Lego Mania

Material from a previous blog:

Lego Mania has struck at Brookgreen Farm! 

At our October 4-H meeting one of our families led a triathalon- mind, body, & soul.  For the mind portion we had a jeopardy game with great categories such as 4-H, Presidents, Animals, Quotes, Elements, and more.  For the body segment we had an obstacle course with all kinds of great physical activities like walking paper & other fun things that were great exercise without being ordinary.  Lastly we had a spirit station where we were challenged to build some detailed & creative projects from legos.  We entered a room with more legos than I have ever seen in my life.  They had spread a king size sheet on the floor & in the middle was a mountain of legos (I’m not sure the photos does justice!)  

BTW Moms, this was my best Mommy tip for the day- when you want to play legos or any other small multi-piece thing put down a giant flat sheet.  Then the kiddos can dump the whole bin on the floor & get to all those little pieces in the bottom & when it is time to put everything away- just pick up the corners & carefully dump back into your bin!  Cool huh?  So simple & yet it had never occurred to me!

I discussed with the Mom of this family how in the world you accumulate this many legos?  She is the mother of 6- 1 boy (now 22) & 5 girls (17-9.)  She said that her son began the love of legos but all of her children loved them & they just kept adding to their collection over the years.  In fact she said that when her adult son comes home the first thing he & his siters do is put down the giant sheet & play legos.

I must confess that I have never been a legos fan (gasp!)  My boys have received a few sets where you built a specific item & it always seemed like they were yelling for help to find 1 specific microscopic piece to complete the thing.  Then once it was built it became a shrine that provoked screams of injustice when anyone knocked it down or "accidentally" broke a piece off.  Then add to that the fact that I have had a baby or toddler almost nonstop for the past 9 years & legos scream "choking hazard."  As a result of my lack of excitement about legos they were all boxed up & put in the barn.

At the 4-H meeting my boys (and every other child there) remained enthralled with this lego mountain for more than an hour.  Some built specific items using manuals but many just picked up pieces & created whatever they imagined.  On our drive home legos were the topic of discussion.  They wanted to get their few legos out of the barn & promised to be conscientious in their picking up of them & making sure B1 doesn’t eat them.  They were so excited I was actually contemplating how I might get them some more legos cheap- yard sales, etc.  Then someone mentioned a garbage bag of legos they had seen in the barn.  It all came flooding back- when we bought our farm & I was cleaning out one of the barns I had found an old box of lego pieces.  The box was falling apart & I certainly had no plans of bringing them in the house but I knew one day we would meet someone who appreciated legos & so I dumped them into a trash bag until I decided to give them to a lego person.

My attitude toward the legos reminded me of this anti-playdough lady I met years ago when I only had one child & went to such things as "play group."  She explained confidantly how playgroup was great because she never let her child use playdough (or paint)at home.  I usually try to keep my opinions to myself (feel free to laugh here if you know me) but I was so agast I had to convince her of her misleadings. 

"Playdough is the greatest thing ever made.  It feels so good on your fingers, you can make so many cool things, it’s so cheap, & it smells like childhood!  How can you deprive your child of playdough?"  She then calmly asked me if I knew how hard it was to get out of carpet, between couch cushions, out of hair, etc.  

"Oh," it was painfully clear, "a playdough snob!  Hopeless!"  Well I’ve realized I was a lego snob.  I was  more concerned about having to pick up little pieces (or stepping on them-ouch!) & about being able to maintain a complete set (who cares?) than I was about the educational & creative opportunites that they offfered my boys. 

I am reformed.  We brought in their small box of legos & the garbage bag from the childhood of boys who are now grown & have children of thier own.  To my boys’ amazement there were even some of the same pieces they had used at the 4-H meeting in our trash bag legos!  Our collection is no where near the giant mountain of legos in the picture but it’s sizeable enough to entertain 4 boys.  They have made some really cool stuff, all from thier imaginations, & I am sure legos will be on someone’s Chrsitmas wish list, who knows maybe even mine!