This is a compensated review from BlogHer and LEGO® DUPLO®
My daughter is abusing the word “because”. She has become a master of the run-on sentence, linking together every thought that comes into her brain, often in a circular logic fashion, with the word “because”.
She is two years old.
Mommy, I was crying because I was looking for my dolly and I find it under da coffee table because I was looking for my dolly because I was crying.
I love that she has enough words at her disposal to give me these explanations.
And since I’m truthfully not such a rookie mom anymore, it has inspired me to dig back in my brain to a technique I used to use to get inside my son’s creative little developing brain when he was at this stage of verbalization. We would play the “What would happen?” game.
It’s an entertaining way to pass time in the car or while waiting in line for something – and can even be used as a distraction or mood changer for an upset kid.
What would happen if I stacked these bricks all the way up to the sky?
What would happen if we gave a cupcake to a baby?
Kids. They say the darndest things. But it can help get the conversation going if adults say the darndest things first.
“Scarlett, what would happen if you turned into a bat?”
“I would turn into a bat and den I would eat poop wif Daddy and Julian because I turn into a bat!”
+++
We have been playing with a new set of LEGO® DUPLO® bricks – another opportunity to peek into the inner workings of my kid’s brains.
“Is that a fire station? “
“No, it’s a pizza oven!”
I love that the LEGO® DUPLO® bricks can be anything my kids imagine. Three dimensional building lends itself naturally to the stage of understanding his world in which my 5-year old lives. We can build a park, skyscrapers, and the other stuff that you expect to see with LEGO® DUPLO® bricks. And now that he’s learning about patterns in school, we can use the colors and sizes to make patterns. Red, green, yellow, red, green, yellow. (We have a HUGE tub of LEGO® DUPLO® tricks with every color in the rainbow.)
The folks at BlogHer sent us this awesome LEGO® DUPLO® Legoville Fire Station to review. It includes the makings of the fire station structure (complete with slide), plus the firefighters, a fire truck, PLUS a helicopter, AND a ladder and hose!
Nothing has been left out, and there are enough features that both kids can play at the same time and have their own vehicle and “guy”. See how one of the fire fighters is sitting on the balcony using a computer? My son loves that.
The included fire hydrant is not in this picture, because we’ve built a city “across the street” that houses that fire hydrant. My five-year old is very thankful to have such a complete playset.
Plus, my 2-year old uses it as a pizza oven.
+++
YOU can win a set just like this one!
To enter to win a $20 LEGO® DUPLO® gift card, leave me a comment below and tell me how you get creative and stimulate development in your kids. The contest will begin at 9:00 a.m. (PST) November 16, 2009 and will end 8:59 a.m. (PST) November 23, 2009. Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct.
Rules:
- No duplicate comments.
- You may receive an additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link in the comments.
- You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments. (something like “oooh, @rookiemoms is giving away a Duplo set http://bit.ly/1boxUR” but up to you!)
- This giveaway is open to US Residents, aged 18 and older. (Sorry!)
- Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail.
- You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
- Please see the official rules here: Official rules
{ 71 comments }
← Previous Comments
The best way to stimulate children is to let them learn through play. We do many activities like playing with playdoh, building with blocks, painting, and playing dress up. Another great activity we enjoy is using recycled boxes and containers to build a realistic grocery store, or creating “sculptures” out of the recycled boxes, egg cartons, and paper we have laying around.
My daughter and I have found that working with our hands can really enhance our creative energy….we’ve felted soft balls out of unspun wool, mixed and kneaded bread dough together, and gone through all the steps of vegetable/flower gardening to mention a few projects. Self expression in any form, I feel, is essential to positive growth and development.
There’s no end to creativity with kids and yes, it’s so much fun. We have legos – today our house turned into a lizard shed (rubber lizard) and the roof a slide and we made a pool at the bottom. We love Moon Sand because we can have a sandbox in the living room and we make pirates and dragons that can get smashed apart like Sandman from Spiderman. We use blankets and sheets to make tents for pretend camping. We play I spy with my little eye and sometimes it’s things that start with a letter, other times colors. We paint paper plate masks and create our own show. It’s great being around kids.
