For The Love Of Lego
Legos are to Simon like scrapbooking is to me. Life.
They are often his activity of choice. He checks out Lego.com for updates, watches Lego videos online, gets the free magazine in the mail, and always wants to visit the Lego aisle at Target.
He goes through phases of interest between the different themes but mainly it's been Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lego City, and now, of course, it's all Harry Potter (that's big on his Christmas list).
When we moved a few months back, packing up the legos and deciding how to organize them took some time. I decided to buy a bunch more plastic drawers in two sizes. With the help of a couple neighbor girls we broke down most of the ships (previously sitting on a large metal shelf in his room) and separated each set into it's own drawer. It was quite an adventure.
After we broke down the sets to fit in the drawers there were still lots of pieces not belonging to any particular set so for those we separated the remaining parts by color.
For his new room in this house we set up two Ikea tables along one wall to create a desk area (these were previously under his loft bed in the other house). At some point he might do his homework here but for now that happens at the kitchen table and this set-up is really mainly for play.
On top of those desks are XL lego baseplates. I'm thinking I might adhere those to the table but for now he can move them around if he wants.
His bedroom has a pretty big closet that already contained built-in shelves. Amazingly those shelves seem like they were built just for those plastic storage containers.
Another thing you might see in the photo that we use are cookie sheets. Cookie sheets have been great for keeping all the pieces together if he wants to move from the dining room to his bedroom.
He's often got a little pile or two or three with drawers pulled out and people being prepared for battle.
Simon's very much a direction follower and doesn't have much interest in making up new ships or places. He follows the written instructions precisely and wants each item to be built just like he sees on the box and in the directions. It's so cool to watch him put one of these sets together.
We keep the instructions for each set in a couple large binders (each set of directions is inside a page protector). This set up has worked pretty good. He goes back to the notebooks when a set breaks apart or he wants to rebuild something. This is also a reason that separating the extra parts by color has worked so great for him - it's easy for him to identify what he needs in the book and then go to the matching color drawer.
Still on my list to do is print out small images of each set to adhere to the front of the drawers to help identify the contents.
I think he's pretty happy in his new room.
Lego, we love you. Thanks for being a part of our lives.
And Simon, I hope Santa brings you that Hogwarts Castle set. It looks so cool!
I asked Simon if he wanted me to capture him explaining what he was playing last night and he got excited. Here's Simon, in his own words:
Simon Edwards: Lego Harry Potter Quidditch Explanation from Ali Edwards on Vimeo.
I love all the ideas for organizing the Legos. My twins are just going to be three in a few months but they already love the larger Legos.
BTW Simon has such a cute voice. Loved watching the video!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
I think a trip to Legoland is in order, have you been there? Beautiful park! And so very cool!!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Simon is awesome! And so is Lego! My youngest son is 13 and he still gets the magazine and loves to look in the Lego aisle everywhere we go. Right now the favourite item is Hero Factory.
I love your organizational system for Simon's Lego. I wish ours was organized this way but we just keep it all in huge bins - four of them to be exact! With two boys who each had to have one of whatever was new, we have a ton of pieces. I hope my new nephew will love Lego so we can pass some of it down to him!
Thanks for the great post Ali!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Well done Simon!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Really love the organisation you have done for Simon with the Legos. The video was priceless. How great that he wanted to share. Made me smile.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
I've had this post up all day to read as I've got a boy very similiar to Simon in age, temperment, & love of legos. In fact, while I was doing some dishes this afternoon, he saw it up & immediately asked if he could read it. I told him its about your son (he knows my love of blogs! :>) & his legos. My boy went through it and when he got to the video, he was all over it!!! He had just finished reading the second Harry Potter book minutes earlier & was sitting at the computer with his Halloween Harry Potter robe, glasses, & hand crafted wood wand that he & his Dad made, watching Simon explain the Quidditch match. Ali, I was grinning ear to ear as my boy was nodding his head in agreement with Simon and so taken in with another boy's interest, so close to his own. Oh yea, and hope Santa has Simon on his list for Hogwart's Castle. My inlaws gave that to my boy for his bday this year and it really is uber cool! :>:> Thanks for sharing Simon & this great post with us!!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
that was a seriously excellent explanation by Simon. I have been rewatching the movies this week, and he is totally right that they both had 20 points before Harry caught the snitch. I could picture exactly the scene in my head :) I was smiling so huge through that whole video. what a cool kid!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
I just fell in love with a little boy name Simon. What a sweetie!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
I love your ideas for organizing. I have a little Lego lover here as well. He will spend hours with them. Thanks for the heads up on the magazine!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Oh boy! I thought my 6 yr. old son was a LEGO nut...you win Simon! I love some of your ideas for storage Ali. Gonna go find a few extra cookie sheets...& get a binder for the directions. While my son Cameron just free builds like crazy, his big sister likes to follow the directions when she plays with him. Thanks for sharing!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Simon, I just plain LOVE you.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
your organization skills....are amazing!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Thanks for sharing this post. With 2 boys, 23 & 6 there are a lot of Lego's around here!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Darling! Absolutely darling!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
What a sweet little sugar!
