5 Ways LEGO® Bricks Promote Learning

You have an overwhelming number of choices when investing in toys for the children in your life. How do you go about choosing a toy that will help them think or grow, not just entertainment them? How do you determine which toys are worth the price tag and which sets you should confidently walk by?

This post explains how LEGO® bricks are a high impact and high value educational toy so that parents or grandparents aiming for play-based learning can invest in quality tools. Not just toys–tools to help them grow and learn to think.

5 ways LEGO® bricks promote learning
LEGO® bricks are a high value toy
Ways to invest in LEGO® bricks
Takeaway

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If you have bins of LEGO® bricks stashed away in your attic or garage, it’s time to bring them out.

LEGO® bricks are basically indestructible, painful to step on, and a household name that most parents are familiar with. This line of plastic building blocks consists of varying colors and pieces that interlock to create objects such as buildings, vehicles, characters, robots, and more.

A unique feature of these bricks is versatility as both a fun toy and as multifunctional educational tool.

1. Foster Creativity. The open ended nature of LEGO® bricks allows infinite combinations, providing limitless possibilities for play.

Children can generate new ideas and create their own objects, characters, world, etc.
Using LEGO® toys, children can extend their imagination into physical play by taking their ideas and creating real, tangible models they can then transform and modify.

2. Follow Logical Instructions. LEGO® sets and systems come with building instructions that incorporate the parts and allow them to follow a predetermined model.

The process of building with these manuals is a practical life skill that can be applied in any assembly that requires instructions.
Learning to use a systematic approach to an activity or problem is a foundation for using other systematic thinking strategies. For example, students comfortable following a series of predetermined stages are better prepared for following the logical steps of the scientific method.

3. Build STEM Skills. And speaking of the scientific method…STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) learning is a high priority for modern education, given job demand in these areas that continues to grow. As demand for skills in STEM areas increases, toys that introduce these skills are highly valuable.

The traditional LEGO® systems already use “fundamental skills related to STEM–building, problem solving, and pattern recognition“¹
Recently, the LEGO® application to STEM fields has expanded to include hands on coding skills. New robotics kits² area available, in progressively challenging levels, allowing children to grow familiar with the combination of coding and play while incorporating the original colorful blocks they are already familiar with.

4. Learning through Story. Our brains are wired for stories–stories are easy for us to remember and they help make learning more effective. Information is more easily retained and retrieved when it is shared through a story³. Many sets are based on familiar themes: favorite cartoons, comic book characters, Disney princesses, beloved books and movies, video game stars, familiar villians…

When a LEGO® structure is related to a familiar story, a child can link their physical play to that story and cement related concepts.
Bricks can be used to learn narrative structure⁴ and sequencing of events.
LEGO® toys can also aid children in the creation of their own original stories. Writing activities with LEGO® pieces could include prompts about a particular LEGO® minifigure, the creation of a storyboard, or even writing an original instruction booklet for their novel brick creation.

5. Add Tactile Learning to Any Subject. The versatility of LEGO® bricks allows them to be incorporated into any subject or unit study^⁵, giving little fingers a way to physically engage with the topic. LEGO® toys are also an ideal hands-on activity during read alouds at home or in the classroom. Here are a few ideas on adding LEGO® bricks to any subject:

Bible Study: Create a scene from a favorite bible story.
History: While reviewing a history concept, build a related historic structure. You could construct a Roman coliseum while you review Latin terms or read about the Roman empire.
Math: Use individual bricks as manipulatives for math lessons. Have younger children sort by colors, sizes, or shapes. Measure your creations and record your findings. Duplicate patterns.
Science: Introduce coding and programming technology. Physics principles applied during construction of a LEGO® building can introduce and reinforce engineering principles.
Reading or Language Arts: Build words together brick by brick. Put letters on the individual bricks and let the children assemble. Use minifigures as writing prompts or have the children create their own instruction manuals.

LEGO® Bricks are High Value

One of the goals of Thriving Little Thinkers is to share strategies that are low cost and high impact. LEGO® bricks and sets are not low cost, but they are high value and high impact tools.

Children (and adults) can use them to create and then take their object apart and build new things, again and again and again and again. Not only can LEGO® bricks be reused for play, they physically last and can often be resold for what they were purchased for, and sometimes for a profit⁶ if a collectible is involved.

Purchasing LEGO® toys for full price can be an expense. However, in terms of the cost for investment, purchasing LEGO® products is a win. They are one of the most unlimited open ended toy collections on the market. Their versatility, durability, reusability, popularity, and likelihood of high resale price, offset upfront costs in terms of value.

There are many ways to invest in LEGO® toys in a low cost way.

Ways to Invest in LEGO® toys at a Lower Cost:

Buy used. Consider an online marketplace for secondhand sets. Ask family and friends if they have unused bricks and purchase from them. Remember that you can resell your own bricks as well due to their lasting value.
Utilize free brick tables at your local library, bookstore, or children’s museum. Many local libraries have LEGO® tables and supplies in the children’s department that can be used for free! Our local library carries shelves of books about LEGO® toys with ideas for builds, links to educational topics such as math or history, and even instruction manuals.
Incentivize. Use LEGO® toys as a special incentive to reward an accomplishment or behavior, such as completing a book series or meeting a goal.
Teach money skills. Have your child save their money and purchase their own LEGO® toys to reinforce financial responsibility and the importance of work and savings.
Utilize wishlists. Add LEGO® toys to wishlists for birthdays,or holidays so that family or friends can help build your child’s collection.
Sign up for a free LEGO® magazine subscription or download free PDFs of previous issues!

Takeaway: LEGO® bricks and sets are high value and high impact toys with educational benefits. LEGO® bricks are learning tools!

Initial investment costs can be lowered by using nearby resources and purchasing preowned sets. Find free bricks at your local library, bookstore, community center, or children’s museum.

Parents can utilize LEGO® toys for play at home to: foster creativity, follow logical insructions, build STEM skills, complement learning through story, and use bricks in any topic of study.