It's a Lego World

The living room is strewn with Legos. The kids have moved on to the small ones now and they seem to find their way into every nook and cranny. The come in "sets" now, always themed like the new Ninjago (ninjas), Star Wars, Atlantis (sea theme) and come, depending on the size of the set, with elaborate instructions. Oliver (the birthday boy) has recently received and built a ninja's "dark fortress," a vehicle with chomping teeth on the front, and other constructions from various pieces for now disassembled sets.

Most sets come with some sort of "mini figure," a Lego person that goes with the set. Of course, their separate parts can be taken apart and combined in different ways so we also end up with an interesting array of characters. The building of a new set is always exciting (to me too!) but what I really love to see is what happens next. The kids' imaginations are off an running.

Earlier today, the turned a plastic tub upside down and had a Lego catapult sitting on top. Several feet away was a little fort built of Cuisinaire rods (wooden rods of various lengths used as math manipulatives but apparently also useful for mini-figure sized forts). The game was to fling a mini-figure at another figure inside the fort, try to destroy the fort and knock the other figure over, thereby earning "money" to be used to buy other figures. So now there are mini-figures and Cuisinaire rods flung everywhere.

The game moved on into Levi's room where they build an "entire civilization" (as I was informed). I have yet to be given the details of this one and I imagine that it will be too complicated for me to remember.

I love to see how their imaginations run so quickly from one game to another, how they can instantly develop stories for their games and how long they can stay involved in this play. I remember imaginations as a child so strong that I could almost feel, taste, see, smell what was in my mind. I hope they keep the power of imagination long into their years.