by Rachel Wells
The sky’s the limit when it comes to building with Legos! And a fun way to breathe new life into them is with Lego challenges that are guaranteed to excite your child to use their bricks in a new way. These challenges work for kids of all ages, and can be done independently or in a group. Keep these ideas on hand for your next rainy day, play date, birthday party, or in the classroom during centers.
Legos are great for a child’s developing mind, and provide many developmental and educational benefits. So many benefits in fact, that Lego is often considered one of the best toys ever invented. Let’s take a look at some of the skills children learn from building with Lego bricks:
Fine motor skills
By manipulating and picking up pieces, building with Legos provides an opportunity for children to strengthen their fine motor skills. Highly developed fine motor skills help children in other areas such as writing and tying shoes.
Teamwork
Playing with Legos is more fun with friends – and when children build together, they practice sharing and how to communicate with each other to achieve a goal. Legos are perfect for play dates and for the classroom to help children develop and strengthen friendships.
Problem solving
Whether your child is trying to figure out how to fix an unstable Lego bridge, or the next step on a set of building instructions, Legos encourage children to see problems and come up with new ideas to solve them.
Resilience and perseverance
Building with Legos won’t always go as planned – sometimes a tower comes crumbling down, or the wall of a house falls over, but instead of giving up, children work to fix the problem and make it again better than before.
Creativity
Your imagination is the only thing that can limit your creativity when playing with Legos. Not only do Legos provide an opportunity for children’s imaginations to soar, but they also get to play with their creations once they are completed. Lego creations really are works of art!
Sense of accomplishment
Children typically can’t wait to show off their finished Lego creations. And the confidence they build through creating with Legos not only leads to a desire to create more complex creations, but also improves their confidence in other areas of their lives as well.
Engineering
Legos provide an opportunity for children to learn about cause and effect, and just how valuable each individual piece is. If a child wants to build a bridge, they are going to have to quickly figure out how to make it stand, or if they choose to make a tall tower, they are going to have to learn how to make a strong base.
So how do Lego challenges work? It’s pretty simple. You just need to choose a challenge, gather your Lego’s, set a timer, and start building – letting your child’s imagination bring the building blocks to life!
Here are 20 challenge ideas to get you started:
1. Use a base block to create a marble maze
2. Build a volcano with an opening in the middle
You can even make a baking soda and vinegar experiment in it after the challenge!
