| |
In lugnet.dear-lego, Deidre Rushton Brumby writes:
> **Warning - this is very long! **
>
> I haven't tacked this onto any particular thread because I've read many
> bits and pieces about juniorisation and being the strongest brand over
> a few months. I'm removing my AFOL cap and putting on my Mum hat
> for this (as a ref. point I have a son who is almost 5), YMMV but
> these are my parental observations.
Hi, Deidre,
My comments are perhaps among those you have read. Just to update a bit, my
son Spencer is now 4 1/2. We still own no Juniorized sets. The Duplo is still
out, but the Primo no longer gets any use. Regular System parts are the norm.
He never mixes the different scales of parts (though Dad is looking at those 2 X
10 Duplo bricks and wondering what he can build with them).
My wife brought out the System parts a little early, and we had a mouthing
problem for a while. That was settled about seven or eight months ago, thank
goodness. No more chewed trans-neon antenna parts when my back is turned...
Spencer builds increasingly elaborate models of his own design, up to about 20
pieces. He LIKES the really small parts, 1 X 1 trans-neon round plates being
highly prized. They end up on almost everything he builds. He's fascinated by
minifigs, and wants to try out all combinations of heads, helmets, hair,
backpacks, hand tools, etc. He's also unexpectedly clever with single elements.
He built a kangaroo using only 2 X 2 / 2 X 2 90-degree brackets <http://
www.lugnet.com/cad/ldraw/parts/ref/images/3956.gif>. His Mom and I were both
delighted, but then she asked him, "where's the joey?" Spencer said, "wait a
minute," then assembled a mini-kangaroo out of four more of the same part!
Pictures will be shared when they come back from the developer.
Spencer associates Lego building with me. I don't usually come home to find
that he's built something while I was away. Part of the reason for this is that
my collection is pretty well sorted, and he doesn't comprehend the organization
yet. (I'm not really sure that I understand it myself, but at least I remember
where to lfind most things.) When I'm around, though, anything goes. Spencer
often rifles through my instruction set and says, "Let's build this." He has
made some surprising choices, and finished them, more or less -- the Yellow
Castle <set:375>, the Space Shuttle with 747 <set:6544>, and the Naboo Fighter <
set:7141> -- he loves Star Wars Episode I. The engine pods on the latter set
boggled his mind a bit, probably because it was his first exposure to Technic
pegs. Right now we're half-way through the Indy Transport <set:6335>. It
usually takes us a few evening sessions to finish something.
He can actually do most of the building. My main job is to give him the parts
for the next step. I provide minimal verbal coaching, and point to certain
parts on the instruction page. Once in a while, I offer the strength of an
adult hand. He knows *where* to place a plate on top of another plate, but he
may not be able to squeeze down tightly enough to eliminate the gap between
them. In the case of the Yellow Castle, I think that the sheer number of parts
was ready to overwhelm him. Because the model has bilateral symmetry, I helped
him out by building the left side while he built the right side.
There are times he gets a little frustrated, and I say, "maybe we should take a
break." The suggestion makes him mad! He REALLY wants to finish!
I think that I have enough old Town parts, and what I lack (generally, good
windows and doors) I can mostly buy from Lego Direct. (Aussies, please don't
jump on me for writing that...) TLG won't be selling our family any Town sets
unless they go back to the way they used to do it. We'll probably buy more Star
Wars sets, as they continue to provide large quantities of versatile, smaller,
general-purpose shapes.
--
John J. Ladasky Jr., Ph.D.
Department of Structural Biology
Stanford University Medical Center
Stanford, CA 94305
Secretary, Californians for Renewable Energy <http://www.calfree.com>
|
|
Message is in Reply To:
45 Messages in This Thread:
  
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
