Why would we want to get back to basics with LEGO?
I’ll tell you why. Because of nostalgia.
Let me tell you a little story …
I grew up playing with LEGO. My dad had this huge (well, huge to us) collection of LEGO blocks from his childhood days that my sister and I got to play with. We always did the same thing: we built houses and made a village. Once we were finished, we played with our small world for a little while, making our little LEGO people go about their day. Then we broke it down and started building another village.
We did this over and over and over again. For years and years and years.
I have such precious memories of my sister and I working side by side designing the most amazing mini houses. Being so proud of each and every creation. If I close my eyes I can see us sitting there. I remember the details, that big wooden box in which we sorted the colours, the figurines, the windows, roof shingles. And I remember the fights over the one nice black matchbox car we had that got to live in our LEGO garage.
As a parent, I want to provide my children with awesome memories of family moments. I want them to have a similar feeling of joy, warmth and pure nostalgia when one day they look back at their own childhood days. Since LEGO has been such a big part of my life growing up (we didn’t have so many toys back then!), I couldn’t wait to introduce LEGO to my daughter.
This post is about our journey and my realisation of how much has changed over the years!
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Our Journey of getting back to basics with Lego
It was Santa who brought my four year old girl her first LEGO set: the Lego Friends Jungle Rescue Base
Over time we’ve added little bits and pieces to her ‘collection’. From day one my daughter had a strong preference for anything Lego Friends
Then one day, she was playing with her LEGO and got really frustrated because she couldn’t put her castle back together as it should be. No amount of explaining or encouragement could help her see that the beauty of LEGO is that you can build anything you want.
No. She firmly pointed at the box she had kept. Tears running down her beautiful little face. “This is what it has to look like mommy!!!”
I got it. There and then.
LEGO for her in that moment was this frustrating version of Playmobil
I realised my daughter didn’t yet know LEGO as I knew it and loved it. And while I appreciate the cleverness and purpose of these LEGO sets
We needed to get back to basics with LEGO.
I did the unthinkable. I broke down every single LEGO set we had. No two pieces were left joined together. It was very painful, the perfectionist and LEGO geek in me were hurting. My 4 year old daughter was staring at me in disbelief.
We got a classic LEGO box
Then we sat down. And I started building. Randomly putting things together.
“What are you making?” my girl asked.
“Hmm, I’m not sure yet. What are you going to make?” I replied.
“A house. And you’re not allowed to use the pink and purple blocks. I’ll be needing those”, she said.
And I smiled. My daughter worked on her house for over an hour, carefully constructing every single item with a running commentary that would surely become a You Tube hit had I recorded it.
She was so very proud of herself. She beamed. I wished I could frame the moment.
Concentrating. Miss 4 year old on her ‘work’ and me on keeping the toddler from destroying her construction and eating the Lego.
Finished. She made a house. There’s a kitchen with a “banana squasher”, an indoor garden, an eye, a princess tower, a bedroom with mirror, a place for people to stand and watch through the window, a big table and seats for visitors.
The Power of the Humble Lego Block
When I walk into any given toy store in the world today, there’s a chance that I’ll feel completely overwhelmed by the amount of options presented to me. It will also be painfully obvious that I’m from a different generation because I don’t know what half of the sets are about.
Today I want to quietly remind you of those oh so precious boxes of classic LEGO
While we love the design of the skilfully created small world sets, we shouldn’t forget about the beauty and power of unstructured play with a simple box of LEGO.
Playing with loose parts fosters creativity, grows the imaginations, builds resilience, teaches problem solving and so much more.
As my own daughter showed me this week, there’s nothing like the sense of achievement, the boost of self confidence and pride of one’s own creation, whatever that may be, that makes a child stand tall and their eyes sparkle.
Are you up for the challenge?
Will you be brave today and put aside your LEGO sets in favour of open ended play? Or will you give your children a classic LEGO box instead of the newest set this year?
How do you feel about the dramatic changes in the world of LEGO over the past 20 years? What do you think has improved and what would you like to see make a comeback?
Ann*
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This is so timely for us! My son has a few of the playlets and I find it just evokes frustration as they are a bit behind is ability. It kind of defeats the purpose to have us always put the things together. So the other day I put away all the book lets and am hoping he can just enjoy making his own creations now. I know he already enjoys doing that so maybe without the pressure of the books lying around, he’ll be more apt to just create too:)
Same here. My daughter is just a little bit too young to enjoy the guiding constructing part. Yet she was so drawn to Lego! This might be an excellent time to introduce him to this other way of playing with Lego blocks: free building with loose parts. I’ve found I had to scaffold it a bit by working alongside Noa as she didn’t quite understand and needed some time to let go of her view of Lego as it ‘should be’. Interesting right? I hope he’ll have more fun now.
Me and my brother build the sets, but they usually only last a day or two. After that, the pieces get mixed in with our growing collection, which has several newer sets and our Dad’s old sets from when he was a kid. We build all sorts of stuff and eventually it gets taken apart and the pieces used in something new. We spend hours down in the playroom building and you can’t walk anywhere without stepping on the layer of LEGO pieces on the floor!
Ouch! We haven’t gotten to the Lego on the floor stage yet! I’m guessing that over time you build up quite the collection. Oh, the things they’ll make!
This post is so timely. My girls have been playing with legos all week. They were put away for a while, but made a reappearance this week. I agree 100%. All of our sets are taken apart as well. My girls create villages and houses, then take them apart and rebuild. I love to see their creativity flowing!
So nice to read!
This is what I’m in the process of doing at our house. My son has received quite a few sets as birthday/xmas presents over the years and we had them all tossed in together as he’s always liked to build his own creations, although, most of the newer sets have so many tiny pieces that are almost useless to build with that I ended up putting the sets in a cupboard and bought a creative box to add to his first box of Lego. This is the Lego my kids build with and enjoy and this is also what they’ll be receiving from now on 🙂
It’s very true that the sets include such specific little items that even with a few sets tossed together it’s possible to not have enough basic building blocks for satisfying free play. We’ve been doing exactly the same!
I was recently disappointed to see on the Lego website that they have discontinued several of their Basic Brick sets. I am a principal at an elementary school and we host a Lego Club. We present students with challenges using Basic Brick sets only…no instructions. It is hard to find anything other than specific sets…unless you are will to pay much more on Amazon, etc. I greatly enjoyed your article as I am trying to do the same thing with my students and own kids.
Hi Micah, there seems to be a growing number of parents and educators who would like Lego to focus more on open ended building and playing rather than creating series after series of specific sets. I wonder how it will all continue to evolve and what the LEGO catalog will look like in say 10 years from now. Until then I think getting our hands on second hand collections and coming up with our own creative ideas for playing with LEGO will be the way to go. Thanks for your time and kind words!