The healing journey of a widowed, unschooling badass in Delaware.
Audiobook on the speaker (Ready Player Two), long-neglected models being completed, and my hands bringing order to this chaos.
Disclosure: The links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
Time to Build has been our Lego club for the last few months. Through the most oppressive restrictions, we have not been deterred. Our children need hands on learning (aka “play”), smiles, hugs, laughter, and a sense that their worlds are made larger when other people are welcomed into them.
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
My favorite things about Lego are very adult. They aren’t sticky or loud or leave glitter all over the floor. Lego is arts and crafts for parents who don’t like to clean up.
Children are naturally inclined to disrupt the comfort zones of guardians. Last week they requested paints, nails, hammers, screws, and…a power drill. I acquiesced on all but the power drill, and really that was because I didn’t want the hassle of running an extension cord.
Once I saw the magic of five boys from ages four to twelve all working diligently and safely (and *almost* quietly!), I knew I had to feed this new passion to create.
As conditions permit, Time to Build will become bigger than simply Lego.
We’re going to get all the tools and paints and glues (okay, maybe not all the glues) out and see what these creators come up with. Our life might just become as colorful as our Lego collection.
After a break in the new year, our Lego club, Time to Build, has come roaring back in February.
Ship building was the theme, but computers were all the rage.
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
There was collaboration and competition as the boys put their favorite games on the screens of their laptop and desktop computers.
A game of Headbanz broke out shortly before we wrapped and, of course, there was one big spill to close the meeting.
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
From near to far:
-I’m sorting our latest used Lego haul (literally two trash bags worth).
-Isaac is working on this beautiful Treehouse set.
-Westen is experimenting with stop-motion for their YouTube channel, Z-Boys Creations.
Sets in this image:
Our Lego club guests had a blast as us parents let a bit of mayhem go down with the building.
The product of aforementioned mayhem.
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
We’ve been hosting unschoolers for a weekly Lego club called Time to Build and I’m going to start documenting their creations and our experiences.
Below is a fun scene I found after club that involved the LEGO Marvel Spider-Man Far From Home: Molten Man Battle set.
This challenge was equal parts fun and dangerous and produced a laser canon that my son was happy with.
I got in on the building when one of our younger guests requested a giraffe. I grabbed The Lego Ideas Book and copied this design as closely as I could.
I love this time with friends. The home education community is incredibly diverse and I love getting to know other parents and how they go about facilitating their children’s education.
On the first day of increased Lockdown restrictions I was able to host home educating and distance learning families for a few hours of Lego building and fellowship. We didn’t treat each other as if we were diseased threats, nor did we observe government mandated gathering limits.
These friends are all new. The variety of perspectives and backgrounds in our small group is astounding. I could talk with any of these moms for hours and I love listening to their journeys.
None of them knew Mary. I love hosting people in the home we built together. She would have it no other way. Well, she wouldn’t be okay with the level of clutter that I am.
I’m grateful for the people in my life who will not bow down to nonsensical restrictions on our rights of assembly, movement, and speech.
A fun and practical way to incorporate math into your child’s love of Lego.
Take a look at Lego catalog prices, then go to FB Marketplace, a physical/online reseller, and/or craigslist for the same sets.
The basic math is about 10 cents per piece for a new, non-franchise set (City, Friends, etc.) Sets with special minifigs (Batman, Minions, Toy Story) go above that.
With that knowledge, it becomes much easier to price compare without looking up the new set price.
This could be a practical way to discuss value and price comparisons in a field of interest. I know my boys can look at a price and say, “That’s ridiculous.” Makes them much more helpful in deciding when and where we spend our Lego budget.
We are Lego Maniacs. We started at Hockessin Public Library with piles of pieces at our disposal for a couple hours every other week. My younger son, Isaac, could hardly walk, but had no interest in the big blocks on the floor. He wanted in on the action at the tables full of colors and tiny shapes. Builders had to break down their creations at the end of each session and we always helped to clean up with the teenage volunteers. The boys developed a sense of impermanence about Lego. It shouldn’t gather dust. It should be put to work on a new, or at least modified, creation.
Isaac is nine now and a wizard with bricks. From structural integrity and color coordination to collaboration and flat out creativity, he is always building with magic. It was his idea to include a staircase down into our as-yet-unnamed UFO project. I built the trap doors and left space inside for him. Now he’s got the stairs in place and working on his scene. In the hours since taking these pictures, the stairs have been strengthened and lowered so the doors can close more fully.
I plan another post devoted to a tour of our UFO.
His older brother, Westen, is the storyteller. He takes elements from comics, audiobooks (presently Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology), videogames, and movies and works them all together to create worlds full of characters. His latest modification is to an Overwatch set. He kept the mech frame and color palette and added lots of textures, rockets, and, why not, a battle axe. While experimenting with Bionicle elements, he learned some tricks to help me to beef up the stabilizing legs for our UFO.
Isaac never seems to break from playing and exploring new techniques. This late-day build started with interlocking gears, acquired a studs-not-on-top (SNOT) knob, added wheels and belts, then got dressed up with Isaac’s gigantic initial. It is far from finished (he was reluctant for me to share it at this stage), but it showcases his skill in design and engineering.
We’ve spent a lot of time in our workshop. The afternoon light pours in and we get lost in audiobooks and building.
God bless and thank you for reading,
Jason
This is going to be big. I haven’t indulged in a big Lego project in over a year and I finally got too jealous of my son’s award-winning builds to hold out any longer. They are amazing inspirations and helpers as fountains of ideas and solutions. So really, my big builds are family style.
This idea started with watching Lego Masters. One team used train track elements for a rounded build and I was intrigued. Rounded building is challenging in many aspects as so many of the elements operate at right angles. The curved train tracks proved to make a circle that was much bigger than I wished to work with. Curved race track elements created a more manageable circle with lots of strong connection points. I decided this would be a great frame for a classic UFO.
I tried to let the space dictate the build and since some green hexagons fit nicely in the center, I built a garden. My sons are helping with exotic plants and I had fun with a fountain in the middle. My late wife loved gardening and I saw that this build was going in a personal direction.
Next, we put in an art gallery and jiu-jitsu studio. Taking lots of liberties, we remained dedicated to the spirit of our favorite places: Brandywine River Museum of Art, Delaware Art Museum, and Elevated Studios. These went in as primarily white and blue rooms, respectively. The next two rooms will be grey and an as-yet-to-be-determined color. My elder son is cooking up all kinds of fun gadgets and displays for the navigation/engine room and my younger is challenging me with a grand vision for the last quadrant of the circle.
The dome over everything is a first draft of sorts and completely new for all of us. We really enjoy pushing the limits of our abilities and we are fueled by all the creativity we witnessed on Lego Masters. We’re plotting out a bottom dome as well to potentially create a full globe of a ship. We may build a hulk of a spaceship.
God bless and thank you for reading,
Jason