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!”
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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.
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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
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We get creative just by asking questions. She was talking about her birthday party and holding a bunny. So we talked about what bunnies would eat at a birthday party, then we threw a pretend bunny birthday party and served carrots. We considered carrot cake, but she didn’t think bunnies would like them.
I try to get creative with my kids by making connections between things. So if we read a book about fall or leaves, then maybe we’ll do a leaf craft project. If we read about winter or snow, then I’ll let them play with ice cubes(or even go play in the snow!). I try to bring some of what we read in books into real life and read about some of what we do/experience in real life.
We read the same stories over and over, so I’ll try throwing strange things in places and seeing his reaction. Then we talk about why what I said was ridiculous, or funny, or impossible…
Just lots of questions and free play. Daycare/preschool can get pretty structured, so at home we just let her do what she wants (within reason).
This last weekend, my husband taught her how to serve tea. That has opened up all kinds of creative play, and it was perhaps the most adorable thing ever.
We make up treasure hunts to help him work on his logic and reasoning skills. Sometimes there are clues and sometimes maps, but he loves it. He’s started making some for us (though we need to work on his drawing a little bit).
My Gustav is six months old, but I find watching what he watches to be helpful. Whatever’s in that kid’s sight lines, I point at, name it in several languages, and try to talk to him about it. We’re also testing his comprehension of “object permanence” and gravity.
We’re just expecting our first in 6 weeks, but my husband spent most of his childhood (and his deployment to Iraq) building Lego sets, and can’t wait to pass it along to our child.
We get creative by starting a conversation when he’s drawing or playing playdough by asking what he’s doing and why…
We are major duplo lovers around here! My son loves to build with them, and I try to engage him by talking about what he is building and get him to tell me about it. We also talk about colors and shapes and sizes when we’re playing with Duplos.
Just talking and naming things is a key way to teach and be creative builds off of that naturally.
I try to encourage my boys to be creative by giving them a few ideas for play scenarios and then just leaving them alone to see what they come up with. I find that if I try to direct their play too much, they get bored way more easily than when they can bounce goofy ideas off each other!
My daughter is 13 months and we have made toys out of milk caps, lids to OJ containers and oatmeal tubs. She loves to play with these and if they are lost, we have plenty more to replace!
I have an almost 3 yr old….Art and Music are really a big deal in our house. My husband and I bought a guitar for our DD…he also plays guitar, so that in it’s self sparks her creativity with singing or playing guitar herself. I like to incorporate music and art….I will put different genres of music on and give her paint and a canvas…and let her paint to the music. It is really interesting to watch her express herself through the music while painting.
Ask questions, and then actually listen. Turns out he really can converse!
Reading! Nothing seems to spark their creativity more than feeding their little brains with the best picture books children’s lit has to offer and the classic poems I most enjoy.
We try to spark creativity with reading and asking questions about the story. Reading is one of his favorite things and he does know what is going on in the story.
We try to stimulate our boys’ (ages 11, 6 and almost 2) development by including them in lots of “adult” activites. They help us cook, clean, plan meals, grocery shop, plan vacation actvities and so forth. By including them, they can learn how much things cost, how to choose between things they want vs. things they need and we get a lot more time together as a family. Even our almost 2 year old can help out! He’s a great dishwasher-emptier.
You don’t have to spend a dime to creatively come up with ideas to get kids thinking and learning.
We gave our 2y9mo son a lot of legos, mega blocks & books. It’s always interesting to see what he came out with. Lately, he’s also been playing with playdoh a lot.
Since our son is young and not talking yet, we have been signing to him. And he signed his first word this week! “light”
we try to spur creativity lately by doing a lot of craft projects. I am trying to do a Letter of the week craft and go from there.
I encourage my kids to get creative by painting, doing collages, drawing, and telling stories.
I blogged about this:
http://grand-giveaways.blogspot.com/2009/11/lego-giveaway_16.html
oops I forgot to say how creative we are. you can delete my last comment so it’s not a duplicate (I can’t figure out how to delete it myself).
we try to get our son to get creative by molding things with his play-doh. He insists it’s daddy, or some sort of animal, but everything just kind of looks like a ball. whatever, he’s 2.
We get creative with our kids by working with them to create family “newspapers” at the holidays. I also do web design as a hobby and always ask them for their input while I’m working. And the one way I get creative with my littlest child (he’s 2) is to ask him to “draw” me pictures. I never know what he’s drawing but he loves to tell me what it is.
When my son wants to read the same story for the 3rd time in a row, I’ll instead ask him to tell the story. We look at the pictures and he makes up a story based on the picture. His story usually is different than the one written in the book, too.
My daughter is just 16 months old but I try to create different environments she encounters (such as the grocery store or a restaurant) and talk to her about the different things that we do at these places. I encourage her to “use her words” to point out different things she sees such as the apples or the spoons. This helps her to be familiar with things when we encounter them out and it also has helped her vocabulary!
