Lego

[Clarityneeded]

Your child on their 5th birthday receives a kit and wakes up at 5.30 the following day in excitement wanting to play with it.

Do you:

A) Make them follow the instructions to build the kit

Or

B) Allow them to go ‘free-style’ which is their choice?

If I had my way all Lego would come with a tube of Kragle for compulsory use.

Mine are both old enough to build the sets following the instructions but they then get dismantled and go in (horror) the Lego box for free play.

A definitely. Otherwise what was the point of the kit?

Seperate box of lego for free style

Whatever the child wants to do.

Although if they freestyle it obviously I’ll do it by the instructions when they go to bed

b its lego - its meant to be creative

If they're not able to follow the instructions for the first build it's probably too old for them. I'd let them get on with it but not buy another kit for some time.

Mine always followed the instructions for the first build then rebuilt it as they fancied. except the millennium falcon and police station which are off limits.

If a five year old has been given a toy and they want to play with it they should be allowed to play with it any way they chose, as long as they’re not being actively destructive.

I’m an adult but I’d hate to be given a gift then told I’m only allowed to use it in one “prescribed” way.

Thankyou all.

Clearly one poster on here needs help but that’s a different thread altogether.

I suspect I’ll be posting on the relationships board at some point as I wanted option A (or C!) and I think this may have been the straw that broke the camels back.

5.30 is normal unfortunately. Sleep consultants haven’t worked, neurologists have said she’s ok, cranial osteopaths worked initially, school doesn’t tire her out, nor do the extra-curriculum activities and neither does chilling out.

Been posting on the other parts of MN & and sought as much advice as possible for sleep advice since she was born.

Hope you are ok OP

B, but inside I’m screaming with horror because A isn’t happening:

At 5.30am, whatever child wants, by the side of your bed or on the floor next to a sofa you can snooze on for an hour.

At a reasonable time of day, if the LEGO is age appropriate, I’d encourage them to build to the instructions then do whatever they want with it afterwards.

I hate LEGO passionately. But I struggle more with adults who don’t know how to follow instructions (looking at you DH with every piece of flatpack furniture ever )

There are some serious Lego amateurs on this thread! We have several thousand bricks in this house, sorted into ~15 bins primarily by colour, though there's a separate bin for base plates bigger than 6x6. There's a big bin into which builds that are coming apart or done with, plus random found pieces, get tossed for periodic sorting. DS is 7, loves to build both by instructions and freestyle, and DD 3.5 started freestyle building on her last birthday.

Top tips: Lego will replace some lost bricks for free, and you can buy replacement bricks by number as needed, fairly inexpensively. All instructions are on the website in PDF, we often use a tablet for viewing.

OP, I'd let my child freestyle, but give her a baking tray with raised edges or a roasting tin to work in. Helps loads to contain the bricks.

Let them do what they want as it’s their Lego.