What toys whispered colorful stories to you in your childhood?
Here, Lego whispers many woven tales into inspired ears. If I listen closely, I might be able to share a tale or two told to a few in this house, but today, I am trying to bring some order so that those imaginations may continue to soar.
Our living room has become victim to a landslide o' Lego's! Initially, Hubby was helping our son rebuild a pirate ship, but when they couldn't sift through the big overflowing tub o' Lego's to find particular parts (filled with thousands of Lego's comprised of remnants of Hubby's childhood collection & our sweet boy's), Hubby laid a white sheet in the middle of the living room floor & dumped that big tub onto said white sheet, so they could see the parts more clearly.
Then we had this really big pile o' Lego's to sift & dig through. They've rebuilt most of the pirate ship now, but I thought it would be a good time to bring them back into my son's room in a much more organized fashion (to help him build his Lego creations and/or save my bare feet when I step on a rogue little itty bitty piece of hard, pointy plastic....yeeeouch!!).
I had recently read a great post on Lego organization, Lego love, and her boy, Simon's explanation of a Harry Potter Quidditch match via video (which my boy watched and thoroughly agreed with Simon's assessment) on Ali Edward's site. And while the little drawers seemed too small to house my boy's Lego collection, I did really like the idea of the drawer units. I picked up these two Sterilite 5 Drawer Storage units and we began sorting by colors, specialty parts, and mini figures & animals.
We've rallied the whole family in the process and sorted. And sorted. And sorted. And as I write this, we're still sorting, but I can see the white of the sheet beginning to show through the pile we still have to finish. (I'm hoping for today, so that we can get the Christmas tubs into the Lego filled living room & light the lonely looking tree in the corner!)
A fun site to check out for some building inspiration with all those Lego's is Brickshelf. Its galleries are full of pictures of quite a variety of creations that everyday Lego loving people (kidlets & the young at heart) have submitted.
What I have always thought is so cool about Lego, is not only that initial fun of building something new, but the imagination that comes in so many forms after that first building. Whether it be the imaginary play with the mini figures and the scene, plane, ship, car, boat and surrounding creations or the imagination in building something new and original with all those fun, colorful Lego's, there is the opportunity for imagination itself, in whatever form suits the individual and the way their mind works.
Did you play with Lego's when you were growing up? Do you have Lego's in your house today? Are there any favorites?
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Disclosure: The links to the Lego sets & Sterilite storage drawers are affiliate links and are items that we are putting to good use in our home. If you choose to use the links, they might cover the nonfat milk in my coffee. All other links are to sites that have no idea what I like in my java or who I am.
