I loved legos as a kid. We had two big storage tubs of them and we’d take apart and build and rebuild all the time. This was before Lego was all about the fancy kits. Most of what we owned was just a bunch of generic blocks of various colors and sizes, no real instructions with them, or anything specific to build.
We bought C some mega blocks years ago, likely for her 1st birthday or 2nd Christmas (right after she had turned 1), but she mostly just stacked them up or wanted you to build something for her. Then I got her duplos, mostly from garage sales and thrift stores. It wasn’t until about 6 months ago that she fully got the concept of putting the blocks together to build something. For Christmas this year she got a duplo set from my brother and an easy junior Lego Cinderella set from us. Much building has occurred since.
More than a year ago I got one of these easy classic beginner lego kits, then forgot about it as a gift. My mother-in-law had given her some gift money, so we were in Walmart looking for a toy to buy and she saw these and wanted one. She wanted the blue one and I mentioned we already had it. She of course then said we should buy the red one.
They are really wonderfully made, and cheap for legos at only $5 apiece. Each colored kit (red, blue, green and orange) comes with parts and instructions to build 3 things, generally an animal, a vehicle and a building. Each item to build is less than 20 parts and each step of the instructions only adds 1 or 2 types of blocks at a time. We helped her the first time building them, but she can now do the easier of the instructions herself. They have on the box and in the instructions some other things you can build, by rearranging blocks or subbing out parts for the items. The point, she can build anything she can think of, and for the last few weeks this is what she’s done. Take apart, build again, take apart, mix it up, build again. She’s added them into the Junior Cinderella kit she already has, and a small TMNT kit that my husband has. (We own other legos, but most are stored away.)
I’m really glad this is her first introduction to legos, because it highlights what I loved about them as a kid, not kits that have be be done exactly, but pieces limited only by your imagination (and sometimes the pieces you owned). She’s having such fun, I am likely buying her the next one or two other kits in this style.
Mommy Over-educated 