Did Someone Say Lego?

I’ve mentioned a few times that the little man isn’t very interested in crafts. He doesn’t care for colouring, and I can only occasionally get him interested in tasks that involve gluing, cutting or folding. He does, however, love to build. One of his obsessions is Lego, and in the six months since he got his first Lego set his collection has grown exponentially.

Earlier this week we decided to try to tame it a bit. First off, we made a binder to hold all his Lego instructions books, Lego Club Jr. magazines, and his precious Lego catalogue. I made the cover from a picture and free Lego-style font I found online, and slipped all the instruction books into page protectors. Now they are all corralled in one place, he can easily grab what he is looking for. (I think we are going to need to expand into a second binder shortly.)

Guess what’s in this binder

Manuals stored nice and safe, and easy to find.

Next up: the Lego bricks themselves. For his birthday back in January he was given the LEGO Ultimate Building Set, which comes in a blue tub, and we’ve been using that to store all the Lego he has collected since. But, we’ve recently out grown it, by a long shot. So, I went to the dollar store and picked up some good-sized food storage containers with snap-on lids, and we proceeded to sort out the mini figs and accessories; the wheels, steering wheels, windshields, and other important car-related pieces; and then a container for current car creations. I think we may end up adding a container for doors, windows, fences, and landscaping pieces as well.

Lego sorted into containers

Lego further sorted within the bins (e.g. mini figs in the middle, with hair and hats on one side and various accessories on the other)

So, the Lego is sorted for the time being. It is still hard to find the exact regular pieces we are looking for, but the little man will be getting this Lego Sort & Store for Christmas, which will help a lot. (Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for supporting my–I mean the little man’s Lego habit.)

As an aside, did you know that Lego has over 3300 Lego manuals available online? Check them out here. You can download monthly builds from 2010 and 2011 here. And this page has additional instructions for some popular starter/younger kid sets. Happy building!