Learning With LEGOS
Wednesday, August 28, 2013 at 5:00AM
Learning with LEGOS is a way of life in our homeschool.
These little bricks help my guy with math, science, writing, geography, history, and much more.
While I have an entire page devoted to LEGO learning, I wanted to post in detail the many ways you can use LEGO bricks in your home to teach your children and have a ton of fun at the same time!
I also receive many emails and questions on my Facebook page about what LEGO bricks are best to start with.
*This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for details.
Let's start there.
What Bricks Should We Have?
I recommend a basic set of LEGO bricks. It should include many different sizes of bricks, doors, windows, and wheels.
If you can also invest in a set of minifigures that is a lot of fun, too.
In our house LEGO is a curriculum area, and I include it in our budget. It is the best money I spend on curriculum, that's for sure.
Basic LEGO starter sets:
- LEGO Ultimate Building Set - this has a good assortment of doors, windows, wheels, and other elements that will let creativity flourish. This was our FIRST LEGO set we ever purchased. Less than $30.
- LEGO Bricks and More Deluxe Bricks Box - This includes 2 minifigures and lots more of the basic elements. Less than $50.
- LEGO Education® Community Minifigure Set - we LOVE these. Well worth the price. Your LEGO lover will use them FOR.EVER.
- LEGO Education® Fairytale and Historic Figures Minifigures Set - great for history and read-alouds
I wouldn't recommend purchasing a lot of themed sets. For my child, I see the most creativity when he plays with his basic brick sets.
Yes, the themed sets are good for following instructions and the "wow" factor, but if you have limited funds I would recommend a basic set of bricks.
{Ask grandma and grandpa for the themed sets!}
Writing/Grammar
Do you pull your hair (or your child's hair - ha!) out during writing time?
Why not incorporate LEGO minifigures into that time? Allow your child to bring a bucket of minifigs and some basic LEGO bricks to the table.
Then, give them any of these LEGO writing prompts and activities to inspire them.
*A note about my free downloads: These downloads take a lot of time and effort on my part. All of the ideas are original. It has come to my attention recently that some of my work has been copied. While this is distressing to me, I realize things like this DO occur because some people are dishonest.
If you download my printables and then share them, please GIVE CREDIT TO ME and LINK BACK TO MY BLOG.
All of these are a FREE download:
What about LEGO MadLibs? Yes, please.
History & Geography
We keep LEGO bricks and minifigs out during our homeschool at ALL TIMES. They get used the most during history and geography.
Here are just a few ideas to get you started. Truly, your child can come up with ways to incorporate bricks in their learning.
Encourage your children to build while you read aloud from your history text or living books. My son has built The Great Wall of China, ancient aqueducts, The London Tower Bridge, and many other things.
Always keep a bucket of bricks on hand!
Math
Wow! There are so many ways to use LEGOS in your math instruction.
Just using bricks themselves is a wonderful way to practice the four basic operations.
I have an entire Pinterest Board of LEGO Ideas that contains many math pins.
Also, we have loved doing LEGO Candy Math - it's a treat, and oh so yummy!
STEM with LEGO Education®
Last year we discovered LEGO Education®.
I was so pleased to be the LEGO Education® featured teacher this summer, and I am an official LEGO Education® Blogger.
To say we love LEGO Education® is an understatement.
To date we own several of their products, and have used several sets in details. Following are the sets we have used in our homeschool, and I recommend them 110%! They are more expensive, but if you consider them an investment in curriculum and your child's Science, Technology and Math Education, then it is MORE than worth it.
These sets include lesson plans, software, and amazing projects for your children.
I can't speak highly enough about LEGO Education®!
If you would like to find out more about LEGO Education® for homeschool, simply visit their webpage for a detailed explanation of products.
Reading
Reading is another area where you could literally go nuts with the possibilities.
I will list the different types of books we have used that incorporate LEGOS. Some are first readers, some are chapter books, and others are general idea books.
- LEGO Readers - these come in all levels, just search around for them. We keep our readers by level in my son's room and he still reads his very first LEGO books often!
- LEGO Chapter Books - these are available for subjects like Ninjago, Lends of Chima, and LEGO Friends.
- LEGO Character Encyclopedias - my son got one of these for a gift and it literally didn't leave his side for a week. He loves to read these over and over and anything that inspires reading is a GOOD THING!
- LEGO Visual Dictionaries - again - inspires reading
- LEGO Ideas Book - this is our favorite birthday present to give friends
Movies
I know there are several movies out there for LEGO lovers.
We have two that receive weekly air time in our home:
Teach a LEGO Class
Last spring I taught a 10 week LEGO class at our co-op.
It was so much fun! As I blogged about it, people wanted more details, so I turned it into a free download.
