Subject:
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Lessons learned in pre-school
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Mon, 10 Jan 2005 02:00:18 GMT
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Reply-To:
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cjmasi@*nogarbageplease*rcn./avoidspam/com
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On Friday, I brought some trains to my son's pre-school. It was a crazy
and hectic event. I thought I would share with you the ideas that worked
and the ones that didn't work.
First, they loved seeing all the trains, and they were more than happy
to sit and look at the trolley and talk about trolleys, subways, and T's
(the closest subway/light rail to us is in Boston, and they are called
T's). Also, if you didn't know, lights are a big hit. Apparently, a
train or trolley that goes around a track is cool, but if it has a
light on it... watch out... super cool. We went to each train set-up
(three loops with two trains each) and everyone got a chance to ask
questions or throw out random comments. Boy, some of those comments are
random. For example, one little girl decided to share "my Mommy has
slippers" with us. I think the proper response is, "Oh, that is nice
(remember to smile kindly)."
Second, allowing a class of of 4-year olds to run trains is crazy! But
it was fun too. The teachers feel much better when you turn to them and
say "Oh, I wan't really expecting everything to make it home in one
piece." By the way, you _really_ shouldn't expect to bring everything
home in one piece if you are planning to let a bunch of 4-year olds drive.
The kids found the LEGO speed regulators easy to use, and some of them
even realized that you actually can make the train go slow or fast.
Running the stock LEGO trains on a reduced voltage transformer worked
great! I used an adjustable RadioShack wall-wart transformer to power
the trains, and the trains stayed on the track even at the highest
setting, which was good because full power was the most frequently used
setting. What didn't work was running my 8-wides using the regular LEGO
supplied wall-wart tranformer. Since my 8-wides weigh so much, they
cannot go fast enough to fly off the track. While that observation held
true, flying of the track didn't prove to be the biggest problem for the
8-wides.
Since the kids love that full power setting, they would just floor it
the second they got to the controller. If that didn't pop a knuckle, and
it almost always did, then the second favorite maneuver was more than
sufficient to pop a knuckle. The second favorite thing to do was, of
course, rapidly change from full power foward to full power reverse and
back again. If I didn't get back in time to pop the power supply off the
track a teriffic crash resulted. There were more than a couple of times
where the engineer got to talk face-to-face with the conductor who was
sitting in the caboose. On this day I wished that I had used my high
strength train couplers. I stopped using them because they cause
problems on the uneven NELUG tables. They would have worked perfectly on
the nice level floor of the pre-school.
The last observation I have about letting a room full of 4-year olds run
your trains is that you need a person for each set up. I felt like a
crazy man dashing from one track to the next to fix the inevitable problem.
After entertaining the 3-year old group (they only got to watch) I
finished packing up and headed home.
Anyway, It was fun, and if you have a four year old of your own, bring
your stuff to school, the kids will love it. Don't forget your reduced
power transformer though :)
Chris
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Message has 4 Replies:
 | | Re: Lessons learned in pre-school
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| (...) I noticed this and now have a doubly modified controller. A switch in one end drops the output voltage over the whole range. A switch in the other end engages a full rectifier on the output. These switches are push-type, glued into the base of (...) (20 years ago, 10-Jan-05, to lugnet.trains)
| | | Re: Lessons learned in pre-school
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| (...) I don't know why LEGO don't provide a voltage regulator. We pay a high price for the power unit and you can get a voltage regulator for a few pounds/dollars. At 9V the train goes too fast at full speed on a normal length of track and a normal (...) (20 years ago, 10-Jan-05, to lugnet.trains)
| | | Re: Lessons learned in pre-school
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| (...) Snip Hi Chris, Thanks for sharing that. I really enjoyed hearing about the trials and tribulations of your day. Lots of "grownups" would have issues with just spending a large amount of time with that many "rug rats" never mind allowing them (...) (20 years ago, 10-Jan-05, to lugnet.trains)
| | | Re: Lessons learned in pre-school
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| (...) Chris, Thanks for sharing that story! I was laughing as I read it because my own 3 year old daughter loves to take the motors OFF of my locomotive and run the motor by itself on the track. Much faster forward/reverse combinations are possible (...) (20 years ago, 10-Jan-05, to lugnet.trains)
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