Subject:
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Re: Juniorization -- too simple even for kids?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Sat, 11 Dec 1999 19:28:36 GMT
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Viewed:
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499 times
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I was first introduced to Lego when I was four (it was a small police car),
and was into the regular, non-juniorized System Lego from then on. Even as
a 4-year-old, Duplo was too big, clunky, and useless for making the things
that my imagination wanted to make.
--
Paul Davidson, aka Tinman
www.theforce.net | Your Daily Dose of Star Wars
www.filmforce.net | Your Daily Dose of Film News
John J. Ladasky Jr. <ladasky@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:3850D3DE.C378432F@my-deja.com...
> Hi, folks,
>
> Get ready for a rambling post. But there is a point.
>
> As some of you know, I'm a recently-revived LEGO enthusiast, who has
> arrived at this happy state as a consequence of having a 3 1/2 year-old
> son. Thanks, Spencer!
>
> I was quick to buy the kid some Duplo for his second birthday, which he
> liked well enough. But a few months ago, my parents announced that they
> might be moving, and it was time for me and my brother to clean our
> belongings out of their house. I asked for the Lego collection,
> thinking that I would bring it out when Spencer was, say, five going on • six.
>
> Well, my wife brought the box home. And although she's a teacher, and
> is quick to get on my case about the age-appropriateness of various
> things we do with Spencer, somehow she decided that giving him the Legos
> was O.K. I came home to find Spencer playing contentedly, with the
> pieces all over the place. Immediately I was worried. What if he loses
> some? What if he CHEWS some? I was ready to put them away. I even
> told him, "these Legos are too hard for a little kid." But my wife
> insisted that he was enjoying himself, and we should leave them out.
>
> And indeed, we had problems in the initial weeks. Spencer took a
> particular liking to minifigs and small, easily-lost "doodads" like 1 X
> 1 trans-red plates, antenna pieces, and minifig tools. More than once,
> I also found one of those trans-neon yellow antenna parts in his mouth,
> mangled. Yikes! I did get a little mad, both because he was
> endangering himself, and because we were losing cool parts!
>
> But we got through it. Now, when I come home, Spencer asks me, "Can we
> play with the *hard* Legos?" He's not interested in big, clunky, Duplo
> models. If I put plates and bricks in front of him, he grabs plates.
> And it's true that he's ready to proceed on to the role-playing, after a
> construction session that was far too short for Dad (who, on the side,
> was trying to complete the retractable landing gear that he wished he
> had figured out how to build twenty years ago). But still, he wants to
> build, not just play.
>
> Now, he isn't building particularly *complex* models, but he'll put
> together a ten-piece car or airplane from just his imagination. I have
> to put a suitable selection of pieces in front of him -- confronting him
> with the whole collection at once would be overwhelming. He'll build a
> 30-40 part model, if I assemble the same thing in parallel with him. He
> might need a little help squeezing that plate down tight. And he's
> still not able to assemble something that large with just the
> instruction sheet.
>
> He made light work of the 14-piece McDonald's sets, though, with minimal
> coaching. After be built one, he announced that he wanted to do it
> again. He disassembled the model, and rebuilt it all by himself!
>
> The Duplo hasn't been out of its box since the day the "hard Legos"
> arrived. I'm ready to send it to the attic. (Actually, strike that --
> since it's nominally compatible with standard Lego, maybe I can use it
> for something???)
>
> Our entire collection, up until this year, consisted of standard-scale
> Lego purchased prior to 1983. The new sets that I have purchased this
> year are all System, ages 7-12. So I don't have any of the "juniorized"
> parts that people complain about in the new sets.
>
> My kid doesn't seem to need them. Is he just a really special 3 1/2
> year-old, or are juniorized parts totally unnecessary?
>
> --
> John J. Ladasky Jr., Ph.D.
> Department of Structural Biology
> Stanford University Medical Center
> Stanford, CA 94305
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Juniorization -- too simple even for kids?
|
| Hi, folks, Get ready for a rambling post. But there is a point. As some of you know, I'm a recently-revived LEGO enthusiast, who has arrived at this happy state as a consequence of having a 3 1/2 year-old son. Thanks, Spencer! I was quick to buy the (...) (24 years ago, 10-Dec-99, to lugnet.general)
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