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
Absolutely amazing, Ali. I love seeing your setup. It looks awesome. Lego and every parenting magazine should be trying to get a hold of this article!
My boys love(d) building lego sets, but not playing with them once they're built. For a long time I struggled trying to find the right containers and trying to keep the instructions with them (inevitably they tore or got lost).
This solution would have been perfect, but I think we're just about through with the lego phase. Actually, it doesn't matter -- I have a little builder in my home, and he'll probably always have similar needs. I really love your idea. The functionality seems perfect and it looks amazing.
I also posted an organization article today -- How to Be Organized When You Have 29 Unfinished Projects.
http://www.paperclipping.com/2010/11/18/how-to-be-organized-when-you-have-28-unfinished-projects/
And one last thing -- you do a great job with low-lighting photos of your indoors. It looks so warm and cozy and you're capturing just enough of the details. After seeing these photos, I realize I probably try too hard to get more light when it's darker in my home. I would love to know your settings and what the histogram tells you when you're shooting. You inspired me and I'm going to work on this.
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Thanks Noell - I think my camera was set to 1250 ISO and 2.8 (I'm using the 5D and the ISO can go super high which has been great for all the shooting I do indoors).
Loved that organization article.
Thanks, Ali. Izzy uses the 5D too -- such an amazing camera. I need to learn to use it so I can steal it from him, ;)
When doing these evening shots do you try to try to force the dial-thingie into the center of the histogram (excuse my lack of technical lingo. Hopefully you can figure out what I mean!). Or do you allow for it to be underexposed?
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Hey Simon - Thanks for telling us about Quidditch. I love Harry Potter too!
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My boys, for some reason, make the box thing once and then turn everything into a battle station or the "coolest" ship ever. I finally covered an old 3 ring photo album with lego paper and tabbed it for each boy so that when the "coolest" thing happens I can take a picture and add it to their section. WE even have a section when cousins come over. It will be fun to see how their (especially the almost 5 yr old) creations evolve over the years.
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Great eplanation Simon! What a cool lego quidditch set! Didn't know they had that one. Neat! My granddaughter loves lego. She also puts everything together according to the directions. Then likes to display the sets.
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My boys, now 32 and 35, were great Lego fans. I can still remember the sound as they searched through bins looking for just the right piece. We sent the older two big boxes full of his Lego a few years ago when he lived on the same coast, but we do still have the younger’s. This Lego is always an attraction when we have children come to visit. My great nephew once told my sister that he wanted to come live with me, because of my Lego collection! In addition to the Lego we saved all the instructions, idea books, catalogs and even the flattened boxes. We stored the Lego in Rubbermaid bins, and our sorting system changed over time as we acquired more Lego. We sorted pieces more by type, than by set. It was the best toy, and a big advance over the Block City that I played with as a child in the late 1950s.
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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!
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I think a trip to Legoland is in order, have you been there? Beautiful park! And so very cool!!
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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!
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Well done Simon!
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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.
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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!!
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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!
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I just fell in love with a little boy name Simon. What a sweetie!
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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!
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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!
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Simon, I just plain LOVE you.
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your organization skills....are amazing!
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Thanks for sharing this post. With 2 boys, 23 & 6 there are a lot of Lego's around here!
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Darling! Absolutely darling!
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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.
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