Teaching and Learning – Mummy To Twins Plus One

I was lucky to go to The LEGO® DUPLO Creative Play workshop. We as a family love LEGO. Yes, rather a strong word to use for a toy but it is true. I played with LEGO when I was little, so did my sister, so did hubby and now so do our girls, and of course, our little boy will do as well.

The LEGO DUPLO Workshop was led by play expert Hanne Boutrup. Hanne was an inspiration, she made you want to play with LEGO bricks, get involved and just have fun. A perfect person to showcase the reasons that LEGO DUPLO (is for younger children to help with development and learning) is ideal for kids.

Hanne Boutrup was brilliant and really had everyone energised about LEGO DUPLO and how it helps children worldwide.

Did You Know?

The LEGO Group began in 1932, with Ole Kirk Christiansen who was a carpenter from Billund, Denmark who made wooden toys.

“LEGO is named after two Danish words LEG GODT (meaning Play Well) to produce the LEGO^®name. The name is intended to reflect quality and the child’s right to enjoyable play.”

LEGO is a great toy but it is so much more. So what can LEGO DUPLO do?

Help children with storytelling and communication. Using the LEGO DUPLO bricks and characters allows children to create their own world. When you are spending time with your child playing with LEGO DUPLO you can use the different creations as launch pads to tell stories. These creative stories help your child understand how stories are told, for example, stories have a beginning, a middle and an ending and the story needs to be told in this sequence or the person listening will get lost. This is a good skill to have as this leads to good communication that will help your child in the future.
You can teach fractions, shapes, patterns, colours, lengths and basic maths with LEGO DUPLO. Your kids will not even know they are learning, they will think they are just having a great time playing.
Being creative. Building cities, aeroplanes, birds, dinosaurs and really anything that you can think of. Don’t be confined to just the instructions that are included in the pack. LEGO DUPLO allows kids to create whatever their heart desires. There are no restrictions.

Alexander loved playing with LEGO DUPLO. When he is older I'm sure he will build amazing worlds. — Alexander loved playing with LEGO DUPLO. When he is older I’m sure he will build amazing worlds.

This workshop was hands-on. We all had to open a pack of LEGO DUPLO bricks and get building.

Our first task was to build a bridge that would allow two LEGO DUPLO characters to get across the river that had huge fish in them and who knows if they were vicious! Yes, you had no idea so best to be careful.

My group came up with a great creation that allowed the characters to cross the river. We carefully engineered a bridge with side rails and steps to access it. We were safety conscious hence the safety rails.

The Bridge our table built to get the LEGO DUPLO characters over the river safely.

“Did you know that your brain is making use of the most critical skills for learning when playing with LEGO® bricks? Even when you build and rebuild with just a few bricks you stimulate more than 20 skills, supporting competencies such as problem-solving, creativity, empathy, communication and collaboration. “

Our second task was that we had to sit back to back to our partner and one person built with the LEGO DUPLO and the other person directed what to build. It was a very interesting lesson on communication and how to direct others when you cannot ask questions.

The second attempt at LEGO DUPLO at the Creative Workshop. It was very close but not exact. Better and more precise direction might have been better. This was a good way to showcase how if you have really good communication your team can benefit. — The second attempt at LEGO DUPLO at the Creative Workshop. It was very close but not exact. The better and more precise direction might have been better. This was a good way to showcase how if you have really good communication your team can benefit.

As you can see it was close but if the communication was more directional that would have been better. It would have hopefully led to an exact match with each creation of LEGO DUPLO.

We were also asked to take seven bricks and create a structure. It could be anything as long as it used seven bricks. This is an interesting exercise that you can use with your children. See what they create. Let them tell you the stories about the structure and why they built it the way they did.

Having a blast exploring all the blocks and new things that LEGO DUPLO offer.

“Did you know that LEGO® bricks produced since 1958 are fully compatible with LEGO bricks produced today”

The workshop showcased ways that I as a parent can help my children learn more with LEGO and also LEGO DUPLO.

Asking questions about the story, the building, the reason why something was done and finding fun ways to incorporate maths and other school learning into play is an amazing tool. Learning about patterns, counting and just having fun means that your kids will not even realise they are learning.

With the whole focus on innovation and creativity in the workplace the skills that LEGO DUPLO gives you are essential. It will help children in the workplace. If they are creative they have great ideas, solve problems and are innovative. There is a leaning now towards STEM subjects and LEGO DUPLO can help with these subjects for younger children, well at least introduce the ideas in a creative, fun and age-appropriate way.

It was lovely to meet Hanne Boutrup at the LEGO DUPLO Creative Workshop. I thought she was such an amazing speaker and so inspiring about children, learning and creativity. Alexander is also pleased to have been there as well.

Do your kids love LEGO DUPLO? Do you have older kids that love LEGO too?

My helper had to put his feet up. To much building with LEGO DUPLO. He had a well earned rest. — My helper had to put his feet up. Too much building with LEGO DUPLO. He had a well-earned rest.

Have you used LEGO to teach your children without them even knowing? What is your favourite thing to do with the kids and LEGO?

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One of the reasons we chose the Montessori pre-school for the girls was that they look at how different children learn and work with the child’s talents. When I was at school you just had to do as you were told and learn the way all others learnt. This looks like it has changed, it is good that differences are being acknowledged. Today I saw an article about “Your child’s learning style” on Fairfax’s Essential Kids website.

This article on essential kids looks at all different styles, the below list is taken from the article:

1. Visual learner – These children enjoy drawing, colouring, puzzles and creative art. They need to “see” information to learn best.

2. Verbal learner – These children love listening to stories and may learn to talk at an earlier age. They follow verbal instructions easily and love to talk.

3. Tactile learner – These children enjoy getting “a feel” of different materials. They like to be shown how to do things.

4. Kinaesthetic learner – These children, like tactile learners enjoy learning through touch, but they also learn by “movement and sensory interaction”. They may learn better if movement is incorporated into the lesson.

Just thinking about the girls style without study, they are visual and verbal more, I think they have a bit of all of the styles in their learning. I will need to observe them more during the day and see which one is the more dominant.

There are great links that are mentioned in this article on essential kids. Here are some of them:

Understanding and supporting your child’s learning style, by Ian Wallace
Kids learning is fun – E course about different learning styles
Learning links – Can help if your child has learning difficulties
De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats – Helps practical thinking

What do you think your learning style is? I think I am visual and verbal. I love images and art, this would obviously explain why I ended up creating films and studying film/tv production. Understanding what your strengths are, can really help doing well with other areas of your life and learning especially.

According to this article schools are teaching in all different styles, making sure children are able to learn to their strengths. I applaud this and hope that it helps kids excel at school and life.

Have you found your learning style for yourself or your child? Has this led to you or your child getting better results at work or school? Has it been a wonderful discovery? Has it helped if your child, or yourself, have issues learning? Send in your comments.