In the 1950’s, there is a unique toy that was introduced to almost every kid in the world – Lego. This simple, yet complex toy consisting of blocks turned out to be the next big thing. Believe it or not, up to this day Lego is still very popular not just for kids, but also to the young at heart. These simple building blocks are now used in teaching kids especially in preschool and primary school as a way to develop creativity and imagination. Lego educational workshop has been around in years after the Lego was created, these workshops use Lego blocks by giving kids their freedom in creating and building different things. This unique way of teaching proved to be very effective and a fun way of learning experience.
Lego’s humble beginnings started in the carpentry workshop in Denmark by owner Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1916. Inspired by woodworking, his shop constructs furniture and houses together with handful of staff. When the great depression hit, his shop had fewer customers and he was forced to produce smaller, miniature versions of his products and was used as design aids. This small furniture greatly inspired him to begin producing toys. Toys such as wooden piggy banks, pull toys like small truck, cars and houses but this came with little success since his toys was traded only for food. In the 1930’s, Ole Kirk took the advantage of selling yo-yo’s that was very popular at the time using leftover woods from his woodwork. This gave him the opportunity and an increase in sales, and to further save resources, any leftover woods from yo-yo production was used as wheels in his toy cars and trucks.
Back then Ole Kirk’s company was choosing a name for itself, he held a contest among his staff in which he has to choose one of the two names, and the first one is Legio with the implication of a “Legion of toys” and Lego pretty much a jargon from the Danish phrase leg godt that means “play well.” He then chose Lego as the company’s name for its simplicity and meaning. The Lego group later discovered that the word “lego” was loosely interpreted as “I put together” in Latin. After the World War II, plastic became available in Denmark, Lego bought plastic injection molding machine and made their first plastic modular toy truck that can be taken apart and re-assembled. In the late 1940’s, Ole Kirk received a kind of interlocking plastic blocks from a company called Kiddicraft. This toy became his inspiration and started producing his own version but with little improvements, it is made with plastic as well instead of wood which the company used for their traditional toys. At first these earlier production didn’t do well, but later on, these toys became a success and much celebrated for its innovative and technical features.
In the past years, creative workshops were introduced to children to incorporate basic mechanics, geometry and logic. It all started as a part of playtime, children in preschools were allowed to play with toys such as Lego building blocks and other educational toys used to develop creativity, social and logical skills. This effective method of learning was further developed as a different activity in which Lego building blocks were exclusively used as a tool for teaching. Today, there are many Lego workshops in different parts of the world providing a very unique and fun learning experience.
If you are a parent and interested in enrolling your child to these workshops, there are lots of benefits your kids can get from it. Aside from having fun with new found friends while playing with Lego blocks, creativity and imagination will further develop as they build things they thought very interesting. This gives them the freedom to express their imaginative perception and understanding of things around them. Kids will also present their creation through simple presentation or role playing that also boosts their confidence with the use of these toys with other kids thus helping develop communication, social and interpersonal skills. Since kids continue to learn new things they are exposed to, workshops like these encourages them to explore with more interest and confidence, with imaginative and creative approach. Other type of workshops includes teaching and incorporating basic robotics for advanced classes using other Lego line of products such as the Mindstorm series set. These advanced workshops specialize in incorporating more complex mechanics such as vehicle modelling.
If you choose to enroll your kids in these kinds of Lego workshops, you won’t regret giving your children a unique way of learning experience. This will significantly help his or her creativity and imagination, as well as social skills and confidence. Talent can be easily discovered further especially if they have developed a liking in creating or building things.