Leveling Up on LEGOS: Our First Build

Today we built our first actual LEGO thing – a cool race car! Sure we’ve made many creative LEGO things in the past, usually giant avant-garde buildings, but this was the first thing we’ve ever made where we followed the instructions.

Ever since our recent LEGOLAND trip, my son has a renewed interest in all things bricky. And after seeing him play with the smaller ones there, I finally agreed to get him one of those sets with a lot of tiny pieces- 109 pieces to be exact. They have several of these little sets for about $12 in the toy section of Publix. So this was also a bit of a “sit in the cart and don’t touch anything” bribe/reward. I also found the exact same LEGO car set on Amazon for $9.45   <– amazon affiliate link

We dumped all the little pieces out when we got home and he immediately grabbed the wheels and started building. But I was like, “Nope! We are doing this For Real.” For the first time, we were going to build the thing that was on the box. Then, as I gathered all the pieces and the instructions, I realized I had never actually done a LEGO project and followed the directions. So it was going to be a first for both of us!

It was fun finding the pieces and seeing the car take shape. I enjoyed seeing my son exercise a little bit or patience while I read instructions and showed him where to put the pieces. He did keep trying to put the wheels on every few seconds, and he got a little frustrated at some of the trickier parts, but overall it went really well! And we succeeded in making a car that actually rolls!

And to top it off, the LEGO figure that he traded for at LEGOLAND was a race car driver, so he was very excited to put the little guy in car. And then immediately began crashing it into things of course… So the car is already missing pieces less than an hour later and will probably never be the same. But at least I have the photos!

I know there are definitely more LEGO sets in our future. I felt like the benefits went beyond just being a toy and that it a good lesson in patience, following directions, listening, solving a puzzle and good practice for his fine motor skills. It’s not easy to put those tiny pieces together for kids or adults! I think it got my brain jump-started a bit as well.