We all know that spending time with your kids playing, reading, doing an activity together, is the “time” that we so often hear about being the greatest thing you can give your children. Time.
The time you spend together, interacting, laughing, creating, learning, building positive experiences, bonding.. these will be the memories we’ll bank to use and reuse again when we search our minds for the things that matter. This time also plays an important part developing the mental and emotional building blocks from which our kids will launch themselves into the world.
To be honest I sometimes have to remind myself of this when I’m being asked yet again to play another game of “personify an action figure or car and get them doing mundane daily activities like going to the bank, or having a 2 second sleep or… saving the dinosaurs from certain doom as a space rock hurls to earth at great speed” when their imagination really cranks it up!
Whatever playful mood I’m in though there’s no need to ask me twice when it come to “let’s play LEGO!” There’s a certain element of nostalgia when playing with LEGO, our own childhood memories have been firmly banked many moons ago and they create the warm buzz than comes with tipping out the LEGO bricks on the floor in preparation for an epic session of building and creative story telling, a LEGO session.
Aside from the epic sessions of world building and elaborate or simple story telling, and the nostalgia buzz, another wonderful thing about LEGO is it’s a shared experience, a shared passion, with both parties sharing in authentic fun! Now, if you’re a parent to a 4+ year old it’s time to get twice as excited, because not only are we going to be basking in nostalgia and perhaps a few tears when Toy Story 4 is released in cinemas, but we’re also being introduced to the LEGO Toy Story 4+ playsets, including Starter Brick elements so that your kids can develop their self-confidence as they build, so they can develop the LEGO knack!
Being a LEGO loving family and spending many hours creating masterpieces these LEGO Toy Story 4+ playsets had us doing family high-fives and fist bumps! My son being a kid still has the ability to throw the instructions away (metaphorically) and build whatever his imagination inspires. Following the instructions is a mastery that has been handed to me and I have dutifully built every single set of LEGO we own, with my sons eager participation occasionally handing me bricks, and inspecting my work, all the while building an off-the-cuff super sonic something that will most surely be essential to the thing I’m making. At the completion of my project I am complete, the job is done from bringing to end, first brick to the last, it’s perfect, and the kids are enamoured, excited and lost in their imaginative play. Then the next day they break it apart to build something else, and a little part of me dies on the inside as I see my instruction followed handy work broken apart.. that must be the adult in me jumping out.
Enter our lives LEGO Toy Story 4+! These perfect starter playsets are the perfect start to LEGO sets. An in between place if you like between LEGO Duplo and LEGO where your 4+ year old can take full responsibility in building the sets ALL BY THEMSELVES. Being together is something you will still be, it’s LEGO play after all, and the kids may still need some guidance with something they might stumble on.
My just-turned-5-year-old built LEGO Toy Story Woody and RC all by himself with creative license to change it up a bit by swapping a few pieces and bricks around to his liking.
The bricks are the usual LEGO size but with starter elements like ready built walls or columns which help fast-track the build and in turn keeps their focus on the job extending that ability, and giving their developing motor skills the chance to practice without frustrating the heck out of them too quickly!
As well as having starter elements these LEGO Toy Story 4+ playsets are less complex with fewer bricks in the set, but still making just as BIG of an impression on their imaginations, boosting their nimble-fingered learning, exercising their grasp of instructions, and permitting expression with their creativity!
After an evening full of fun and interaction with our imaginations and each other our experience playing with these LEGO Toy Story 4+ playsets was pure joy from beginning to end, from the first brick to the last! My son was thrilled to be the maestro behind the LEGO masterpieces we were building and seeing the successful results, and has since played happily with the sets. This time I was just thrilled to be included and getting to play my part in his world. (That part was the Gabby Gabby figurine by the way – she’ll be in the Toy Story 4 movie!)
What’s your favourite LEGO memory?
See more
Written by Ronnie Swainston
Online Producer & Experiences Editor Ronnie is mum to two spirited kids who keep her on her toes. With a love for travel, film, tv, photography & (eating) food keeping her wishing for more time, & having a keen curiosity means she’ll give almost anything a go making her, and her family, up for the job!
Favourite place to be: On an adventure
We had the old school lego growing up as a kid and I remember, vividly, the red drawstring bag that my Mum sewed up to hold all the blocks and bricks in it. I never did find out what happened to the blocks and that bag. We now have lego in a yellow lego tub for my boys and it is nice to sit down and play with the bricks – not necessarily building something to a pattern, but just creating something for the sake of creating is fun.
That Buzz Lightyear minifig is so cute. We love Toy Story and this is probably something for us to look out for. Another Lego collection to have on our growing collection. Such a great activity to do with the kids, it’s never boring and it gets you quality conversations too.
I love LEGO, my now 26 year old son had a LEGO bucket that he loved. When he was 4 years old we drove and trained from Dunedin to Mount Maunganui for a Christmas Holiday – it was awesome (and from memory so hot it wasn’t funny!!) 🙂 He of course took his LEGO bucket with him. But on the train on the way back on the train we realised after we had left the train and were getting ready to get the next one down the line he had left his bucket on the train! Disaster!! BUT the conductor of the train where he had left it remembered him and his LEGO bucket and found it on the seat and made sure it got back to him 🙂 Such a cool memory
What a cute little dude and a great review! Lego is a huge hit in our house with Master 9 and Miss 2 is also starting to show a great interest. She started out loving duplo but is now taking more of an interest in the older lego which we think is great 🙂
Wowee that’s an awesome review for toy story Lego. That’s super cool. We are huge fans of Lego. My best memory of Lego was sitting for 3 hours the other night with my kids building a Ferrari. It was kind of frustrating at times but we got there and aced it lol and trust me it’s not easy building that sort of thing with kids in a caravan lol such a confined space.
My kids both adore Lego. They both have a very different way of building with the bricks. One is totally into the instructions. She likes the Friends sets in particular. The other is totally into free building, she loves dragons and dinosaurs so we have lots of the Elves sets and Jurassic World as well. These Toy Story 4 sets are amazing.
My kids love LEGO so my favourite memory is when it’s there birthday and they are so so excited to see a new box of LEGO. They want to build it straight away and can be determined to do it all by themselves even if it means mistakes and me having to redo certain parts of it. It can be a mission to find where they went wrong but when you find the mistake it’s a great feeling. These toy story LEGO play sets look so cool and so much fun for all kids too.
My little girl has only recently fell in love with lego playsets… and has taken a big interest in them…due to cost we have not purchased much but what she does love she treasures… spending time with her while she builds and explores is priceless…i big eyes of wonder and interest amazes me as a mummy and makes me sad all at once that time is slipping by so fast and she is growing up…but at least for the time we have them we can enjoy them a bit more.
Oh my…. how cool is this!?!?!?! My 5 year old would absolutely love this, he loves Lego and he Loves Toy Story so this is absolute perfection for him!!!