Download plans for a 10 Week LEGO Class.
In this class we practiced presentation skills, did speed builds, played games, and lots of other fun activities. One of the most fun weeks was when we learned about the interlocking brick technique and stood on our creations.
If you are teaching a co-op class, or just have a group of LEGO fanatics that you can get together on a regular basis, this class is designed for YOU. All plans and a supply list, along with necessary links, are included.
Coloring/Art
I keep a stack of Create Your Own Minifig sheets on our printer. Whenever my little guy needs something to do, he is free to color, cut, make puppets, or whatever his heart desires.
I also provide google eyes, popsicle sticks, lots of markers, colored pencils, glue, etc...
You can make some pretty cool minifig puppets this way!
It is AMAZING the appeal this little blank minifigure has.
*NOTE: I received express permission from Dutch Microfigures to use this image. If you see this image on any other LEGO printables and the source is not credited, please do not use it! I have recently come across another free LEGO writing prompt download that doesn't credit the image source. Not only is this poor form, it is also illegal.
Dowload the Create Your Own Minifig and have fun!
Making Stop Motion Videos
My son has just started this - and it's such fun.
We downloaded a free app, LEGO® Movie Maker, that makes this quite easy.
Check out the awesome little video he made (all by himself!)
A young man in our homeschool group also has a YouTube Channel, My Snail Eats Pizza, that has TONS of wonderfully done stop motion videos.
I also want to point you to one of my good friends, Amy, at Milk and Cookies Blog. She has an extensive collection of LEGO ideas and downloads that you will want to investigate, too.
Want to stay up to date with the latest in LEGO giveaways, free downloads, and ideas?
Follow along via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Pinterest.
You can also subscribe to the blog to receive email updates each time I post something new!
Do you use LEGO bricks for learning in your home? Tell me about it!
Reader Comments (11)
Love this list!! Thank you so much for sharing this list of ides and resources for using Legos in homeschooling!
Thanks for this post! We love Legos at our house. Legos are an integral part of our curriculum. We've started using your prompts in our writing time. The kids are having so much fun. You've given me so many great ideas that have made our homeschool so much fun. Thank you for alway sharing them!
I already have your writing prompts and create your own minifigs downloaded. Never thought of letting ds9.5 use them for puppets and art time. He'll love it!
LOVE THIS POST!!! THank you for putting more Lego ideas up here, we are totally integrating what we can into our daily school routine (and I'm teaching a class based off your "Teach a Lego Class" in our co-op!) Thank you for your labor of love here. :)
We LOVE legos... we use them daily in our homeschool.. through writing (thanks for your wonderful prompts) and daily lego building challenges. I just bought the Lego Simple and Motorized mechanisms set and am trying to navigate how to use it seeing as how we could only afford the set at this time and not the activity packs! I'm excited to see how else Legos will be used during our year. It's all my children want to do.
Here's the link to our August daily building challenges... I'll be posting September's on Friday!!! Thanks for all you're hard work.
http://wellnurturedplantsandpillars.wordpress.com/2013/08/02/freebie-friday-monthly-lego-challenge-printable-august/
When I was a kid I LOVED playing with LEGOs! Themed or not, they kept my imagination running! I haven't kept up with what sets they have available nowadays, but I used to love the historical sets (pirates, conquistadors, western, ninja, etc.). I could relive my history lessons. It was fantastic!
Thanks, I have been reading your posts for a short while, but this one helps alot. Our kids love legos but I can see Legos being used more with our sons, in the ways you said above. Please keep sharing. I am sorry to here that someone took your work...that is sooo wrong.
When I start posting on them, I will definately link to you.
Have you seen the new Lego Play Book? Joseph got his copy this week and adores it! He's having so much fun.
Thank you so much Mary for all that you share! My boys to love legos! We used them for retelling stories for literature. It is great. looking forward to using some of your many more ideas with my boys this year to make their learning mean so much more to them.
I did want to share that the deluxe set is available through www.walmart.com for $45.99 and 97 cents to ship or free to store pick up. The smaller set is available for $25.49.
Thank you again for all that you share.
God Bless,
Dawn
This is awesome! If the kids are wanting even more... there's a company called Play-Well TEKnologies that offers educational LEGO programs across the country. They're generally pretty great about making programs flexible for homeschool groups. It comes at an additional cost, but they're tapping into some more advanced concepts with motorized projects that can't necessarily be done at home without a major material investment.
This is awesome! If the kids are wanting even more... there's a company called Play-Well TEKnologies that offers educational LEGO programs across the country. They're generally pretty great about making programs flexible for homeschool groups. It comes at an additional cost, but they're tapping into some more advanced concepts with motorized projects that can't necessarily be done at home without a major material investment.