amazing to watch.

 The last 15 minutes, the instructor would go over the different parts they had learned about, with the kids answering with terms like, "chassis," "42-tooth gear," "axle," "holding rod," and "fuselage."

We will definitely be back next year!