Sponsored By LEGO Friends and Nuffnang
Have I ever told you that I love Lego Friends? Forget the kids, my inner child can sit there and play and build with Lego for hours. Now I do realise this blog post is sponsored by Lego however my love of Lego Friends is genuine and I am super excited to share why I love them so much.
Having daughters, Lego was not something that sprung to mind for most people when purchasing a toy to buy them. People seemed to go with the dolls, babies, prams and princess dresses. When I first saw Lego Friends at the shops, it captured my attention.
On the one hand it had the girl appeal that, whether I liked it or not, mattered to my daughters – but it wasn’t all fashion parades and beauty salons. They had vet sets and animal barns and cars to build. I really liked that.
I bought a few of the $15 sets (I just want to inject in here and say this is a fantastic price point for a birthday gift and I much prefer to get my daughter’s friends a Lego Friends set than another doll to dress or play with) for my eldest daughter. To be honest her attention span was quite short so early on she did not show much interest. My second daughter however was a whole different story. She could sit and play and build for hours and I really do mean hours, she found Lego Friends and she loved them! The funny thing was once my youngest daughter showed interest; my eldest daughter suddenly became very interested as well. This was actually a really good thing for her as she has learnt to sit and play for longer periods of time, and build and focus through building different Lego Friends sets, which has been great!
Not only that, but the girls play really well together with their Friends sets. This is winning for me as they tend to argue a bit so any activity that they do together without the fighting is a favourite of mine 😉 We just need to make sure it is clear at the start as to which Friend character each of my daughters is playing with on that particular day and then we are good to go ha ha.
The other great thing I quite enjoy is sitting and building with them as well. If I was going to be honest “playing” with my kids has never been something that I have done well. I am mostly the go outside and play and work it out kind of mum. My kids often want me to join in which I do but I become easily distracted by my “to do” list or I just get bored with their play. Not great I know, but it is the truth. For whatever reason, Lego is the one thing I can sit and do with them that we all really enjoy so that is part of why I love it so much!
We have also found Lego Friends to be a great activity to do when friends come over for play dates. Sometimes kids just need an ice breaker and Lego seems to always be a winner in our household.
If you feel like your kids get stuck sometimes after completing the specific build here are 5 great ideas to help inspire some continued Lego Friends play.
1. Co-operative Construction
Give the kids a combined challenge to build the biggest car, tallest free-standing structure, prettiest house etc … by making it cooperative, you hopefully avoid competition however you will need to be prepared to facilitate decision making between them. This is a great life skill.
2. Storyline
Give the kids the beginning of a story and they can produce a short drama to finish the story … they can build items, plan the story and dialogue etc … then you could ask them to present the ‘show’ to the adults later.
3. Create a Movie – using a simple phone camera, record a short movie using the things that you have made. The iMovie app on Apple devices allows you to make great movie trailers with a process that kids can follow from about 8 years.
4. Creationary
You can make a simple game where players draw a simple word from a pile and will then have to make the item. If you want to you can have teams who have to guess what their player is making (like Pictionary). This suits the older children better.
5. Still Life
Download or print pictures of some real life things that your child is interested in and set the challenge for them to build a version of it with their Lego Friends. For example a Spaceship, castle, animal, palace, garden, scooter, bike, etc.
6. Letters and Numbers
Draw out some simple words, their name or some tricky letters and challenge them to make that out of Lego bricks. You could first have them try it laying flat on the floor (2D) or even try free-standing 3D letters and numbers. This can be trickier than it sounds … try it yourself.
Even our friend’s big brothers couldn’t resist and were keen to come and join their little sister in building.
There are different sized Lego Friends sets to suit all budgets and levels of building experience. Below are just a few that are available at various toy stores.
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GOOD LUCK!!
