Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Legos and beyond...

frugal, your DD and my DS should get together. He is obsessed with taking things apart. If we don't finish a Lego construction in an evening, he takes it all apart and puts it away.

Digital seems like a good way to go. Rather than Minecraft, I'd suggest getting her started with Google Sketchup (free.) It's a great start into digital 3d modelling which will be a highly useful skill in the near future as 3d printing becomes more and more cost effective for home use.

I didn't know that was what the motorized Legos were called, but I believe that is what she is working on at school right now - she said she was building a robot she can control.

We already think the regular Lego kits are crazy expensive and I'm fairly certain the Mindstorms are much more costly. I'd love to get some, but unless I can find a REALLY good deal or come across some reasonably priced at a garage sale I don't think I can justify spending that much money. However, I need to remember those for a possible Christmas or birthday present next year - that would be a really good present for her - thanks for the idea!

We have this issue with DD7! She gets so mad that we don't keep every single thing she brings home from school. We have explained and showed her that we do keep some of the papers but that we can't keep them all. She still gets upset when she sees them in the trashcan, but will ask us what we kept and as long as she knows we are keeping something she is okay with it.

She is the opposite of DD9, however, with the things in her room. If she doesn't feel like cleaning up her stuff then she will just tell us it is okay if we go in, bag up everything on the floor and get rid of it. Of course she will pick up the things that are most important to her, but just leave the rest. DD9 doesn't ever want to get rid of anything - rocks, sticks, buttons, springs, insect wings - I could go on and on!!!

The largest quantity of Legos we have came from a garage sale. We got lucky and bought an 18qt tub that was over 3/4 full of assorted Legos for $5.00. I am indeed frugal and I love a good bargain!

Neither daughter spends a lot of time on the computer. Not that they wouldn't if we let them, but we are just too busy.
I think I've seen something about Spore - possibly for the DS or Wii. Did your kids play on the computer or a different platform?

LOL...I can't imagine DD ever taking anything apart when she is in the middle of putting it together. She will ask to stay up later to get it done, ask to take it with her if we need to go somewhere, or get right back to it in the morning as soon as she wakes up.

I will have to look into Sketchup - I haven't heard of it. Thanks for the idea!

It's a computer game - there might be DS or Wii versions, but we have it on the computer.

polar

I loaded the free version of Spore and Minecraft on both DD9 and DD7's Ipods. So far Minecraft is winning the favorite race, but the free version of Spore is just creating a critter and then a short eat/don't be eaten game. I know if we paid for the full version things might be different.

We also got super lucky and scored a ton of Legos from a family that just wanted to get them out of the house to make more room in the kid's closet. DD9 has been completely absorbed in sorting and organizing the 3 huge tubs of Legos.

We also signed both girls up for a summer camp. DD9 will have a session about designing roller coasters and building bridges to withstand earthquakes. DD7 will be learning about polymers.

Ever thought about putting any of your kids into Community College community education courses? Building minds taking CAD courses gives them an outlet for their creativeness. Our youngest DS 15 is currently in a college credit Into. to Engineering course at school. They used Autodesk's "Inventor" which is way out of the price range of most families, however, if one is a college student they can get the student version for about 10% of the cost of the professional version. The big plus here is learning an industry standard piece of software.

Another outlet might be woodworking...and could be as simple as a block of wood and a set of Xacto knives. Legos are great no doubt but lack the creative touch that free form of carving allows.

We do have some local community colleges, but I'm not sure they offer anything like this. I will definitely look into it because it sounds right up our alley.

My dad had mentioned a CAD program, just the other day, that he recalls using online for free and we discussed finding something like that for DD9. He is very "handy" and can basically do it all when it comes to woodworking, welding, mechanics, building, etc. Both girls have helped him take things apart in the past and he has done some projects with them also. He is a complete perfectionist, however, and sometimes the girls have a tendency to get on his nerves, so we try to not constantly ask him to do projects.