Family Lego Time

Maybe some of you have seen a lego commercial recently that encourages parents and children to "build together." I only caught the end of the ad the other day, but it seemed like a nice concept so I clicked over to the lego website to see if there was any additional information or ideas. I found a couple of personal stories about parents and children who have made building together a family tradition, even one parent who set up all the lego stuff in his home office so that he and his sons could keep each other company and share creative energy while he worked as a graphic designer. This same parent called building together "lego therapy" because it seemed to give him more energy while he was homebound fighting an illness over several months. The website also has a bit of information about children's developmental stages. In case you feel inspired to start some family lego time at your house, here are a few tips I found on the lego webpage for family building- they could really apply to any building or project toys, not just legos. I really like the one about keeping a photo album of past projects to visually records your progress and inspire new creations!

1. Use LEGO building to support formal learning like math, history, and science while making those subjects more playful and enjoyable.

2. Show interest in the children’s LEGO building efforts and provide them with feedback. It will help them develop their building skills and encourage their imagination.

3. Try to create a family project and set up brainstorm sessions to come up with LEGO building directions. Sharing the same goals will make LEGO building a great family bonding experience.

4. Dedicate a building space for the “LEGO team”. It will become the creative and imaginary space where LEGO ideas can be explored by the team.

5. Keep a logbook with descriptions and photos of the LEGO creations. In that way the family will always be able to evolve and improve their efforts as well as celebrate all creations to date.

6. LEGO building provides good family time. Do not let your children only build alone – they love it when parents jump in. It is a great time for the whole family.

7. Try building LEGO things together that reflect what the family experience in everyday life such as in school, at work or things going on in the world. It allows everyone to understand and share each others' experiences.

8. Keep on building and have fun, often it takes a series of iterations before the desired creation will appear.

If you'd like more information, the webpage is at http://parents.lego.com/en-gb/default.aspx, and from there you can click on "Family Together" or "Child Development" in the top red/orange menu bar on the page.