My love/hate relationship with Lego

Let me start off with the basics.

Things I love about Lego:

1.  It can keep my son quiet for hours at a time.
2. It allows my son to express his creativity in many ways.
3. It isn’t a gender specific toy.  We know lots of boys and girls that love Lego.
4. My lack of creativity doesn’t hinder me too much when asked by my son to play with him. (phew!)
5. It can actually be used for various education purposes. Here’s a great list of uses from Brick Dave!

Things I hate about Lego:

1.  No matter how diligently we clean up the Lego at the end of the day, our cat invariably finds that one tiny piece that we missed and has to chase it across the hardwood floor at 3am.
2. If someone is going to step on a rogue piece of Lego, it will be me.
3. Trying to keep it organized is futile.
4. Lego is not cheap!!

My son LOVES Lego.  I think at this point, I could literally get his of all of his other toys and he would be fine with it, as long as his Lego remained.  From the moment he gets up in the morning until I am dragging him off to bed, he plays Lego.  He especially loves the minifigures.  He is continually making different combinations and using them to create stories.  It amazes me at the depth and length of these alternate worlds he creates with his Lego.

Up until now, most of  our Lego purchases have come from Walmart or Toysrus.  Recently, he was gifted some money from his Nana, Poppa and Uncle and he knew immediately that he wanted to spend it on more Lego.  Instead of going to the regular stores, I decided we’d make a special trip to our closest Lego Store. I am not sure who was more impressed upon our arrival, him or myself.  It seemed to have every Lego kit you could ever imagine.  My favorite was the Pick & Build Wall, where you basically self select piece by piece what you need to buy.

Staff was incredibly knowledgeable and friendly, which is always a plus in my eyes.  We were told about their monthly Lego club meetings and I was somewhat forced (by my son, not the staff) to sign up immediately for the next one.

We attended our first meeting this past Saturday.  At our local store, the meetings run the last 2 Saturdays of each month.  When my son is at his Dad’s every other weekend, this works great for us as I am guaranteed he is with me at least one of the meeting days.    At this particular meeting, the kids were told a little story about a polar bear and they then proceeded to make a polar bear with the pieces and instructions that they were given.  They were then given a box (approx. 5 x 5 x 5 inch cube) that they were allowed to go over to the Pick & Build wall and fill it with what ever pieces they wanted.   The intent was they were supposed to build a sled and then create a little story that involved their polar bear and their sled.  Once they completed their sled’s they sat in a circle and each got a chance to tell their stories.    At the end, they were given a little “loot” bag with a Lego catalogue, a calendar with upcoming events and a coupon for extra Lego VIP points with their next purchase.  In addition to their “loot” bag they were able to take the polar bear, sled and the box filled from the wall home with them.  The cost of these meetings is $10 but we definitely came home with much more than that in new Lego.

If you have a Lego lover in your family, I would check out your local store.  They always seem to have events running for the kids and when you have a Lego lover like I do, it definitely worth it.

Thanks,

C.