Three Coins in the Fountain

My son loves to build with Legos. It started with Duplos as a toddler & preschooler, graduating to bigger projects with smaller pieces. His ultimate Lego build would be the Death Star. In the meantime, he keeps himself busy with kits and free building. 

Christmas came a little early this week when boxes came from family in New Jersey. Little Man opened his and there was a Lego architecture kit. It was the Trevi fountain in Rome, to be constructed out of bricks and pieces. Of course I took this as an opportunity for a quick history and heritage lesson. 

While the present fountain dates to the 1600's, the site has served as a water source for Rome back to ancient times. Today's fountain was commissioned by Pope Urban III in 1629 and was completed in 1761. 

It didn't take the little man that long to complete his masterpiece. Instead, it took him about an hour, despite a gazillion pieces and an instruction manual the size of war and peace. 

I'm always impressed with his focus on and manual dexterity when he's building.

Many experts claim that with autism, neither of those are present, but the experts tend to be wrong when it comes to what the little man accomplishes. It's miraculous watching him in action, since I can't make heads or tails of the instructions. I'm not able to build ikea furniture either, but I'm sure this kiddo can. He is very geared towards engineering and architecture, and his mind is very linear functioning. 

“For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.”

Psalm 36:9 NIV

Mr. Roboto

Over the weekend, my son tried something new: Lego robotics. He's been a Lego building fiend since he's been 4, and this is taking it to the next level. This is part of the Lego league program (http://firstlegoleague.org/challenge/teamresources) in which participants build a Lego robot and then program it to do lots of neat things.
The program here in Sioux Falls (http://www.southdakotarobotics.com/index.php) took a major hit last fall when the program director and two other leaders were killed in a plane crash. Thankfully, Dr. Swets' wife took the program over and it's continuing.
I got to hang out and watch my kiddo learn to program a robot to go forward, backward and in a circle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=876be3bMxmc

On top of that, he learned to loop the commands which was super cool!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwxJ2eHaLMU

The joy on his face when his program worked was the best! I love watching him learn something new and solve a problem.

We don't have a Lego league program in our school yet, but it's something that may be worth pursuing. I know of one third-almost fourth-grader that would love it!