Can Lego Help Kids Learn?
As a parent that dreads stepping on another Lego brick, I can still attest to the fact that it is a fantastic learning tool. As an educator, I highly recommend it for children from the ages of 4 to 92. Let’s address safety-first. For children that are 4-5 years of age, I would begin with the jumbo Lego set or Duplo Lego. Children under 4 can still place things into their mouth and that is a safety issue, so be patient, the time will come.
In the beginning (Pre-K years) it is addressing cognitive skills, building up the imagination of endless possibilities. Children are using motor skills to move around and stack these jumbo Lego blocks, which is encouraged.
By the time your child reaches the age of 6, I would introduce the Lego block and watch their imagination flourish. My son first began to build things to throw into the bath tub and water play.
This is a great toy for promoting the strengthening of fine motor skills. By using their fingers and having to learn how to put things together and take them apart, they are strengthening those finger muscles for handwriting skills.
Later you can see as their masterpieces come about, using their cognitive skills and learning about cause and effect.
Lego Learning Kits
For Christmas, we purchased a Lego kit that would be able to be incorporated into our Homeschooling Science section. We wanted Science to be a fun and diverse subject. So, what better way to learn about it, than through Lego! We purchased “Gadgets” by Lego. It has 11 different machines that can be built, plus it encourages making their own gadgets after they have learned a foundation, first. It does not come with safety glasses, so make sure to purchase some, if you don’t have some in your garage. If you have a gifted child (you will know by the time they are 18-24 months), they will need a little more of a challenge with things.
This is geared at kids 8+, but I still recommend it even for kids that are showing mechanical interests (male or female). Before Lego, my kids played with their separate toys, but Lego has been the one thing that has united them as siblings, so it is something that can encourage siblings to work and collaborate together, which I love! It is a kit I recommend because it teaches kids to read and follow directions, while covering a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) based direction. I’ll be posting pictures of every gadget made as they build them. A great investment for learning fun!
The Catapult
For my Kid’s review, go to my Instagram account@baby_basics_101_us or @themommylighthouse
