Friday, April 25, 2008

Too Old To Lego, Too Young To Die

Isn't it amazing how much kids love Lego? I mean seriously, totally love it so much they want to take it to bed and sleep with it so they wake up with six little indentations in their forehead from lying on top of a plastic brick all night. And then losing the tiny little bits in the sheets to stress their Mums out when doing the washing. Kids love Lego with a passion and abandon adults can't match, and even the repeated agony of standing or kneeling on those razor-sharp corners doesn't dull their devotion.


Actually I don’t mind Lego associated traumas, don’t even mind knowing I'll have to unhook the vacuum pipe and retrieve the piece I just heard clunking its way up the hose when I vacuum under the sofa. My Mum used to carefully go through the vacuum bag every time she emptied it to retrieve the Lego bits we’d hidden on the floor in places only the cleaner would reach because hey! we were thoughtful kids that way.
If only I had spent as much time working on my thesis as I did planning and building the Lego creations I made as a kid! Nothing stretches a kids imagination as much as playing with Lego, let alone developing their fine motor coordination and spatial planning. Who knows, maybe that’s why I'm pretty good at playing the piano and reading maps.
Most importantly though, it’s just loads of fun. In fact it’s still so much fun that I love taking the kids to a Lego shop – of which there are several in Singapore – to check out the latest offerings. Yes, whole shops filled with nothing but Lego: Starwars, Exo Force, Mars Mission, City, Knights Kingdom…not to mention the merchandise! Chess sets, clothing, watches, key rings, cups, plates, drinking bottles, even salt and pepper shakers! Ok so I’m not that into it, but it’s nice that the three of us can all sit down and play with our big crate of Lego together. Every now and then I pick up a couple of catalogues to bring home and the kids spend hours scrutinising them, carefully making lists of what they want, changing them day by day. It doesn’t actually matter that I’m not going to buy it – they just love to fantasise about it and look at the pictures. Now they’re into http://www.lego.com/, where you can play cool games, download stuff and see all the products on offer.
Proof of our obsession: the guest room is actually called the Lego room.

Last week when the kids were really pushing for me to buy more Lego – which we save for birthdays, Christmas and special occasions because it’s quite pricey – I decided instead to build all the sets they’ve already got. Little kids can be a bit overwhelmed by a big heap of Lego and can’t sort out the little bits to put together a set. I thought I’d spend a morning doing it and be finished. Wrong! Two days later I finally reached the end. Every set was assembled, and only about 3 little bits missing as far as I could tell (damn that vacuum). But my back was killing me. Hours spent hunched over trays of colour sorted Lego bits has a completely different effect on the body of a thirty-something than it does on a kid! I don’t remember aching all over after a Lego session when I was nine years old. My sound effects have gone from cool laser sounds as we play to "ooooh my back hurts, help Mummy up".
Niels birthday is coming up next month and guess what he wants? Star Wars Lego. I’d better do some stretches first…

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