My boy is obsessed with Legos, too. His two oldest cousins, who are 17 and 16, sent my son a box of their old Legos. It weighed 29 pounds! He was completely in heaven.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
don't you just love listening to your child go on and on about something they really love?? sweet videa and clever organizing solutions!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
We love Lego too at 5. I often look at Simon and Cole (Zielske) and think is this what my Noah will do then? I love the creativity and freedom it brings! I am very much like Simon and I have to build the sets just as they are supposed to be built. It takes restraint to let Noah decide how he would like to build them. I am astounded that he can follow a Lego manual and build something himself, and I am so proud. Love the video of Simon, he is adorable. Thanks for sharing. We can't wait for our Lego Advent calendar to make it's way to Australia. Thanks for the tip. I hope Simon gets the Hogwarts Castle too, that would be the best present ever! Thanks for sharing Ali it is so special to see.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Ahhh yes, Legos. I know them well, as do my bare feet in the middle of the night. We have an almost identical Lego organizational system here at Casa del Peppermint, except we have the plastic "shoebox" bins stacked on shelves in the closet instead of drawers. Also? The idea of sorting Legos by color makes me start hyperventilating a little. We did the binder with the instructions in sleeves, too, but now we've run out of sleeves so we're utilizing the "giant pile in a drawer" method.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
I never regret buying legos. They are my son's favorite tody and I credit him with catching up with his fine motor skills and his incredible visual sense. Not many toys that can say that.
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Simon, you are a #1 Lego and #1 Harry Potter fan - I loved your video! When my son was about your age, he loved LEGOS very much too! We once had a Lego birthday party for him. For the cake, we iced it in quarters - bright red, yellow, blue and green. Then we made a small cake and cut in into clyinder shapes and put then on top to look like a Lego. For games, we played "guess how many Legos are in the jar" (the winner kept the jar of Legos) and we also timed teams of 2 kids to see what they could build in 5 minutes. Thanks for bringing back some of those fun memories for me with your video today!!!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Oh my goodness, Ali---as if I wasn't already a HUGE fan, you have "gone and done it", as my grandmother used to say! I have a 9 year old with a serious Lego love---I could relate to EVERY word coming off the page in this post. We also have a move coming up sometime in 2011---hopefully sooner, than later---anyway, to see what you did with your Legos is SO helpful to me. I have searched the internet for helpful blog posts on this subject and nothing has worked for us---I think this just may work---SOOOO happy you shared this. What a great post about what your son loves---thanks for so openly sharing your life with us~
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Ali--THANK YOU so much for posting this. I actually asked about this not long ago on your twitter page and I am so happy to see how you've managed to organize all Simon's LEGOs. You have saved me so much time figuring out the best way to handle them.
Simon--I loved your video. My son Hunter wants some of the Harry Potter LEGO sets from Santa this year, too. I hope you both get everything you ask for!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
WOW, it seems that Lego-talk is a whole different language! I've never heard of Quidditch before. As a kid, my twin brother played with legos a lot, but I preferred a Barbie doll or an art kit. Precious video of Simon!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
Love what you did with the Legos and let me just say my 11 yo would become fast friends with Simon immediately. Simon is adorable!
Sign in or sign up to comment.
LOVED the video.......Simon is such a sweetheart. Reminds me of my grandson (who just turned 9). He absolutely LOVES Legos and cannot wait until LegoLand opens in FL. I never thought about the legos being to him like scrapbooking is to me.....He'll be a VERY happy boy this Christmas now!!
Sign in or sign up to comment.