Lego or Duplo? And Laptops too please

[shinybaubles]

My ds is 3.8 and has been playing with bigger building blocks for ever we thought it might be time to move on to smaller ones - also to help his fine motor skills? But do I go dof Duplo or Lego given his age?

Ds has also been asking for a lappot - laptop as I have one and so does dh - obviously there is no chance he's getting a real one - but what are those childrens ones like you know with cartoon characters etc on - are there any you could recommend or are they just never played with again?

Thankyou for any advice.

The Dora and Diego laptops are good.

As for the lego, I would probably go for lego, unless you have a younger child who would play with the duplo. My five year old still plays with duplo because it's great, and she is just starting to get into real lego.

Look out for second hand lego on ebay or in second hand shops, you can get some good bargains and the more lego you have, the better.

Thanks Belgo I don't have a younger child but ds 2 will be born on xmas eve so there will be one in the future - hmm lego or duplo..such important decisions

Will have a look at the laptops you mentioned. Thanks

I would go for Lego (we never bothered with Duplo as they grow out of this very quickly and Lego tends to last for life!).

Our ds was given a children's laptop but he didn't play with it much and was happy to give it to a friend who liked it. It had some educational features but he just wasn't that interested I suppose.

That's two votes for lego then...anymore

My kids both have laptops - they do play with them (esp ds) but I hate them (bad phonics, poor pronounciation etc etc) so won't recommend

At 3.8 I reckon you're on the cusp of lego, so would be tempted to buy lego (although ds at nearly 6 still enjoys the sheer scale of things he can make on duplo...)

You could always get a job lot of Duplo second hand and then sell it on when finished with it. (Actually my sister and I never graduated onto Lego but there was no ebay then!)

Duplo.

My ds is 3.8 and we are graduating from dulpo to lego this christmas. He enjoys the duplo but my 15m ds gets more fun out of it. Ds1 is getting frustrated at the limitations of duplo now (as am I!)

we have both and my 8 year old still likes making things with duplo. I'd go for duplo.

and I wouldn't bother with a laptop aimed at kids. there are so many fabulous websites you can access

wow it seems we are at that borderline age ..hmm maybe I should get Duplo now and can keep it for the one I am expecting and then get him Lego for his birthday in March...or is that just being silly?

nope, decision made!

My dd2 (3.8) plays with lego but finds duplo a lot easier to build with.

We have a huge tub of lego that both dd's play with but i have got dd2 some Mega blocks for christmas but only because they are ITNG sets.

Duple is easier to see on the floor (i'm always treading on little bits of lego ).

id definitely go for duplo, you will get loads of use out of it especially with another dc on the way.

ds had loads of duplo (mostly giant zoo and zoo vehicles as he's animal mad) and we got first bucket of lego at 4yrs and he didnt play with until 5yrs as once the bits were stuck together (especially on base plates) he sometimes found it quite hard to take apart again.

never liked the kids laptops with the little lcd screens so never had one, an idea is to get him some kid friendly software that could go on yours so he could play with (supervised of course)

Hi everyone thanks for all the replies well you were right about the laptops we saw a cheap kids one when we were out and bought it for him - he is incredibly frustrated with it because it doesn't do what ours do and has given it back to dh very cross with it - so the tip about letting him use ours was great, can anyone recommend some sites or software suitable for a 3 year old.
And will get the Duplo.