Subject:
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Juniorization -- too simple even for kids?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Fri, 10 Dec 1999 10:20:17 GMT
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Viewed:
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627 times
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Hi, folks,
Get ready for a rambling post. But there is a point.
As some of you know, I'm a recently-revived LEGO enthusiast, who has
arrived at this happy state as a consequence of having a 3 1/2 year-old
son. Thanks, Spencer!
I was quick to buy the kid some Duplo for his second birthday, which he
liked well enough. But a few months ago, my parents announced that they
might be moving, and it was time for me and my brother to clean our
belongings out of their house. I asked for the Lego collection,
thinking that I would bring it out when Spencer was, say, five going on six.
Well, my wife brought the box home. And although she's a teacher, and
is quick to get on my case about the age-appropriateness of various
things we do with Spencer, somehow she decided that giving him the Legos
was O.K. I came home to find Spencer playing contentedly, with the
pieces all over the place. Immediately I was worried. What if he loses
some? What if he CHEWS some? I was ready to put them away. I even
told him, "these Legos are too hard for a little kid." But my wife
insisted that he was enjoying himself, and we should leave them out.
And indeed, we had problems in the initial weeks. Spencer took a
particular liking to minifigs and small, easily-lost "doodads" like 1 X
1 trans-red plates, antenna pieces, and minifig tools. More than once,
I also found one of those trans-neon yellow antenna parts in his mouth,
mangled. Yikes! I did get a little mad, both because he was
endangering himself, and because we were losing cool parts!
But we got through it. Now, when I come home, Spencer asks me, "Can we
play with the *hard* Legos?" He's not interested in big, clunky, Duplo
models. If I put plates and bricks in front of him, he grabs plates.
And it's true that he's ready to proceed on to the role-playing, after a
construction session that was far too short for Dad (who, on the side,
was trying to complete the retractable landing gear that he wished he
had figured out how to build twenty years ago). But still, he wants to
build, not just play.
Now, he isn't building particularly *complex* models, but he'll put
together a ten-piece car or airplane from just his imagination. I have
to put a suitable selection of pieces in front of him -- confronting him
with the whole collection at once would be overwhelming. He'll build a
30-40 part model, if I assemble the same thing in parallel with him. He
might need a little help squeezing that plate down tight. And he's
still not able to assemble something that large with just the
instruction sheet.
He made light work of the 14-piece McDonald's sets, though, with minimal
coaching. After be built one, he announced that he wanted to do it
again. He disassembled the model, and rebuilt it all by himself!
The Duplo hasn't been out of its box since the day the "hard Legos"
arrived. I'm ready to send it to the attic. (Actually, strike that --
since it's nominally compatible with standard Lego, maybe I can use it
for something???)
Our entire collection, up until this year, consisted of standard-scale
Lego purchased prior to 1983. The new sets that I have purchased this
year are all System, ages 7-12. So I don't have any of the "juniorized"
parts that people complain about in the new sets.
My kid doesn't seem to need them. Is he just a really special 3 1/2
year-old, or are juniorized parts totally unnecessary?
--
John J. Ladasky Jr., Ph.D.
Department of Structural Biology
Stanford University Medical Center
Stanford, CA 94305
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: Juniorization -- too simple even for kids?
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| John, I feel you are in err a bit on the idea of age recommendations for toys. It seems as though I see this happen with everyone. "It says 5-7 on the box. Our child is almost 4, but he is really bright." The agre recommendations are for safety, not (...) (25 years ago, 10-Dec-99, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Juniorization -- too simple even for kids?
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| (...) LOL! --Bram Bram Lambrecht / o o \ BramL@juno.com ---...---oooo-----(_...o---...--- WWW: (URL) pay more to get Web access? Try Juno for FREE -- then it's just $9.95/month if you act NOW! Get your free software today: (URL) (25 years ago, 10-Dec-99, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Juniorization -- too simple even for kids?
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| I was first introduced to Lego when I was four (it was a small police car), and was into the regular, non-juniorized System Lego from then on. Even as a 4-year-old, Duplo was too big, clunky, and useless for making the things that my imagination (...) (25 years ago, 11-Dec-99, to lugnet.general)
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