Bonding with your child with Lego
Like all working parents, my husband doesn't get a lot of time with the children during the week. Long and intense work hours mean that he often arrives home late, after the kids and I are done with dinner. The kids would clamour for his attention and after a hard day's work, I know that oftentimes there is nothing he would like to do better than to crash into bed. There are days when he would do exactly that, but more often than not, he lifts his spirits to spend some time bonding with the kids.
Bonding is something, which you think would come naturally, but in reality takes time and effort. The benefits however are very real, with studies showing that a strong parent-child bond in the early years is key to a child's emotional development. Children secure in their attachment to their caregivers show a stronger ability to manage stress, form healthier relationships, get better grades in school, and have a higher self-esteem. In other words, building a bond with your child has a positive impact on his or her ability to live a well-balanced and fulfilling life.
Of course, benefits aside, the reason why we choose to bond with our children is because we love them. We spend time with them because we want them to know that they matter to us. We do things with them because we think they would enjoy it. This is why we play board games, read, indulge in various sports, enjoy romps in the park, and play with Lego.
Yes, Lego. Because here's the thing. We play with the kids because it's just plain fun for us too. Nothing puts the smile on the faces of my husband and children than being able to bring out a new set, especially one that has been stashed away for them to open at just the right moment for some hours of fun.
I've thought about why Lego has such ageless appeal and I've come to the conclusion that it is the combination of the following factors:
1. It is really child's play. Adult or child, just about anyone can stack two bricks together—no training or extra tools required. With such a low entry level of skill, it is easy for to get into the process of building and creation. Don't like what you built? It is just as easy to take it apart and start again.
2. You are limited only by your imagination. I think most of us have had the experience of building with Lego, then taking what we built apart and rebuilding countless models, be they spaceships, cars, castles, or combinations of things that defied description. The husband told me that when he was little, there were days when he would grab a fistful or two of Lego, then sit down and challenge himself to use all the pieces he had grabbed to make something interesting. Naturally he ended up with fire engines with wings, houses with wheels, castles with space antennae, and the list went on. You can really build just about anything you want, as long as you have enough bricks.
3. They just keep coming up with really cool lines. While the generic bricks will always play an integral part in the Lego experience and form the basis on which everything is built, the fact is that from Star Wars, to Super Heroes to Harry Potter to the latest princess series for girls, it is just fascinating to see familiar scenes translated and miniaturised in Lego. My husband himself had his childhood interest in Lego rekindled as an adult by the Lego Star Wars series and he still can't help but marvel at the detailed re-creations of the iconic scenes, characters and machinery.
As for my son, he's been caught up with the Legends of Chima and was recently ecstatic to get his hands on one of the newest products in the Chima line—Laval's Fire Lion.
"I'm going to build this all by myself", he said excitedly. I had my doubts. After all, the set is intended for children between the ages of 8-14 and looked pretty complicated. And besides, did he really think that his Papa was going to let him get away with playing with new Lego all by himself?
But he was so eager to open the set, I found it hard to say no. So I ended up sitting down to start work on the set with him… and fighting him to put it together. (Hah!) No, seriously, I helped where necessary, which honestly, got a little tricky at times! There are those who query the value of building Lego following instructions, but I think there is something to gain from that as well. Perseverance, for one. It took us two to three sittings in total to put Laval's Fire Lion together, including a couple of occasions where we had to go back and re-work bits that didn't seem quite right. This process also trained our eye for detail, to hunt down the parts, distinguish right and left, and see how everything fits together. Let's also not forget the exercise of our fine motor skills in putting it all together!
Which bring me to my last point about why Lego is so popular:
4. It is just a great toy. Most of the fun is in the building, but even after you've finished building a set in accordance with the instructions, there is still more you can do with it. We found Laval's Fire Lion in particular is very playable. It rolls, has articulated joints, and has a cool grabbing function as its arms move to open and extend. It also has a pack over one arm that shoots missiles, much to Noey's delight. We've tried to use its arms to pick stuff up, with some success. We've also dismantled parts of it to take a look at how the joints work. It was a good lesson in mechanics. And of course, the best part was that it is something we can do together—the building, dismantling, re-building and just having fun. It is the shared experience that makes the playing extra special.