We read lots of books… and often try to come up with alternate endings.
Currently with our 3 year old and 9 month old we do a lot of pretending and imaginary playing if we don’t have the right toy available for our scene. We also do a lot of singing, which my 3 year old has turned into her regular conversations. Sentences are always better when they are sung, or when multiple nursery rimes become one song. One of her newest trends is to read her father and myself a bedtime story instead of us reading to her. Oh the stories we get!
We read to our baby often and also tell lots of stories. Our little one is not quite ready for blocks, but my husband can’t wait to start teaching him how to build with Lego.
We read alot of books and explore together wether it be inside the house or outside. We have this princess book and we call it the “whoisit” book because the only words that come our of my daughter’s mouth the whole book are “Who is it?”
We make 2 sets of flash cards with words on them and play the memory matching game. This way my child is learning to read and matching.
I love to engage my kids in using multiple senses to explore their world. I like to talk with them about how things look or sound or dance together to music. My oldest is in love with Legos and they really provide a lot of opportunity for creative play. I will have to remember that what-if game the next time we are waiting in line.
I have loved Legos as long as I can remember. I had tons of them. When my kids were at an age where they could play, I was eager to get them started on Legos. I always refer to them as “smart” toys. Imagination is the main ingredient and the kids have plenty. Reataurants, spaceships, houses and cars, all in one box. I’ve noticed that their sense of space and problem solving has really changed for the better the longer they’ve played with Legos. I guess its one toy I’ll never regret investing in!! Thanks!
I turn off the TV and play with my son every night. I let him take the lead but I talk to him and visit with him one on one.
My son Oliver is mad for painting right now. I must admit, it was really nice when he kept it to his easel (and the roll of painted paper makes awesome gift wrap) but now he prefers the kitchen floor with a notebook and his plastic pallette.
He just turned 3 and received 2 small Lego sets and I must admit, the whole family has been having fun playing with him and his “eggos”.
we have two doodle pro magnetic drawing boards and my kids love to draw on them before bed. “look at this thing, mommy! Look at this thing!” my 2 year old will draw a line and then show me every two seconds…
We count everything. My little one is 2.5 yrs old, and he’ll bring me stuff to count: Hot Wheels, Lego tires (that he stole from his big brother), rubber duckies, stuffed animals. He’ll even count the buttons on my shirt when I pick him up.
Tweeted!
Rookie Mom is giving away a Lego Duplo gift certificate…http://bit.ly/4biE8e if you want to enter too.
I pretty much abuse the handprint art. We make handprint turkeys, birthday cakes, trees, angels, etc. We do a lot of painting, cutting, and gluing (my daughter’s 2.5). We also love any sort of blocks, but they haven’t become more than houses, castles, barns and fences yet…but we haven’t tried the Duplo!
I like to encourage my 2 year old when he uses his imagination. Like tonight he told me that the bath tub was his boat. So we sang “row, row, row your boat” and used our arms as paddles. He already has a lot of creativity in him, I just try not to stifle it and encourage him to do it more.
My son REALLY likes TV. I try very hard to limit his time and to get him interested in other activities. I recently got him legos and he loves to play with them and use his imagination. We are able to spend time together and help forget about all the cartoons he’s missing (or not missing)!
My sons and I do a lot of drawing together. My older son likes to write books also using his own inventive spelling and his own illustrations.
We cook! My son (2) is notorious for being a finicky eater and I’ve found that having him help a little in the kitchen makes him a tad more willing to try new foods. He loves the process: from wearing aprons to washing hands to beating an egg and watching mom scramble it in the pan. We also use fictional/funny names for food: he had *never* tried a noodle before I called them “red worms” and now requests them regularly.
(That firehouse is on our Christmas list, too! Looks fun!)
My daughter really loves to read books, she reads to me and she reads to the dog and her dolls. It doesn’t matter as long as she is reading right?
← Previous Comments
Comments on this entry are closed.