Crazy About Construction #1: Spaceships

If you've been reading my blog for awhile now you'll know that we have a devoted Lego fan in this house. In fact I'd probably say that the word devoted doesn't even come close, obssessed may be a better way to describe it.

If I can't find B I always know where he is, down in his room constructing something. He loves to build from the instructions and always enjoys the end product after receiving a new piece but his true love is the actual constructing part, the creating, the thinking, the searching for all of those bits (even though it is frustrating at times). That is where the fun is.

I've had friends tell me over the years that their children just aren't into Lego, I guess for some kids that may very well be the case, but I wholeheartedly feel that Lego is something that needs to be 'taught', 'modelled'. Not in the sit down for a lesson sense of the word, but B's dad literally spent hours upon hours plaiyng Lego with him when he was young. Searching for the right piece to fit here or there. He also ensured when they built from instructions that B was reading the instructions as early as he could (since they are pictures anyway) and that he also had to search for the piece himself.

I think over time all of those hours add up and they begin to see things and can imagine what things will look like and what piece they need to do a certain job all in their head. This is where the real fun in Lego begins. Oh yes and a decent collection helps, they need at least enough pieces to make something quite large and then some handy add ons always help the process. You know some wheels, crocodiles, swords, people and all that jazz.

He really needs no guidance at all now and has been at that stage for quite some time. Although he still enjoys dad to play along every now and then! Spaceships and in particular Star Wars spaceships are the order of the day at the moment and I'd like to try and see him tackle other objects. Maybe he just needs a little inspiration so I have decided to set him a theme peridocially and have him build something within the themes guidelines. The theme will be relatively loose as I still want him to have as much control as possible.

To kick it off I chose the obvious and one that I knew he would get to work on immediately, Spaceships. He worked on this over a few days adding some here and a bit there. It has lots of little ships that can break off and work independently of the mother ship.

Here's a few random images of his Spaceship.






I've already set the next theme, Robots. Can't wait to see what he comes up with next.