The Best Kind of Play

Last week, I was really excited about that LEGO challenge post. Even more so, I was excited to let the kids help me figure out the rules and really make the game the best for their ages.

But then the sun came out, shoes came off, and forts were built.

For a second, I was pretty bummed. I didn’t want to “fake” the game and just set it all up by myself. I seriously considered rounding up the troops and telling them it was LEGO time.

Then I remembered that’s really what this is all about, right? Creating purposeful acts of play in our everyday should lead to the most organic forms of play that we don’t even realize have occurred until we’re with the kids, bare feet in the grass, giggling about the latest goofy fort defenses we’ve invented.

Eventually, we got around to the LEGO challenge posted last week and the kids loved helping creating the rules. But those couple of hours in the sunshine, those were way better than the feeling of making a deadline. (And as someone with a journalism background, that’s pretty crazy stuff for me to say.)

— By Alaina Buzas, Contributor

P.S. If you did try out the LEGO challenge, don’t forget to upload a photo on Instagram with the tag #mplegochallenge