A love of Lego

A hydrofoil... as if you needed
me to tell you that!

I have a big love for Lego, though it is a love that has developed as my sons (and husband) have taught me how to play with it! I wasn’t always a Lego fan. I did enjoy building the Stable set I got given when I was small – I think it went alongside my love of puzzles to find the correct pieces and build up this structure down to the details of the tap in the wall and flowers for the garden. But I would never choose to play with the box of miscellaneous Lego pieces during wet play at school and don’t remember ever creatively building something from my own imagination.

It took having my big one turn 2 for my love of Lego to develop. That was when my husband decided it was time to get his Lego from his Mother’s attic and I was shown the creativity and imagination that a huge box of Lego could bring about. I am now extremely proud to say my big one has conveyed the title ‘Master Builder’ upon me (though my husband still tells me I am merely an apprentice). If you are reading this not knowing what a Master Builder is you probably haven’t got a 4+ year old son or have ever watched Lego Movie (which is totally worth a watch by the way, one of those films that has the layer of humour for adults making it even more enjoyable to snuggle up with little ones on a Sunday afternoon for a film!)

Because when you're browsing
through the Lego builds book, you've
 gotta sit in a box of Lego!

From a teacher’s point of view, I also love Lego. The logic and creativity that stem from designing machines, spaceships (my speciality) or trying to re-create a character from a film – Husband’s Mater was particularly impressive – is immeasurable. Lego is also one of my go to suggestion for parents who are looking for ways to improve a child’s handwriting. One of the first things to work on when improving handwriting are the gross and fine motor skills. Lego is perfect as the strength it takes to push the pieces together fully and then pull them apart is just what children need to strengthen finger muscles. And scrabbling through a big box of Lego to find the perfect piece also uses quite some muscle!

A new box of Lego, the
perfect present! 

I have also used Lego in the classroom for more than just a wet play toy. It is perfect for, instruction reading and following, patterns, addition and subtraction, fractions, area and perimeter… and half the time the children don’t even realise what they’re learning because children really do learn through play!

My sons like to get up very early,
Lego has allowed me to doze on the sofa
may 5am weekend mornings!

Though I am apparently a ‘master builder’,  I fairly frequently get relegated to ‘perfect piece finder’ and while my sons build away I will sit in station next to the box of bricks ready to find certain pieces. How do the boys describe them? Well how else would you describe these pieces but by colour, size and shape. “Can you find me a yellow, thin 8?” or “Mummy, I need a black 4 x 2” – my son doesn’t even realise he knows some of his times tables yet he knows that 2 x 4 is 8. Though you can take the teacher out of the school, the teacher in me hasn’t ever quite left so sometimes I can’t help myself by throwing in a little challenge. “Sorry darling, I don’t have any 4 x 2’s in black. But I have lots of black 2x2’s. Would that help?”  to which he responds something along the lines of “That’s ok, thank you for looking. Two of them would fit as well.” If I’m honest, the thank you may well get forgotten in the midst of building but his growing mathematical knowledge is there, we can work on the p&q’s another time!

Not to forget the wonder of Duplo too!

Now I must go. My son’s have been busily building away and it is time to admire the masterful creations – show and tell is a huge part of our Lego building. What has been created, its name and details of what it can do must all be explained and admired, something I am more than ready to do! The only downside of Lego? Those little pieces get everywhere, especially on our tiled floor where they skitter away, lying in wait for the curses that will be uttered when an un-shod foot unknowingly tread upon it!! Now I urge you to go and find a box of Lego and build to your hearts content whether it is a tower with a repeating pattern of coloured bricks, a spaceship or garage for toy cars. The time will melt away as you become absorbed in the colourful task.

  

The Lego minefield, the perfect burglar deterrent!!