spin-off: your Lego philosophy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just when I thought I was mastering this parenting thing...I need a lego philosophy?

Yeah, if it's not on GOOP then I'm not inadequate yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most 6 year olds should be able to do these small sets by themselves. Both of mine were, at 3.5-4 years of age, following the instructions. And if he doesn't enjoy following the instructions, he'll be creative, even better! At 8 yrs old, say, these small sets will be way too easy, so open them now.[/quote]

The bold part. You don't want to hold it until it is too young for your child.

[Anonymous]

Kids get kit. Build kit. Kit stays built for ~1 week to one month, eventually breaks and goes into the big Lego box. Legos in Lego box get turned into some cool creation, which floats around the house for a while before breaking (or exhausting my patience) and getting returned to the Lego box. Rinse and repeat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids get kit. Build kit. Kit stays built for ~1 week to one month, eventually breaks and goes into the big Lego box. Legos in Lego box get turned into some cool creation, which floats around the house for a while before breaking (or exhausting my patience) and getting returned to the Lego box. Rinse and repeat.

This is my Lego philosophy.

[Anonymous]

Kids are all different. My oldest couldn't build most of the medium/large kits on his own until probably 10yo. He rarely did much freelancing building either - he was all about the end result, which he typically wanted to play with (and inevitably break.) That flipped a few years, but for him Legos are still an imaginative play toy. He's about to turn 13yo and still loves them.

My nephew was all about building and did it all solo from 5yo onward. I think he has more of an engineer attitude about legos; he found the building more interesting than the end result. He's also a tween and now wants to be an architect. He's way over legos now though unlike my son.

Moral of the story: Some kids are drawn to legos for the imaginary play, some for the building/engineering. One way is not better than the other as far as I'm concerned. As annoying and expensive as they can be, legos are a lot better than what follows: video games, girls, driving....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like a typical 6 year can do all the $10 to $25 sets if they are interested in Lego. Those are generally less than 200 pieces and the instructions are all pictures. I'd let him at those. My fairly typical 6 year can do most sets up to 500 pieces with no help from us and has been doing those smaller sets independently for well over a year.

This - My 6yo loves Lego and does the sets in the 8-14 age category. Let him try the sets! Even my 5 yo can do the beginner sets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids get kit. Build kit. Kit stays built for ~1 week to one month, eventually breaks and goes into the big Lego box. Legos in Lego box get turned into some cool creation, which floats around the house for a while before breaking (or exhausting my patience) and getting returned to the Lego box. Rinse and repeat.

This is my Lego philosophy.

+2

For OP, your 6 year old should absolutely be able to put those small sets together. Ignore the age on the box. Most of them say 7-12, but my 7 year old has been putting those together for years (he is fairly patient), and my youngest (5) can put them together with a bit of help. The difference is that my youngest lacks the patience to sift and find the pieces. His "help" requests are usually "where is X piece", not "how do I do this".

[Anonymous]

OP here:

Thank you! This is such a funny thread.

Here's the thing. Maybe I have some sort of issue but it really bothers me that a set does not get put together before it gets put in the bin, forever, never to be put together. I feel disappointed. That said, I am not good at Legos. at all.

I'll break out another little set and see how it goes. We'll try it together since I think he did this one himself.

FWIW, these were all gifts. I got used legos off a mom listserve in bins. They are great for free play. I like to organize them while he likes to build. We all have our fun!

Finally, yes, if i step on it, I yell too; and make threats I'll never carry out.

[Anonymous]

Lego My Eggo

[Anonymous]

My firstborn out together the Millenium Falcon all by himself in 3 days when he got it for Xmas when he was in Kindergarten. He put the Death Star together unaided in 2nd grade.

He was routinely putting together very, very complicated sets well before recommended age. He's now 11 and lost interest in sets about 2 years ago.

His younger brother, I waited or sets were wasted, unfinished parts lost if it was too advanced.

They often made their own creations as well--but kits I didn't waste $ on unless they were to be built.

In short: depends on the kid.

[Anonymous]

When sets stopped getting put together in full last Fall, we stopped buying so many. My son still plays with Legos every day, but focuses on pretend play and custom creations. He may go back to sets at some point, who knows ... he's only 6.

[Anonymous]

An almost identical question was posted very recently (can't find link to it now), but this was the consensus, which I pinned to work on soon: http://diy4you.me/solutions-in-legoland/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here:

Thank you! This is such a funny thread.

Here's the thing. Maybe I have some sort of issue but it really bothers me that a set does not get put together before it gets put in the bin, forever, never to be put together. I feel disappointed. That said, I am not good at Legos. at all.

I'll break out another little set and see how it goes. We'll try it together since I think he did this one himself.

FWIW, these were all gifts. I got used legos off a mom listserve in bins. They are great for free play. I like to organize them while he likes to build. We all have our fun!

Finally, yes, if i step on it, I yell too; and make threats I'll never carry out.

Why would you want to help him if he's capable of doing it himself?

[Anonymous]

We are a Lego household. We have kits and probably a million Lego pieces throughout the house. If I had my way, the kits would never come apart. Let's just say, I understand the Lego Movie "villain's" obsession with KRAGLE and keeping sets together. Its takes time and effort to put the sets together and many of them I put together for my kids. I let my kids plays with the sets and just encourage them to keep them together. I've started telling them that if they want a set put together, then they have to do the work. I will sit with them and help when they can't figure something out.
I wish I had a better way of organizing all of the Legos. I find that if they can't find something that they are looking for that they will just keep using the same pieces that they can find. Getting them organized would help so much. But, what's the best way to do this? There are many ways of storing Legos, but I have yet to find one that a kid will willingly use with minimum parental involvement, other than throwing them in a giant Lego tub.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids get kit. Build kit. Kit stays built for ~1 week to one month, eventually breaks and goes into the big Lego box. Legos in Lego box get turned into some cool creation, which floats around the house for a while before breaking (or exhausting my patience) and getting returned to the Lego box. Rinse and repeat.

This is my Lego philosophy.

Ours too - but we also do have a 'vanity set' shelf where we have kept an elite set of some of the coolest kits ala Kragle evil boss