Creative Writing with LEGO® Builds

Have I mentioned that we love LEGO®? In particular, I have six kids and one husband and they all own and play with LEGOs. Okay, I admit that my husband does not play with his legos as much as they are displayed. But he has them! Am I the only one whose children make up stories, towns, currencies, and a system of government for their LEGO play? I don’t think so.

I’m pretty sure your kids do that too! For the last week or so my kids (all six from 15 to 5) have been playing together in a LEGO Universe. They each have a certain number of people (minifigs), a certain amount of money (tiny bricks) and a trade good or some kind of store. They buy, sell, rent, and build and tell the story for at least an hour per day on this LEGO universe.

If you are like me, you have watched your kids play LEGOs and wondered “How can I harness this passion for the greater good.?” i.e. the education of my children. Now, I firmly believe that children are learning all the time when they play. Play is so important for our brains! I also think that taking play into the realm of formal learning is a great idea. So I asked my big kids — if you were writing about LEGO Learning all week, what you would you write about?

The first answer from my eldest was Creative Writing. I think that’s because she has been using LEGOs for her creative writing assignments in our Middle School/High School Blogger Link-Up. No matter what the theme, she uses either her LEGO stories, Bionicles stories (also legos) or Minecraft stories as her springboard. Some of the things she has come up with have astonished me! Here’s how she does Creative Writing With LEGO.

First, she builds LEGOs or Bionicles with siblings, narrating a story as she builds.
Once she has everything built, she takes lots of pictures of the characters and scenery.
When it is time to write, she writes the story she has been sharing with her siblings and uploads the pictures to illustrate.

Is your child struggling to write, or struggling to write cheerfully? Maybe she just needs a new angle! Once I started encouraging my daughter to write about the things she loves, I have seen a huge improvement in her writing skill and creative form.

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