How do I teach my son to find his own Lego pieces?

[MotherFeeder]

I have one child. He is 6years old.

He loves Lego and starts building before school and as soon as he gets home. The trouble is he won't look for the pieces and is constantly calling me to help him find the next piece.

I've sorted his Lego into colours to make it easier.

Ive tried ignoring his yells and keep telling him to look for the piece himself with no luck.

It's sheer laziness on his side and easier to yell for me than look, but wonder if someone who is a better parent than I has a tip of how to encourage him to find the pieces himself?

I was going to say divide by colour but I see you've already tried that. I also used to divide big pieces and small pieces in addition to dividing by colour. I have no other advice, only sympathy.
My lego fanatic stopped constantly asking somewhere between age 6 and 7 so hopefully yours will be similar.

Thank you for taking the time to respond.
I might try divide the pieces even further..

Good to know he could grow out of asking too

I'm not sure as my DD wasnt really into lego building, but maybe sort the pieces into 2x4 pieces, 2x2 etc instead of by colour?

It's easier to then find the correct colour if the pieces are sorted by shape first.

When you say ignoring his yells hasn't worked, what do you mean? Does he keep on yelling? If so, for how long?

How long have you ignored him OP

When he asks for help, separate that particular colour into 2 piles and get him to search one pile whilst you (slowly) search the other.
Then every so often get called away to do some urgent job so he has to search your pile too.

Get something like this and sort by shape rather than colour www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Clear-Compartment-Box-Transparent-Plastic-Storage-Divider-Large-Craft-Suitable-/124160251678

Tell him from now on you won't help unless he finds you a shortlist of 3 pieces that might work. Be prompt for a week or so on answering calls to help pick from the shortlist, then start to "just finish the dishwasher first" so he picks on his own.

Don’t do any more dividing or separating for him. At 6, unless there are SN, he really is capable of finding the next piece himself through trial and error. If he doesn’t want to do that he can stop playing with his Lego and go and find something else to do. Honestly, just tell him you’re busy and he can do it himself.

Also, do you think it's genuine laziness, or do you think he lacks confidence in selecting the correct piece?

If he lacks confidence you could try a version of Lego therapy to build his confidence. The original aim is to teach children with autism social skills, but in a nutshell, there is an Engineer, a Supplier and a Builder (the Engineer and Builder could be the same person).

Engineers use the Lego instructions and ask the Supplier for the specific pieces of Lego needed

Suppliers gives the Builder the pieces

Builders follow the building instructions from the Engineer in order to construct the model.

If you give your child the role of Supplier, it should give you an idea as to whether he can distinguish between the different Lego shapes or if he really is just being lazy!!

Tell him to look himself and if he hasn't found it in a couple of minutes then you will help if he doesn't look himself first then your not helping that usually works for my LG and 9 times out of 10 she will find it.

Perhaps encourage free-play, where he builds his own designs using his own choice of bricks. That way he doesn't need an "exact" next piece to make a particular model.

I suspect children do not have that ability to look for things. My 2 DCs constantly 'can not see' school shirts, hanging in a wardrobe, pencil on a table, book on a shelf, etc, etc. They are 7 and 10.

If you know he can do it himself, tell him you are busy and that if he isn't going to look himself he will have to play with something else. His choice.

He is 6, it could be he wants you to play with him, and the shouting gets him your full attention.

Sit with him and start to build your own thing
be singularly useless at building his
then he will learn to step up to the plate

Hes only six. My son is five, if he wants to do a kit he does it with someone as he can’t follow all the steps to make the house etc. If its free lego he has everything sorted by shape, but he still needs the odd bit of help finding the right bit unless its the basic brick.

What? This is mad! Just ignore him, he is old enough to play on his own. The whole point is playing and learning! Not getting mummy to do things for you!

I used to race mine to find the piece, with lots of "Oh, I've got it. I'm going to get it before you" whilst looking at the piece, and moving my hand slowly towards it.
Everything was a race in this house tho - getting dressed, clearing the toys up, getting onto the swings.... you name it, I lost the race for it!!!

If you want to sort lego, I've found that children much prefer it sorted into size and type of brick rather than colour. It doesn't look as pretty! but it's much easier to find a yellow 2x4 in a box of 2x4s, than it is to find a 2x4 in a box where all the bricks are the same colour. Plus, I've found that quite often children aren't that bothered about the colour as long as the brick is the right size and shape for what they are creating.

some bricks should be sorted by function not colour.

so have a box for

• connectors
• people
• wheels & car-related stuff
• windows & doors

Also, I agree with posters above that he wants you to be engaged and play with him. it is not just about finding a particular piece, it is about attention. Maybe give him a challenge to build a particular thing 'all by yourself' and then pay lots of attention to the finished model?

Sorting by brick type doesn't really work on a lot of the sets though, as there are many pieces that there may be only one or two of.
There have been some good tips above but I wouldn't go with point blank refusing to help. He might just give up and lose interest altogether then which would be a shame as lego is fantastic. He's still small and a little bit of support is still needed.

Nope dividing by colour is wrong!!

Divide by shape and size.

I am a bit compulsive about the Lego and purchase really useful boxes and inserts to separate prices by type and shape.

Much easier for building from instructions than colour

Sorting by type doesn't work if you want the DC to put the Lego away themselves. If they have to do it, its far easier for them to sort by colour. Mix contrasting colours if you don't have many of them plus a people/animal and small bit box.

I think you're being a bit unrealistic to expect him to manage it alone at 6 though.

Is this actually a thread? Just don't help and tell him you're busy or ignore him.