LEGO Intervention

My sons and I are in serious need of a LEGO intervention. Alexander and Benjamin LOVE LEGOs, especially the Indiana Jones and Star Wars sets and I’m happy to accommodate. I enjoy seeing the completed set, and also the surrounding chaos that accompanies the build.

Step one is two to four boys fighting over who gets to be which guy that came with the set. I begin sorting the LEGOs by color.

Step two is compromise. Someone (me) reminds them that we have so many sets that in the “LEGO box” there are a couple Indys, Lukes and Darth Vaders and enough Storm Troopers for everyone.

Step three is the build. The boys set off building and outfitting the guys while I start assembling the ship, building or whatever. I have to hustle because with one to four little boys offering different levels of “help” it can quickly descend into chaos. “Dad, I cant get his helmet on.” “Can you put this in his hand” “I have to pee, can you come with me?” Someone is always crawling across the table to snag something from their brother or check out what he is building. This of course wrecks my piles of each color or worse onto my blue and grey speckled carpet. ANY LEGO except for red, yellow and neon green blend perfectly into my carpet! A good distraction is always, “I need you guys to look on the floor for this piece.”

Step four is the handoff. As much as I love the hour of watching my sons interact, the best part is finishing the build and handing it off to the boys. The all marvel and get excited to put their guys in the ship, or storm the castle and then they argue about who gets to play with it first. I let them all hold it for a minute and then try to rotate who gets to play first.

Step Five! OK, this is really my favorite part. Yesterday in between sledding runs, I built Darth Vader’s Tie Fighter for the boys and today was Alexander’s turn. Yesterday I built Spongebob and Benjamin got first crack. Alexander put Darth Vader into the cockpit and took off flying. Benjamin was at the bottom of the steps and Alexander was at the top firing down at him. Then I heard it two minutes in, “Dad” in a cracking voice, “ I accidentally dropped it” “Dropped what?”, I asked, already knowing that Vader’s Tie lay shattered at the bottom of the steps. “Darth Vader’s ship!” “OK, put it in the pile, we’ll fix it later.”

The pile is our LEGO scrap heap. The scattered wreckage of many a good ship. I could get frustrated, but I really don’t mind. I enjoy spending the time building with them and wrecking them is part of the fun. We’ve come to that point though. The pile is getting big, and I want to start teaching them how to build by themselves. Unfortunately that means I have to learn to build without the instructions as well.

I need to organize the pile and figure how to teach these boys how to create. We don’t really even have a pile, it’s more of a scattered mess on the carpet. I was thinking of getting some sort of bin or bins, maybe a tackle box to separate colors or like tiles, but am really unsure of the best strategy. Suggestions?