Assembling My First Lego Set
When my children were younger I played Legos with them, but we used Duplos (the bigger blocks, which are 2x bigger than the classic size blocks). My husband would help our kids assemble their Lego sets when they’d get a set of the Classic Lego bricks — which I think of as the tiny blocks (some of which are smaller than a quarter of an inch). While we started with a safari Duplo set when my oldest daughter was very young (about 26 or 27 years ago). We now have Harry Potter Lego sets, Spiderman, Star Wars, Minecraft, Medieval Lego sets and more. There are so many Lego themed sets it’s amazing! Today I even saw one that is the classic red truck with some cute things that can be put inside.
I’ve received gifts of Lego sets from my husband and kids, and I’ve typically had my kids put them together for me. It was like an extra gift that they’d assemble the tiny Lego sets for me. I didn’t think I’d have the patience to assemble them and was impressed that my children could follow the instructions, and sometimes even come up with their own designs to give to me. I’d display them on the counter by the sink so I’d see them when I was cooking or washing dishes and it would make me smile each time I saw them.
A month or more ago I bought a big Lego set for my husband for Christmas. I saw a cute Halloween Lego set I couldn’t resist that features a black cat with a mouse sitting on a pumpkin in a decorated garden scene.
Back when I bought it on the Lego.com website it was only $12.99 . Now it’s nearly $50 on Amazon because it’s sold out on the Lego website and pretty much everywhere else.
Anyway, it was way too darling to pass up. I wasn’t sure if I’d keep it or give it away, but I finally decided to put the cute little set set together myself. Yes, me, myself and I assembled my first Lego set last week. After all that effort there is no way I’m giving it away. Ok, so in all honesty, Garrett, my husband, did jump in a couple times to give suggestions on how he assembles sets and a few more helps.
Garrett also brought me one of his brick separator tools when I was having difficulty separating a few blocks I’d assembled with the wrong colors. (The picture booklet images of the dark grey bricks look an awful lot like the black ones in the instructions.) The brick separator is ingenious and it’s definitely a tool I want to keep on hand! Those little blocks can be hard to pull apart and the separator makes it simple and painless.
Since I am quite new at putting tiny Lego sets together, I was amazed at the difficulty of putting it together. First of all I was shocked that there 328 tiny pieces in that small box!😳I don’t know why I didn’t notice that prior to making it because it says it right on the front of the box. However, before I realized the amount of bricks, I figured it would be about a 20 minute project. lol! It took waaaay longer than that — more than an hour and a half. Although, I didn’t actually time myself because I was also doing laundry.
I learned quickly that assembling Lego sets requires concentrated attention to detail, patience, object sorting, the ability to look at a photo and create what is displayed as well as dexterity in assembling tiny, intricate, designs. That may sound a bit daunting, but it’s also fun. While putting my set together I also recognized how much effort is put into designing the sets!
I realized that putting Lego sets together is good for brain development and I guess I can call it brain maintenance. That sounds weird, but I do worry about loosing some of my intellectual abilities as I age and I’m thinking assembling Legos could be a preventative measure. I found putting Legos together involves cognitive discerning and problem solving as well as an aptitude for learning new things. If you’re designing your own set with bricks on hand it also develops creativity, visualization, math skills, spatial reasoning, and more. There is a great article here about essential skills that children can learn from playing with Lego bricks, but lots of those skills could transfer over to aging adults. Although I’m nearly 15 years away from being a senior, I just want to maintain and possibly improve on my current mental acuity.
While contemplating all the benefits of Legos I realized how impressive it is for children to assemble these challenging sets; which I now hesitate to call toys. I think this is a great activity for anyone wanting to keep their brain active as well as improve or maintain fine motor skills; which is as important for young children just developing those skills as for those of us getting wiser and wiser. (ie: the song “One year older and wiser too. Happy birthday to you!” — btw it isn’t my birthday, that is just why I say I’m wiser than my younger siblings. lol, that and I dislike the “o” word.)
So with all that said, it made me think that maybe I should assemble Lego sets on a semi-regular basis because assembling my first Lego set was good for my brain, and my fingers — although not so great for my neck and back. In the future I’ll just need to do it in shorter sessions.
I think I want to start collecting the sets in the Lego Christmas Village. I really love the Lego Santa’s Visit set. It’s so darling! It even opens up and is decorated inside. Santa can slide through the chimney down into the living room. So I guess I’ll send a hint my husband’s way and see if I get to assemble it with him this holiday season.