Ollie’s been really into Legos lately. Like most parents we got him blocks as an early present. Theses included a set of wooden blocks, then Mega Bloks instead of Duplos (they are easier to put together), and now we’ve entered Lego land.
It has been fascinating to watch him from balancing wooden blocks together, struggle to put together Mega Bloks and now be able to manipulate small blocks. He still struggles at times to put some pieces together, but works at it, and I’ve seen great improvement in his fine motor skills.
I wrote off The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie. I didn’t really think much of these films when they came out. I figured they were just a glorified toy commercial. On a whim, enjoying a rare plane flight when I was without children, I watched The Lego Batman Movie and was instantly surprised at the quality of a film, the wonderful way it addressed Batman’s convoluted continuity, and it’s message of teamwork and family.
When I had the opportunity, I watched The Lego Batman Movie with Ollie and he was entranced. After the first ten minutes, I looked over at him, and he looked hypnotized. I asked, “Ollie, do you want to keep watching?” “Yes,” he muttered softly.
Later, we dived into The Lego Movie, and I was surprised and really happy about the message. Lego lately have steered hard into licensed franchises like Star Wars. As someone who is proud of his love of geek culture, I love it, but as someone who wants Legos to be more than simply following directions, I worried about the lack of creativity of this type of experience. Yes, children learn important skills following the directions on a Lego sets, but the exploration of imaginative creation, I fear may be lost.
What I loved about The Lego Movie was that it was about celebrating building without directions, collaborating, and being a proud master-builder. Ever since we’ve watched the film, Ollie proclaims that he is a master builder.
If you go to our basement, the floor is covered in Legos (we are working on some storage). What I love about what I see down there is that while there are specific sets that he has put together like a floatplane and firetruck there’s a whole zoo full of animals he has made. He has modeled them after the “abstract thought” representations from the deconstruction scene from Inside Out.
While he enjoys playing with his mini-figures as action figures, Ollie is just as proud of the animals he has created.
We are worried because Legos are choking hazards for Ethan, and the storage issue is significant. Diana didn’t want to get Legos for the longest time for fear of stepping on them with bare feet. However, we’ve realized how much he gets out of this activity, and we are glad that he is having fun and engaging in such great imaginative play.
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