It’s Fun Friday and five gregarious youngsters are playing Solar System Bingo in a brightly lit room that’s decorated with their colorful art projects. Aeden Valera, 9, and Devin Luga-Benedicto, 10, are competing to see who will be next to call out “bingo!” as they search their word sheets for terms like “asteroid,” “milky way,” “orbit” and “black hole.”

But this isn’t a typical classroom and these aren’t typical students. All have life-threatening illnesses that require long hospital stays and valuable time away from school. To engage their minds and provide therapeutic activities, Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children created the Brain Station program in January 2016. Since then about 465 young patients have been served.

Eight-year-old Tavin Hashimoto of Kula, Maui, has been unable to attend school for the past six months while undergoing treatment for acute myeloid leukemia. His father, Davin Hashimoto, said the Brain Station program — 90-minute sessions held weekdays on the hospital’s pediatric floor — also allows his son to socialize with other youngsters.

“My son, even though he can’t go to school, is still learning and keeping his brain active,” Hashimoto said.

“He’s always excited to go and comes back to tell us what he did.”

Tavin was diagnosed with the form of cancer in March. He stays at Kapiolani for monthlong treatments before going home for one or two weeks before repeating the cycle. His father, mother Tammi-Lynn, brother Taylor, 6, and sister Taylyn, 1, also make the trek from Maui to spend time with him during the lengthy hospital stays.

Carrie Shiraki-Sakaino, who runs the Brain Station program under the hospital’s Child Life Services,, said she tries to help young patients maintain and sustain their learning despite being away from school under taxing circumstances.

“I work with schools and together we are able to develop creative ways to meet requirements as needed,” she said.

Lesson plans in social studies, math, language arts and science are built around weekly themes such as dinosaurs, outer space and superheroes. Activities emphasize cognitive functions including memory, language and emotional development. There’s even homework.

“We just want to make their stay a little better,” said Shiraki-Sakaino. “It’s enjoyable and educational for them. It helps them to maintain a sense of normalcy.”

Shiraki-Sakaino, who has a background in special education, customizes the curriculum to meet the needs of individual patients, who have ranged in age from 5 to 22. She also has a background in counseling and is certified in cognitive rehabilitation.

Patients in isolation are taught via the FaceTime or Skype video chat apps, and Shiraki-Sakaino partners with Kapiolani’s rehabilitation team if certain students need to improve their fine motor skills or other deficiencies.

As an incentive, participants can earn “brain bucks” they can use to buy toys.

Brain Station is also rewarding for Shiraki-Sakaino. “I learn from my students every day,” she said. “I learn grace, gratitude, compassion, courage, presence, love and simply how to just be.”