For The Love Of Lego
Tags: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.






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257 comments
Thanks for explaining that to me Simon, it looked so complicated but you helped me understand that. And that snitch was interesting to hear about too :)
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Hiya, Ali! Oh my gosh, thanks so much for sharing. My 6-yr-old son will love seeing this when I show him this. =) Matt is in his Star Wards LEGO obssession mode. =)
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I loved hearing about Simon and his Legos. Goodness! My kids are going on 32 and 30 and Lego played a HUGE part of their lives. That and Cabbage Patch kids! We didn't have much money in those days so on birthdays and Christmas they got a large set of Legos for DS and some Dolly stuff - mostly Fisher Price cooking sets, etc for DD. (I made all the clothes myself) Two areas of interest onlywhich they'd alternate about every 2 months. Amazing how kids choose their own interests.
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incredibly handsome.
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awww... my heart just melted.
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thank you for sharing your lego's with us simon. and thank you ali for sharing your life with me. you are such an inspiration on so many levels. you are a blessing.
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Yay for legos! I was a tomboy that couldn't get enough of those little blocks.
Sidenote: did you paint his room that green? I really like it and would love to know the manufacturer/shade.
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We did paint it that color - it's a color from Miller Paint and I'm looking for the exact paint chip :).
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WOW Simon what a cool Lego collection you have and when I see Santa I will put in an extra special word to him about the Hogwarts Castle too!
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love the binder idea for the manuals! we just started down the big boy lego path and Simon has stellar storage!
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Thanks for the LEGO advice! I totally love the idea of the binder! So easy, and I never came up with that. COOOOL!
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My son, now 18, loved Legos and Harry Potter. He still has the Harry Potter village set up in his room. Must encourage you to go to Legoland while Simon is young - best place ever for kids! Everything is designed for average age 9 yr. old. I loved it and we still talk about it and want to go back again. And concerning adults and Lego hobbies, our local Fair had a Lego contest and an adult man won. His set was a soccer stadium filled with people - about 5 ft. x 4 ft. big. He said he has 2 rooms in his home filled with sets and pieces. Wow, it can be a life long hobby!
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Lego's brings such great memories of my family gatherings at my Mother's. It was inevitable that the box of legos would surface at some point and we would have 5 year old to 80 enjoying the adventure. Absolutely love your organizational system and I love that you are teaching Simon such a valued lesson of oraganization & respect for the things we cherish.
On another note - may I ask what color you used on the walls in Simons room? It is a gorgeous color.
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Oh my gosh that is *adorable*! My seven year old son is also very into legos as well. Thanks for turning me on to the Lego advent set a while back too, we are getting that for him this year and know it will be such a treat for him! Loved seeing this little bit of your sons personality, he is too cute! :)
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What fun. I remember when I was a kid, my brothers and I took over an entire pool table in our basement for our lego towns. Good memories.
Regarding your comment about adhering the lego bases, two thoughts for you. First, I immediately thought about velcro. You could still move them, although it might be difficult to move a finished piece. Then I thought, what about using magnets? Put some magnetic strips down on the desk and then you have two different options for the bases. Either get some powerful magnets that can be put on top of the bases to hold it down even through the bases (these could be removed to move the bases around easily) or you can put magnetic strips on the bottom of the bases, too. Might be easier than pulling up velcro, but not as easy as the magnets on top of the bases. Good luck in any case! And I hope Santa brings Simon Harry Potter legos, too!
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Oh Ali, I loved reading your post on Lego. Lego is a huge part of my boys life too (they're 5 and 7). It is out everyday. Infact I've just been photographing scenes for a pirate story made of Lego for my 7 year olds school home learning project. It truly is the best toy. My eldest son (and I) have made some amazing models for his school projects, like a model of a railway station that used to be in our village (you can see that on my blog). It's so interesting hearing how you store it, that's always been a problem that I often have to reassess as the collection grows and as kits get broken down. But like you I keep all the instructions in a binder so that they can easily find the one they want. I often tell them they need to take care of the lego so that their children will be able to play with it in the future, just like they play with my old lego at their grandparents!
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I also love Lego's, love the timelessness of them. My 21yr old sonis very much a lego guy, and builds some amazing things that can take months to put together. Love it. We never sorted them, but did and do have directions for the endless sets in binders. He loves it now that you can get individual pieces.
It's so fun to see Simon's growth~
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Thanks for the GREAT idea. My boys have always loved Legos also. My one frustration is that they love getting the new sets a lot better than using their imagination to re-create. I wish I could go back and save all the old manuals and put them into a binder like you did. I am going to look into getting the storage bins and sorting by color (Like my scrapbooking supplies!!!) Right now we have a huge bin just overflowing with legos and we do need to do something.
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Thanks for the Lego organization tips. My five year old already has more than I feel is easily managed. We do the binder for the instruction books. He very much likes to make his own creations after putting a set together once. For my personality type it is very frustrating. I'm trying to find a solution that works for him and meets my need to not see chaos when I walk in his room.
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precious video!
precious boy.
We love legos as well. Lego play has been a major point of connection between my husband and my son. They love to build together.
Love your idea of the 3 ring binder with all the directions. Our directions are scattered here and there--we need a system! :-)
thanks, Ali.
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We love Legos at our house. My 2 boys share Simon's LOVE for Legos!! They are either playing with their Legos or researching/studying them on Lego.com. In addition to the regular free Lego magazine, my kids have been members of the Brickmaster Club for several years now and LOVE it! (A birthday gift from the grandparents.) You may want to check it out, if you have not already. While it does cost $40/yr, they get a mini set in the mail every 2 months with a special members-only magazine (and a couple other goodies like, Lego coupons, Legoland tickets, etc.) Please share what is hanging on the wall behind Simon's desk. Is that a Lego mini-figure poster? Looks like something my boys would really like! Thanks for sharing.
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It is a mini-figure poster. It was a special edition one they released for the 10th Anniversary Star Wars celebration (they are all Star Wars figures). Here's some more info on it (you might have to check out ebay for the actual poster): http://www.brothers-brick.com/2009/05/02/celebrate-10-years-of-lego-star-wars-with-a-free-limited-edition-poster-from-the-lego-shop-news/
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