My wife and I read to our kids everynite, what a great way to connect and wind down before bed.
My favorite 2 learning activities disguised as games: 1) On days when there is no school, we do something called School of Mom (no, I don’t homeschool) with scavenger hunts for their lunches. Depending on the ages of the kids, it’s either hangman-style letters or picture clues that they have to solve. 2) When we go to the library, they can pick out a book they like (usually fantasy books) if they’ve also read a book of my choosing the week before and done a very short “book report” on it.
I try to encourage my kids to get creative by providing “open ended” play type toys – blocks, balls, dolls, dress up, play kitchen equipment. I try to take the time to enter into their play as well as let them explore on their own.
Today the legos were a “train”, but there was also lots of fort building, animal storytelling and general fun with creativity!
We like to do craft projects to get creative. I break out the boxes of odds and ends, some glue, glitter, etc. and the kids go crazy!
We do a lot of things with music. Sing songs, play instruments, etc.
We spend lots of time telling stories. My son chooses a topic (everything from balloons to goats to yellow) & we tell him a story about it or he tells us a story.
I have craft-time with my 2-year-old almost every day. I even let her use my grown-up craft supplies like punches and beads. It’s amazing what she can do!
I do lots of art projects and coloring with my 2 year-old to stimulate her creativity. We also paint with water and do finger painting in the tub!
Having room/quiet time encourages my son to be creative. Many times I hear him in there talking as if he has friends that are playing with him. Love it!
Wow! We love to play with Duplos. We try to recreate scenes that we have seen on our walks. They are fun to play with and every day or every few days we can change the scene to fit what we have seen or talked about. They are the best toy for creative minds.
We talk a lot read a lot, sing/ have music playing and have free time to be creative. I let them try new things even if it makes a mess…. it’s amazing what they can come up with!
My two-year old loves to sing, so we get creative by singing songs about what he is doing, or with Duplo, what he is building. His favorite song is titled “The Tower of Power!”
DD is only 15 months. But I encourage her to color, show her how to make patterns and shapes with her toys. And lots of free play.I also try and expose her to as many sights and sounds and textures as I can. Letting her play in the dirt, splash in the tub and see “what happens” When she tries anything (as long as its safe) I try not to worry that it might make a mess and just remember that she is learning valuable things.
My 2 year old likes to pretend to be other people … kids at preschool, characters in a book, neighbors, etc. I just go along with whatever character she’s chosen to be at the moment and allow her creativity to take us on a fantastic journey. Thanks for the opportunity to win the blocks.
My wife and I have not been very good at updating our 21 mos. old son’s toys. Lately my toys have been his toys. His greatest pleasure right now is playing in the garage and taking out my leaf blower. He also enjoys when we mow the lawn as he sits in the backpack. Creatively speaking he probably can make better engine noises than any baby I have ever met. Come to think of it he makes good fire engine sounds, too:)
My son likes to sit between my legs watching me while I sew. I know this is helping to build his creativity and knowledge that you can MAKE things. I also learned to sew while getting in my mom’s way. I also encourage him to play with things that aren’t always easy to clean up.
We love the duplo’s from Lego. Even as the boys get older, they still love to get them out and build. (they seem to last a bit longer then the little Legos)
But to get them creative. I have a drawer that is all theirs! crayons, pens, paper, coloring books. It’s all there and they can get in it whenever they want!
we love duplos! i got them when my daughter was just a little over a year old, and at 2.5 we still regularly play with them. we build lots of houses for the “baby” (as she calls the little guy that comes with our set), tunnels for “trains”, all kinds of stuff! It’s so much fun watching her imagination grow at this age.
I like to build forts with my sons in the basement and keep finding new ways to build them!
ckachelmuss@gmail.com
We love the Lego Duplo blocks as well!! I just broke out a Lego gift that I was saving for Christmas today because it was a rainy day in the Northwest. My two kids played w/the Dulpos for an hour making up all kinds of interesting things about post offices…I had no idea how much they knew!! They had a blast and I loved how creative they were being. My son said, “Next time we’ll have to build you a coffee shop, Mama!”
My Grands and I love building our imagination while bullding. We have now passed the tower knock down stage. We build a masterpiece together. Then sit back and decide what it is we built. They are just darling with their creative minds they see. And then we add to their theme as we go. Memories of a lifetime for this Grandma!
We like to get creative by making every little thing we do exciting. Picking up toys becomes an adventure when you change the tone of your voice & facial expressions along with a story line! My 2yr old loves when I show her how to use her imagination & the fun places it can take you!
We definitely love Duplo around here. We get down on the floor and spend hours making all sorts of fun things! My tots fav right now is skyscrapers!
Hi. We make up songs. My 21 month old is very verbal so she loves to mix words and sounds together to make up songs. “Block-time” is her favorite because that is when she can get both mommy and daddy to build things with her. I love all the different colors of Duplo blocks. They will help my daughter learn her colors.
Thanks
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