"My son started our FIRST journey in the FLL 2010 Body Forward season with another team; however, the team did not make it to competition.  The following year, during Food Factor, Lord of the Bricks was formed with me, his mom, as the coach.  I learned as much that year from my team as they learned from me.  I had obviously expected them to learn some really great engineering skills. What I didn't expect was all the great life lessons that they learned, and that they shared with me.  I also never expected the "There is no exit strategy in FIRST" speech that I got during our first Coach's Meeting; I thought I had joined a cult!  It was an awe-inspiring experience, and I wanted to be able to continue to share it with my younger kids, as well as with other kids in our community. 

When my son turned 14, he aged out of FLL.  We decided to form an FTC team.  My younger children were too young for FLL; however, I wanted to keep the FLL team going.  I made the decision to enlist help in order to add coaches for our FLL team, as well as a Jr. FLL team.  My stepfather became my FLL co-coach, and a parent of a younger teammate led our Jrs.  Thus, the Lord of the Bricks legacy was born!

"My youngest daughter had a stroke at birth, which resulted in right-hemisphere brain damage.  Her little hands shake fiercely, at times, and she has visual spatial difficulties.  She is also ADHD, dysgraphic, and severely dyslexic.  She joined our Jr. FLL team with much excitement, and zero experience.  As excited as she was to build, putting LEGOs together was extremely frustrating for her.  She never gave up, though.  Using the LEGOs, she has been able to let her imagination lead her to some amazing new creations - like the flying bus with a minibar during Super Seniors (I SWEAR that is not a reflection of our household!).  She also developed quite a talent for programming (much to the delight of her programmer mother).  She actually taught herself how to use the WeDo software...and I'm not ashamed to say she taught me, too!"