We grew up playing with LEGO® . We had these big square roads that you could put together and make a whole city. My mom kept them and now my kids use them to build their LEGO® cities.
I don’t really consider LEGO® to be a toy. It is something I don’t mind spending money on because the kids get so much use out of and building various things with the blocks has so many benefits for them.
Jack is our biggest LEGO® lover and has so built a variety of things and asks for more without fail at every birthday and Christmas. So it was natural we would include it in our homeschooling journey. It makes Maths so much more fun and simplifies certain concepts for them.
What are some of the benefits of LEGO®
Organisational skills. You can’t be disorganised and try build LEGO® (I have tried) but the nature of the instruction books are very organised. This helps children to approach their project in an organised and concise manner. Jack knows he must first look for the correct pieces and then build and not try build while still looking for pieces.
Problem solving. Hands up, who has got to a point in their project and realised you have used a wrong piece somewhere along the line? It can be a little soul destroying but teaches problem solving. You have to go back and figure out at what stage you made the mistake. If the kids are building their own creations they have to play around with a few pieces to figure out which one will work for the item they are building.
Fine Motor Skills. LEGO® pieces are small and it can be tricky trying to get pieces attached correctly. Emma navigates the Duplo blocks easily but because she doesn’t build as much as Jack does she does struggle to click on the smaller pieces. It is such a great fine motor skill activity. You can start with the bigger blocks and then move to the smaller ones.
Spatial Awareness. Spatial awareness is ” awareness of spatial relationships is the ability to see and understand two or more objects in relation to each other and to oneself “. LEGO® helps develop this because your child learns about manipulating objects, making them bigger, smaller, moving them around etc.
Focus and Concentration. Building Lego takes concentration and focus. Even the simple projects require that the child focuses and pays attention to the instructions. Free play LEGO® also requires concentration, Jack will spend hours building various things, it is when he is the most focused.
Confidence. There is nothing like that sense of accomplishment when you have built your creation to completion. I was gifted the most amazing Lego Mickey Mouse steam boat, it took me hours to build (ok maybe not hours) but when it was done I felt like I could take on the world!
Communication and team work. Often on the weekend we pour out all the
LEGO® and the kids all get involved in building. Kiara is very good and directing them and they often create cities together. It requires team work and lots of communication. Emma is only getting into building now and so we do it together, I find the pieces and she puts it all together which requires a lot of communication.
How do we useLEGO® in our daily homeschool lessons?
Why we love using Lego on our homeschool journeydav 
We use LEGO® mainly for Maths at the moment. It helps me to explain certain concepts to both of the kids in a visual tangible way.
We have some larger square blocks that I wrote 10 on to introduce the tens and hundreds to Jack. He could actually see that 10 blocks equals 100. It is also simple enough for Emma to understand. You do get the single pieces of
LEGO® that you can use for 1’s as well. This really helped Jack to visually see the numbers.
Fractions are made so much easier with LEGO® because each piece is basically a fraction of another piece.
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I did some pattern work with Emma using LEGO® pieces. You can make the pattern quite tricky for them depending on how many different pieces you have. Jack wanted to also do this so I made his patterns a little harder.
Sorting is another fun activity I did earlier this year with Emma. She had to sort the blocks into their colours and then further into the block size.
Some days I let them just build whatever it is they want to build. This has all the benefits I mentioned above plus they are naturally learning while they play.
Do your kids enjoy playing with LEGO® ?
Now onto something SUPER exciting. LEGO® are opening a new store in the Menlyn Shopping Centre!
What makes the LEGO Certified Stores so special? Created as experiential playgrounds for LEGO fans old and new, the certified stores allow you to explore the world of LEGO beyond what’s ever been offered by independent retailers. LEGO Certified Stores offer exclusive sets not available anywhere else and showcase personalised features exclusive to particular stores.
If you happen to find yourself at the Sandton or soon to open Menlyn Certified Store, visit the Minifigure station and create personalised LEGO Minifigures as a gift for loved ones (or a quirky keepsake for yourself!) and lose yourself in the carefully curated product ranges available in store.
The Great Yellow Brick Company is excited to open up the world of LEGO to fans in Pretoria, and we want you to be part of the hype and excitement surrounding the launch of South Africa’s second LEGO Certified store!
To celebrate this store opening, I have an amazing giveaway for one lucky ready!
You can win
- Two tickets to the store opening on the 30 May in Menlyn
- PLUS you will receive the following LEGO® sets that have been chosen for you by Jack and Emma to the value of R2000
- Jack has chosen the following sets for you to win
- LEGO® NINJAGO® Green Ninja Mech Dragon PLUS this gorgeous LEGO® BrickHeadz™ Mickey Mouse PLUS a LEGO® Minifigures Disney Series 2
- Emma has chosen the following sets for you to win
- LEGO® Classic Large Creative Brick Box PLUS LEGO® BrickHeadz™ Minnie Mouse PLUS a LEGO® Minifigures Disney Series 2
COMPETITION IS CLOSED
- You need to leave a comment on this blog post telling me your favourite LEGO® memory.
