LEGO Challenge

I’m sure you have buckets of LEGOs sitting around, and while the best part of the bricks is the free play allowed, sometimes a little bit of a structured activity can really help spark some creativity.

What you’ll need

• LEGOs, of course!


• A few creative minds


• A timer (we used the stopwatch on my phone)

Directions

• Begin with 20 minutes of free play to get those creative muscles working.


• Round 1: After the 20 minutes are up, put all the bricks back in a pile/in their bucket. Start the timer for 1 minute. Each player chooses 10 LEGO pieces from the pile to build with during this round. Only having 1 minute to choose pieces should prevent any planning when it comes to your creation. Now set the timer for 5 minutes. Everyone has this time to build using only their pile of 10 pieces. 


• Round 2: In round two, you’ll be choosing LEGO pieces for someone else in your family. With the timer set for 1 minute, everyone takes 10 pieces from the piles and pass them to the person on your right. Set the timer again for 5 minutes, have everyone build the most creative thing they can think of with those 10 pieces. 


• The variation possibilities for this game are endless. It could totally turn into taking up an entire rainy day. We’ve also been playing outside in the sun and taking the LEGOs out on a blanket.

A Few Tips

• We found that some of these time limits were actually too long for older kids. Adjust your timer, and/or the number of bricks, depending on ages. 


• Count LEGO mini-figures as 1 piece. Kids tend to gravitate toward the little guys but then are worried about how many pieces they count for.


• Dumping the LEGOs into a pile on the floor, or on the table, seemed to work best for quick grabs during this game. 


• We didn’t award prizes, but it could definitely be a fun addition to the game. 

Proud of your work? Post it on Instagram using the hashtag #mpLegoChallenge! We’d love to see what creations your family comes up with.

— By Alaina Buzas, Contributor