A FIRST in Robotics.

FINALLY!  I found an actual robotics school!  And when I say school, I mean with a true blue school building, a school-year program, robot terrain challenge exams, daily training, ending in a full-blown badge to represent the country in international robotics competitions.
The FIRST Robotice Learning Center is the best.  summer discovery.  evaah!

Needless to say, Miro is generously pumped to get started.  This wasn't a simple summer break.  This was for real.

Nice, guarded entrance.

Long hallway decked with students' achievements.

Huge waiting room and playroom.

The kids' own lockers.

Super spacious classrooms which house a couple of large-scale robot terrain challenges each.

Wide work benches with a great abundance of building tools.

Individual laptops and workbooks that record every child's progress.

The FIRST Robotics Learning Center uses the usual flair of NXT Lego Mindstorms --kids learn to design, build, and program their robots in the name of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.  Its specialized curriculum spans 3 levels.

5+

7+

And 9+

As always, every session ends with a robot creation.  So it's instant gratification all the way!  Just look at these mechana-marvels Miro cooked up on his first 2 days.

The Motochopper.

And The Robowalkies.

FIRST Robotics also has summer programs for your little geekazoids just in case you want to test the water first.  These are 4 sessions which, I assure you, you will end up extending.

When it comes to robotics, make FIRST your first and last.  I think we're going in that general direction. :)

The Geeky Guide to Summer 2013

As it has been year after year, Miro has challenged my summer camp hunting skills to the hilt.  No, he doesn't want those run-of-the-mill arts and crafts programs.  No, he's not going for the expected  kickball or swimming training.  He, as always, is on modern man all-geek mode.
If you have a child who's as tech savvy as mine, you might want to check out these summer 2013 workshops I've discovered after a couple of months of relentless research.

FIRST Robotics Learning Center

Miro has gone to the Lego Mindstorms Robotics Workshop for a couple of summers and he loved it big time.  But here's a level up.  I actually found a school dedicated to Robotics.  It's FIRST Robotics Learning Center --with a badass Space Exploration theme for the season.  It's fully-equipped with the trappings of a regular school while being fully-loaded with subjects outside of a regular school.  The 8-session workshop is worth Php8,500, but you can get a 4-day trial class for a little under Php4,000.  Cool deal if you ask me.

Power Mac Center

Last year, Miro took Digital Arts leading to Video Game Creation and he found the pacing kinda slow.  So here's a pick-me-upper!  Power Mac Center offers a slew of Mac Apps workshops you can choose from with just 2 1/2 hours' training for each.  Now that's fast learning!  And you don't even need to commit to a number of sessions.  Choose your next workshop (from Photoshop to Flash Animation to Photo Manipulation to Video Game Development, and more!) as you go along.  And pay as you go along.  Fexible, fast, and fun!  Php950 each training day.

SparkleLAB 

Ok, Miro has been pestering me about getting into (the very, VERY rare) Video Game Development  for almost 3 years now, right?  Now look what I stumbled upon!  It's the whole toy and gaming caboodle!  SparkleLAB gives you the first ever holistic approach to 'play creation'.  Kids get to create their own toys, cook up the mechanics to their own board games, and finally, publish their own video games online.  Awesomeness!  It's Php15,000 for the whole 12-day course.  Kinda steep.  But if you have the funds, this should be worth it.

Whew!  There you go!
If you're a mom at her wit's end hunting for high tech in the sea of garden variety summer programs this year, check out these camps.  You'll make your little geekazoid extremely happy.  Geeks (and their moms, haha!) rule!!!