- Competition ends on 28 May 2019
- Only ONE entry per person but you an enter on both the blog post and Facebook.
Please note this competition is only open to Gauteng residents who are available on the 30 May to attend the store opening.
15 Responses
LOVE THIS! My first Lego memory was with my nephew at the Lego playground in Sandton City – he was BESIDES himself and building anything and everything – the plethora of options, colours, designs – what a wonderful experience! #LogoEducates #LearnwithLego #PlaywithLego
My favorite LEGO memory is sitting cross-legged on the floor sifting through my daughter’s giant tub of LEGO hunting for the pieces she needed to create her own masterpiece. The imagination and creativity is amazing to watch!!! My feet were completely numb with epic pins and needles; but I simply couldn’t let the moment go! And so we hunted and hunted as my master builder created!
I had a little Lego sheep…not sure why she was my favorite but we always built her into the story!
My favorite LEGO memory well we couldn’t afford LEGO until my 3rd sister arrived and my most favorite memory is of me being 7 my sis being 5 and baby was about 10 months old the LEGO was in a little red bin we grabbed it and toppled it all over the floor and started to build and in walks my dad smiling at his babies playing and walked over to join us and promptly stepped on a few pieces of LEGO we heard very colorful words which made my mum run in with a box of assorted cakes my dad had bought us and well she also stepped on the LEGO she screamed ow and tripped cake went flying the us kids esp the baby where covered in cream and cake my dad tried to catch my mum as she fell in slow motion and they went down together two brave soldiers and then my sisters and I just bust out laughing and we ate cake off the baby the last thing I remember my dad say as they helped each other hobble off was cruel and unusual punishment when all he wanted to do was play with the LEGO
Crossing all our bits for this one! I loved LEGO as a kid, and remember how excited I was when LEGO stores started appearing all over in SA after I became a mom myself. My boys adore LEGO, too, and I love how imaginative they are in building worlds for their stories and the characters they create.
My favourite Lego memory is actually more of a Lego tradition! Every few months my husband pulls out his childhood box of Lego and we have a day of building. He is a big Lego fan and at this very moment he has a stationery holder/iPad/fitness watch/charger holder made out of Lego on this desk at work 😂 he built it himself to the specifications he needed and he loves it!! I can never go wrong with buying him Lego! So who says you can’t love Lego as an adult too
My favorite LEGO memory thus far was a cold winters day, the house went still, even though it was just for a moment, a rare occasion in our house. I build a lighthouse and my son and husband built silly towers.
Wow LEGO is amazing! I never had Lego as a child but my husband did and now our 3 year old son plays with his fathers old lego pieces. The ones he still has left. So my favorite Lego memories are being built with my son and it is so unbelievable how he learns and imagines and enjoys it. What a fantastic prize to give away! LEGO Certified Stores South Africa
My favourite LEGO memory is the first LEGO set I bought my husband actually. He hadn’t ever been able to play with his own LEGO as a child and if we ever bought any sets for anyone, he would always remind me of his unfortunate childhood. So I bought him a LEGO set of his own, which we still have all built in our display case. So the first opportunity he got to buy our daughter any type of block he did! Team LEGO all the way!!!
LEGOs are so great for kids to have fun and learn too. It’s nice to see kids being creative and using their imaginations. Such a great tool for learning!
Oldest Lego memory is me and my brother building Lego on the floor as kids. This was in the 1970’s. 🙂 My mom saved our Lego and now my daughter is playing with it. Fav memory is Saturday mornings building Lego, all 3 of us. Me , her dad en Mila.
My favourite Lego memory is how my mom always first threw out a big blanket before we started to play. She had bought us a box of preloved lego so we then emptied the entire box onto the blanket and started grabbing our favourite pieces. It was always a fight for the treasure chest with the gold coin. Kept us busy for hours!
I didn’t grow up with LEGO, so even before we had kids we bought some and kept it for our kids. I couldn’t wait when finally after about 5 years of keeping it at the top of the cupboard we were able to give it to our boy! So my favorite memory is now building with my LEGO obsessed soon to be 7 year old.
This looks so cool! I wish we had one near ya
My favorite LEGO memory was when I finally got my own set in the early 90s… it was a beach set with a windsurfer and I was soooo stoked, as up until then my brother had just Boy LEGO. Just bleak now that my kids have lost the pieces to my set 🙁