Toys

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rae Pica on April 20, 2009 at 5:58pm

I'll join you on that soap box, Simon! Sooo frustrating that society has decided that everything for children has to be pre-determined. We are surely raising a generation of kids whose capabilities are limited to following directions. If we don't do something about it quickly, we will have a world full of challenges and nobody able to meet them!

By the way, I was positively stunned when I discovered the new Legos. Couldn't believe it!

Simon Wiltshire said:

{Climbs onto Soap Box}
Lego. And I don't mean "new" lego, which has become a case of following an instruction manual and a one-time effort to create something pre-determined by someone else's imagination. I mean classic lego, as it was when we were children. When I was growing up, I amassed an entire drawer full of pieces of lego. (I grew up in the UK, hence there is no such word as "legos" in my vocabulary). Using my childhood lexicon, I had "flat bits:", "wheels", "four dots", "two dots" and so on (the last two describing the number of connecting protuberances on the top of the piece in question). What I created from age 4 and up was whatever my imagination came up with. My mom was a single working mom, so I had little in the way of active direction. I had (and have) a younger sibling, whose sole job was to "test fly" my creations. The point is - there was no instruction manual, only in my mind, and it built imagination, creativity, fine motor skills, patience, and a whole host of other skills. So go to a Lego store (not a toy store that sells the kits) and buy a large bucket of the individual pieces, then provide the kids with a general idea of what to create (depending on age). You will be amazed. I created spacecraft, airplanes, cars, trucks, houses and so on. You don't need a pre-modeled wing to make a plane, you just put together the "flat bits". Kids will use what they have to create the nearest facsimile to what they see. The kits these days leave nothing to the imagination. Start with the basics and let kids' imaginations take their own course. As for ages, short of pieces that are small enough to be a choking hazard, there's really very little to go wrong with a piece of Lego. You can wash them all in a mild bleach solution. Mind you, they hurt like heck if you step on them, so clean up :-)

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Permalink Reply by Cherie Greene on September 5, 2009 at 4:43pm

My son--now 16--has always loved Legos. Along with the basic blocks, he has acquired a number of the specialized sets you describe. However, for him the picture on the box is only a suggestion. He'll maybe make the original design once, just to see how the pieces work, then he dismantles it and retools the parts for use in his own projects. The nice thing about these sets is that they offer some special pieces you can't get with the plain block sets and which my young engineer finds very useful. I think it's the same for most self-respecting Legomaniacs.

I hear there's a lab at MIT where graduate students are provided with bins of Legos.

Simon Wiltshire said:

{Climbs onto Soap Box}
Lego. And I don't mean "new" lego, which has become a case of following an instruction manual and a one-time effort to create something pre-determined by someone else's imagination. I mean classic lego, as it was when we were children. When I was growing up, I amassed an entire drawer full of pieces of lego. (I grew up in the UK, hence there is no such word as "legos" in my vocabulary). Using my childhood lexicon, I had "flat bits:", "wheels", "four dots", "two dots" and so on (the last two describing the number of connecting protuberances on the top of the piece in question). What I created from age 4 and up was whatever my imagination came up with. My mom was a single working mom, so I had little in the way of active direction. I had (and have) a younger sibling, whose sole job was to "test fly" my creations. The point is - there was no instruction manual, only in my mind, and it built imagination, creativity, fine motor skills, patience, and a whole host of other skills. So go to a Lego store (not a toy store that sells the kits) and buy a large bucket of the individual pieces, then provide the kids with a general idea of what to create (depending on age). You will be amazed. I created spacecraft, airplanes, cars, trucks, houses and so on. You don't need a pre-modeled wing to make a plane, you just put together the "flat bits". Kids will use what they have to create the nearest facsimile to what they see. The kits these days leave nothing to the imagination. Start with the basics and let kids' imaginations take their own course. As for ages, short of pieces that are small enough to be a choking hazard, there's really very little to go wrong with a piece of Lego. You can wash them all in a mild bleach solution. Mind you, they hurt like heck if you step on them, so clean up :-)

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Permalink Reply by Cherie Greene on September 5, 2009 at 4:50pm

I was trying to send a link; don't know if it worked.
There was a Baby Blues comic strip I read years ago that I always think of when this subject comes up. I just found it in their online archive.

The page is at http://www.babyblues.com/archive/index.php?GoToDay=1997-06-01

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Permalink Reply by Rae Pica on September 7, 2009 at 2:29pm

Cherie, thanks for sharing! It's good to hear that, for your son at least, "the picture on the box was just a suggestion." Ihope that's true for all children!

Cherie Greene said:

My son--now 16--has always loved Legos. Along with the basic blocks, he has acquired a number of the specialized sets you describe. However, for him the picture on the box is only a suggestion. He'll maybe make the original design once, just to see how the pieces work, then he dismantles it and retools the parts for use in his own projects. The nice thing about these sets is that they offer some special pieces you can't get with the plain block sets and which my young engineer finds very useful. I think it's the same for most self-respecting Legomaniacs.

I hear there's a lab at MIT where graduate students are provided with bins of Legos.

Simon Wiltshire said:

{Climbs onto Soap Box}
Lego. And I don't mean "new" lego, which has become a case of following an instruction manual and a one-time effort to create something pre-determined by someone else's imagination. I mean classic lego, as it was when we were children. When I was growing up, I amassed an entire drawer full of pieces of lego. (I grew up in the UK, hence there is no such word as "legos" in my vocabulary). Using my childhood lexicon, I had "flat bits:", "wheels", "four dots", "two dots" and so on (the last two describing the number of connecting protuberances on the top of the piece in question). What I created from age 4 and up was whatever my imagination came up with. My mom was a single working mom, so I had little in the way of active direction. I had (and have) a younger sibling, whose sole job was to "test fly" my creations. The point is - there was no instruction manual, only in my mind, and it built imagination, creativity, fine motor skills, patience, and a whole host of other skills. So go to a Lego store (not a toy store that sells the kits) and buy a large bucket of the individual pieces, then provide the kids with a general idea of what to create (depending on age). You will be amazed. I created spacecraft, airplanes, cars, trucks, houses and so on. You don't need a pre-modeled wing to make a plane, you just put together the "flat bits". Kids will use what they have to create the nearest facsimile to what they see. The kits these days leave nothing to the imagination. Start with the basics and let kids' imaginations take their own course. As for ages, short of pieces that are small enough to be a choking hazard, there's really very little to go wrong with a piece of Lego. You can wash them all in a mild bleach solution. Mind you, they hurt like heck if you step on them, so clean up :-)

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Permalink Reply by Rae Pica on September 7, 2009 at 2:30pm

It worked, Cherie; thanks! Love it! : )

Cherie Greene said:

I was trying to send a link; don't know if it worked.
There was a Baby Blues comic strip I read years ago that I always think of when this subject comes up. I just found it in their online archive.

The page is at http://www.babyblues.com/archive/index.php?GoToDay=1997-06-01

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Permalink Reply by Penny Arcos on November 19, 2009 at 3:59am

Legos are a winner in my home, too. My son spends hours creating airplanes and trucks and cars.
But, also, real things are toys. As a Montessori teacher, I have learned that children find more satisfaction in doing purposeful work than in playing with toys. So, some measuring cups and some pots and pans and some water (and a mop to clean up the mess) are all very useful toys. When we play in the park outside the Waldorf school, we spend hours making sand muffins and cakes with real muffin tins.
And, for Christmas, folks. Forget the toys. Just give them the boxes and gift bags and see where their imagination takes them. You'll save a lot of money that way.

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