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

Our daughters love Legos and we have amassed quite a collection. Our problem is this - DD9 likes to build things but then doesn't want to ever take her creations apart. Her solution is to bribe her sister into letting her use her Legos or to just go buy more(or more often than not - ask us to buy her more). I wonder if maybe she just needs to move on to something beyond Legos, but what would that be?

She is already doing some motorized Legos at school and both girls are currently putting together a helicopter Erector set at home.
We have some Magformers that she rarely even touches and I even dug out my old Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs(which I loved back in the day), but she didn't care much for them. I also found a 3D puzzle at a garage sale that we will try.

Here are some things I've thought about getting - please tell me what you think or if you have any other ideas!
1. K'Nex
2. Keva Contraptions
3. Snapcircuits
4. Elenco Electronics (I really like the thought of the Electronic Playground, but not sure if the product will hold up)

Since you're a frugal mom, here's a frugal answer: Minecraft. Your DD can build endlessly with it. It doesn't take up space, and you don't have to keep buying parts.

Exactly! I've heard about Minecraft, but haven't really looked into it - it may be time!

Have you tried taking pictures and doing an album or scrapbook?
Maybe that would free her to dismantle projects.

She does the same with all her other "projects" she creates. She may cut interesting things out of magazines, color a bunch of pictures, or name everything in her room using little cut out pieces of paper (this is a popular one for her), or use sticks to form some creation, etc. Once she gets her "projects" put together, she never wants to throw them away. I've managed to sneak a lot of these in the trash over the years, but every time she finds out it is like I threw out the most important thing in her life. If I didn't get rid of these things her room would be filled from floor to ceiling by now. The issue with the Legos is that they take up more room than the paper-type things she does and I can't sneak them into the trash and I don't want to - I just want her to reuse them to make something else.

I like the idea of doing an album. She is doing photography in 4-H this year so we may try to do an album of all her photos instead of just using the ones we choose for the fair.

I agree with Minecraft. But can she move up to Lego Mindstorm? My son did that at around 8 or 9, and he basically stopped with the kits. Problem is, now my 7 yo dd has all the old kits in her room!

We don't have this same problem with legos, but my daughter seems to have some SERIOUS hoarding tendencies. We have to implement limits. Her personal favorite is keeping paper! Doesn't matter what it is, she wants to KEEP IT ALL. So, when a big stack of stuff comes home from school, I tell her she can select FOUR items to keep in the drawer in her room - the rest go into the recycling. She's gotten a bit better, thank god.

my solution to this (with my stepson when he was younger and for the future with our little boys) is NOT buying the kits but buying used Lego in bulk on eBay. That way they can go wild with their imagination, can follow the books to create but still have to substitute for missing parts and even if they want to keeps some of their creations, they have a lot of other blocks to build with. I am planning on switching DS4.5 from Duplo blocks to regular Legos when he turns 5 in the summer. We still use Duplos mainly because DS3 still puts things in his mouth so we try to only have bigger pieces of "stuff" around him. I have already started buying them on eBay (got 3 lots in the last 3 weeks totaling about 25lbs of lego pieces for about $115)

This reminds me that I have been meaning to start a thread about DD's hoarding issues...

A few random thoughts for you:

Our ds was (and is) really into Legos. He transitioned easily into Minecraft - and my other kids (who like Legos but aren't passionate about them) also went through a phase of really liking Minecraft. BUT - fwiw, I wouldn't purposely choose to intro them to it - it's online, it's a screen activity, and for my gang, it was far more "addicting" than working on a Lego project ever was. So if you have any concerns about screen time, I wouldn't intro Minecraft until your kids first hear about it from their friends

If you're not worried about screen time, my kids also went through a Spore phase prior to Minecraft, and in some ways I like Spore better - it's something kids who love to build will enjoy - it's just a different type of "building" (you build civilizations). Personally I think it offers a bit more of a brainy challenge than Minecraft.

Re the saving things forever - my dd9 went through a long phase of that, but for her it was just a phase so it might be just a phase for your dd too. I don't have any great parenting advice to get you through it - for our dd we basically just had to say "these are family rules, we don't keep ____ (or we only keep ____ x #s etc)". I like the idea of taking pictures and keeping a scrapbook as a way of easing out of keeping everything.

Best wishes,

polarbear

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.

There is a new Lego 'Mindstorms' due out later this year - expect to see big discounts on the current models, especially on Ebay...