The other day my children took their canvas bag of DUPLO bricks and dumped it out on the carpet. They played for hours, building three different structures: a home center, a zoo, and a police station. They told stories about their characters, who went through different adventures. It was the giraffe’s birthday. Then there was an accident and people needed to be carried to the hospital on stretchers. Then things happened at the home center.
They dumped the DUPLO bricks and built, told stories, and created for an hour.
All this happened because they got invited to a little boy’s birthday party and I was shopping for DUPLO sets on Amazon so we could take a gift to this party. Just looking at the different DUPLO sets got their creative juices going. They have not touched DUPLO bricks in a month or more. But they always go back to them.
I grew up with something similar to DUPLO and I am very fond of them. They are such a classic toy. They never get old. The sky is the limit with what the kids can build with them. And then, the stories come. They use vocabulary to express themselves. They build sentences.
You don’t need expensive LEGO Education sets like “Story Starters.” A simple 200-brick set for $19.99 is all you need. Of course, you would have to also read extensively to your children, let them play outside, and turn off any screens while you are at it.
Nothing happens in a vacuum. Creative children don’t happen. They are built day by day and step by step, with construction toys, lots of books, and lots of time spent outside in nature.
