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 just love Simon. his closet is great and looks so nice and neat. Good job Ali
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aww thanks for making my week.
i was hoping you would do a lego post.
and what a bonus to see & hear Simon!
the lego XL bases are worth getting more than one for sure.
Simon, you are awesome!
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Ali...can I just tell you that my son was a huge Lego fan as well! In fact, he is 20 now and still has a Lego display set up at my mom's where he used to play with them. She doesn't have the heart to take it down & he'll actually go and look at it from time to time. He has ALL of his Lego's in our attic!! Enjoy this time with Simon...it all goes by way too fast! I love your video Simon...thank you for bringing back memories of my little boy explaining his Lego set ups to me...you did a great job!! Hope Santa brings you Hogwarts Castle!!
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My son loves lego too. I'm psyched because Flergs just put out a digi collab kit with lego pieces in it.
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Thanks so much for sharing the photos and your organizational set-up. My 7 year-old is passionate about Legos and to see your ideas for organization was invaluable. I get tired of stepping over them on the carpet and what a chore it is to clean them all up so that I can vacuum the bedroom. Also, what a great idea to put the magazine entries into a binder with page protectors to keep them as a reference. You are a genius!
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How sweet is he? I love how serious and passionate children are about things they love and value. Thank you for sharing a piece of Simon with us!!
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This warmed my heart today! Makes me miss my nephews so much who Love legos almost as much as Simon :)
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My son was into Lego for about 12 years. Here's what I will suggest:
* Store the assorted Lego by size or function. It makes it easier to find what you want. Doing it by color is pretty, but not very functional.
* Don't adhere the boards. He will get the point where he will want to move them around, combine them, etc. If you want them to move less when on the table consider lining the back with wool felt or some sort of tacky-ish material, like the stuff they put on the bottom of slippers.
Thanks for sharing with us. :)
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My 9 year old son loves legos!!! He loves helping put the sets together, but once they fall apart or break he uses his imagination and makes all sorts of neat new things! He spends hours with them!! Thanks for the cookie sheet tip! Love Legos!!!:)
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As a mom of three boys, our house looks like the lego store. With the gallon ziplock bags of assorted bricks be color, creations of every star wars, city, indiana jones, and now harry potter in the boys rooms, shelves, closets, desks.
thanks for providing another way to organize and sort ali, and we're not the only one that has a lego obsessed kiddo.
enjoy the weekend!
gayle
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Ali,
I, too, have enjoyed watching Simon grow up and that video is priceless. My son of 24 is no longer into Legos, but I have a 16 month old granddaughter that is now playing with my son's old Duplo Legos and loves them.
Also, I have a question. I was trying to figure out what you have framed with all of the little items above his work table on the right-hand side? It looks really cool.
Jenell
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Dear Simon, Tell your Mom to watch out! You could be the next McDreamy! I can tell you have been watching her tape her videos because you do it so well yourself! Ali, treasure these days because you blink and he'll be a man with a family of his own. I know of what I speak - that's why I scrapbook my stories.
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For all you Lego enthusiasts, Toys R Us will have them on sale soon by one, get one 50%. Thought I'd do a little enabling for Santa!
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Lego rules our house too:) I am hard pressed to find a room in our house that doesn't have a piece of Lego in it! I love watching the creating process happen, whether his following the instructions or making his very own creation. We have his Lego sorted in IKEA shelving but this is full so am needing to add to it! If he could build a LEGO bedroom he would:)
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OMG...so sweet!! His voice is adorable and the way he is so serious about the Quidditch game!! Adorable!!
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Oh Ali my heart just sings when I see you do a post on this! My near 8 year old boy has always been into lego and the younger one is now following in his footsteps. He started off on City after amassing huge amounts of duplo. Then completely due to a post that you did with Simon and the Indi Jones last Temple set, I introduced him to Indi and he was totally hooked. Until then had kept to City. Then we branched out and now its Star Wars, Atlantis anod of course Harry!
I have always been a 'ordered' individual so when it came to the kids lego I was smitten! I wish I could send you a picture of the shelf that has all the sets on it, all individually boxed, all with their own labels, exactly what you said you want to do, pictures of each set!
I started off laminating every set of instructions and although dreadfully time consuming worked really well. Now though that is not necessary. Each set type has its own 3 ring binder, white of course, with clear inserts on the front. I designed a cover for each using pictures of the sets that came in the instruction books.
Now all my freinds scoff and shake their heads, tell me I have too much time on my hands(which is a myth as I work, scrap and clean more than most of them!) I somehow just make the time! What has been a huge bonus is the kids have embraced the order and the requirement not to mix up all the sets etc. They have learnt 'order' and working in a systematic way. Like Simon my kids also like to follow instructions and when they go to friends hosues that have no ssytem they come home with a greater appreciation of their own! They also have a box of mixed blocks where they can use their imagination etc and sometimes they do but most often they prefer to build the models and play with them.
Lego here is Australia is not nearly as accessible and I do buy from the US a fair but. It is also so much more expensive here than US.
Thank you for a post that for me I can totally relate to! I envy your ability to write with such direction and clarity.
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My Brother asked for Legos last year and he's 21! He loves Legos as well... Unfortunately for my feet, we did not have a mother as thorough as you with storage solutions.
Just FYI, I work at Barnes and Noble and we're going to be the official carrier for the Lego Architecture series, if you're interested I can tell you more, but just thought I would throw that out there.
:-)
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Awesome!
I showed my 8 year old son this idea in the morning before school. He gave me the go ahead to organize all of his LEGO instruction manuals.
He loves having all of his manuals all in one place where he is able to get them when he needs it. (Before today they were just placed in a hanging folder in my file drawer)
This afternoon after school he told me he wants his room to be like Simon's. Specifically he would love two tables for building and creating with LEGO's.
Hope Santa comes through for Simon. What a good kid.
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Being a self professed organizationl freak I love the way Simon's pieces & pages are so organized.
Simon's video is priceless & he is just too cute!
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Sweet boy!
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Ali what great ideas and I love the video of Simon! It amazes me how kids know so much and want to tell it in their own words. My son is 4 and 11/12ths (his words) and absolutely loves Legos too. So your ideas for storage are great. Recently I used a cupcake pan to sort the Legos in a Space Police set. It made finding the pieces so easy and I remembered you did this with a Star Wars ship Simon had not long ago.
Secretly, I think my husband & I love playing with Lego's as much as my son does. I especially like those little people. They are so cool!
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Thank you sso much for sharing that video of Simon. What beautiful child you have. Sometimes I feel as though I don't deserve my son (he has HFA). He is such a huge blessing to me, as I know that Simon is to you.
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Hi, Ali. Thank you so much for these ideas. I love legos. My brother and I played with them all the time when we were little. He still has his castles and ships. (He's 27 now) My son loves legos. However, we can never seem to keep them all organized. Thank you so much for the extremely helpful ideas.
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My sons, 6 and 8 LOVE lego too and spend hours playing with it. Unfortunately ours isn't as organised as yours and we seem to spend forever tidying it and retidying it!! Your idea is genius....! TFS. Great video too.
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Simon needs a trip to LegoLand! You should tell Santa to make that happen for the whole family.
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