Tonight I broke out my childhood Legos for the first time with the kids. All three (5 yr old girl, 4 yr old boy, 2 yr old boy) spent a solid hour focused on nothing else. That may not sound like much, but getting all three focused on anything for a whole hour without killing each other is nothing short of a miracle.

Seeing them go at it was truly awesome. Here’s a pic of the output for the evening – right to left is youngest to oldest. (Sorry for the crappy pics – did it with the laptop to avoid the whole camera cycle.)

The 2 yr old mostly wanted to slap pieces together and real Legos are a bit too small and precise for his still-developing fine motor skills. But he was quite happy to find cool pieces and point out where they should go: “put there”. No hesitation.

The 4 yr old started with a partial car that was probably built over a decade ago the last time I used these Legos and reworked it significantly, leaving only the front portion of the steering component by the end. I thought the way he put together the back wheels (and my suggestion of the suspension pieces) turned out particularly awesome:

The 5 yr old started from scratch and built a nice platform. Things really took off when she discovered a) people and b) accessories and c) lego flowers from some house kit I must have in there. That was enough to set her off on a lengthy back story about what the parents and child in the car were doing, how they could use the walkie-talkie to communicate, how to escape if the car went under water, and so on. Interesting counterpoint between the 4yr boy and 5yr girl style of play. :)

And mine’s the one on the left. Pretty crappy, although in my defense I mostly was helping the 2 yr old and at some point he took over my car and started hacking on it instead.

All in all, ’twas a blast. I wish I’d gotten them out earlier…