Building Confidence and Empowerment
It is the job of every parent to prepare their child for life. That comes in all shapes and forms for their entire life – teaching them manners when they are young, sharing the importance of healthy eating, helping them with their schooling, explaining the birds and the bees or getting them involved in music or philanthropy. There is an opportunity around every corner and anything can be turned into a life lesson.
We also encourage the girls to choose a sport that would interest them. They have participated in soccer, tumbling and swim team to name a few. Right now, they are focusing on track. Not only does it build physical strength but it gives them confidence as well. Giving them opportunities to succeed on their own by using their talents is key.
When the girls were little, we regularly presented them with the chance to discover, solve and resolve matters. “How much change should the cashier give us back?” was a very common one. My girls excel at math and science. Both girls are part of the school district’s Extended Learning Program and Miss M just completed Advanced Lego Robotics. I truly believe it is because we encouraged such thinking when they were young. Calculator, smalculator... we’ve got brains.
When a toy opens the door to education, I jump at the chance to get the girls involved. Learning when you don’t know you’re really learning is THE best kind. LEGO® Friends are a perfect example of this. Miss K has always been very interested in imaginative play whereas Miss M has always enjoyed structured play. The process of following the directions to build something then utilize it to bring the characters to life became an ideal outlet for the two to play together. A merging of their two worlds.
We sat down the other night to assemble a new kit – a juice bar! Usually, I’m totally forbidden from helping because they enjoy the process so much. Seriously… they normally wouldn’t let me help. This time they were under strict orders to let mom be involved because “it’s for work.” It was pretty cool to watch them and help with the assembly process. Sometimes we got a little off task and got goofy. Quality time “in the name of work” is always the best.
If you aren’t familiar with LEGO® Friends, let me fill you in. They’re themed… like normal LEGO® kits… except they all revolve around girl-friendly activities. A yacht, stables, a tree house just to name a few. Construction helps develop their problem solving skills while also opening up their imagination. STEM is an important focal point for girls and these types of project reinforce those skills.
The girls took turns reading the instructions and adding the different building blocks where appropriate. Aside from just standard construction, the sets are filled with adorable details like flower pots, glasses of juice and miniature vegetables. This one even had a cash register, purse and some money as well as a patio seating area!
I already knew a lot about the girls’ general play-styles but I learned quite a lot about how they like to play with their LEGO® Friends. As I said, they don’t usually let me help. While the sets can come apart and be reassembled (isn’t that half the fun?), my girls don’t like when the sets get broken apart. Nor do they like mixing and mingling the different pieces. I asked if they ever closed off a doorway or moved the countertop to the other side of the room and they both exclaimed “no!” They like the sets “as designed”. I guess I can’t blame them because they are totally cute. I had to wait until the girls left the room to add a whole bunch of customers to the juice bar for the photo shoot. When they returned, they couldn’t stop giggling about all the people!
Maybe the girls just never really considered that they could cross the characters over. Playing with them certainly opened their eyes to a few ideas. Maybe now they’ll let me play more often.
One thing that I found extremely inspiring about this project is the connection between LEGO® Friends and Girls on the Run, an organization to inspire girls to achieve their limitless potential. Watching my girls both on the track and playing with the sets in our home drove home the partnership. For more information on LEGO® Friends, check out their website, or connect with Lego on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
I love how you mentioned crossing over the characters. Sometimes we get so locked into the “rules” that we forget to have fun and there are times we can make up a new way to play. I love the way Lego friends opens the door to get girls minds thinking of building and creating, opening avenues to more female engineers in the future!
I don’t think my boys will want to play with a Lego Friends set, but we have about a million other Lego sets that they LOVE!
My son is a huge Lego fan-they consume my home, but he becomes so creative and independent playing Lego’s. He is proud when he creates a piece on his own. I agree with you-I love toys that bring confidence and require brain power & creativity! http://www.parentinghealthy.com/
I remember my Lego days lol. Looks like fun!
OMG- I had no idea that such Lego sets even exist! With no girls in the house…probably it’s not a surprice, but how cute it’s! I like it!
My Grandson is only 4 and already has over 5 different Lego sets. I don’t think he has the Lego Friends Set though
My son loved Legos when he was younger. I love all the new varieties and sets they have come out with over the years.
My nieces will be happy to have one of those Logo sets, kids become so involved spending hours and re-creating different projects multiple time.
I wish they would have had girl themed legos when I was growing up. I’ve only ever seen the boyish ones. Thanks for sharing, this is neat!
We love all Legos in this house. Our Friends sets are mixed in with Star Wars, Harry Potter and Lego City.
I am crazy in love with the Lego FRIENDS sets! i can’t wait until my baby girl is old enough to really get into them. I can see us having a ton of sets!
We love LEGO Friends sets. They are a staple in our play room!
I know lots of little girls who love Lego Friends! Great product!
I love empowering girls, women, moms. I also think these pictures are adorable. Thank you for the lovely review!
Legos are so great for inspiring kids to use their imaginations and to be creative. Looks like your kids had a great time.
My daughter LOVES LEGOS – so does my 17 yr old son haha.
I play lego with kids and i end up taking their pieces to build mine. I think I’m enjoying it more than they do.
Funny, I just discovered Girls on the Run earlier today and loved what they do. I love all the things that are starting to work to build the confidence in girls today.
My daughter is only 18 months, but she loves Legos. These look like a lot of fun, and super girly too!
very cute sets–I have nieces that are 6 & 10 and they love Lego Friends A LOT!!!
My kids love Lego very much too, and they spend hours at a time building a creating. This is a timeless toy where your imagination is the limit!
I loved legos as a kid and never quite got the point of Barbie. Having legos that were a bit more girly would have been perfect for me. So I know there are many other girls out there that will love this and grow up building away.
my daughter LOVE Lego Friends and my boys are Lego fanatics! Looks like a great set!
Hahaha, great review! I hope the girls let you play along more often now too. 🙂
My daughter loves legos too and has a couple of these sets.
Learning when you don’t know you’re really learning is THE best kind. I agree with you totally on that statement! I am also glad that Lego’s now have sets geared towards girls–it is about time!!
We love Legos in our home. My daughter gets so excited when we get any kind of lego goodies.
I love the idea behind Lego Friends. I would have loved this as a young girl! I guess I could still play with legos. 😀
Those sets are so cute! My son loves LEGOs, although he’s a big fan of getting creative and putting together his own sets. That is, of course, after I spend three hours putting them together the “right” way first. He doesn’t like to follow the directions, but does like the set together before he tears it apart.
LEGO is great for all ages. So much fun and enjoyment
My son loves anything lego. I know he’ll love this
My boys can not get enough of legos. Not sure about the lego friends set however I like the message it instills
I love that they have more girly Legos for girls now! Back then, we only had the basic colored blocks 😛
I love how they’re making more LEGO sets geared towards girls. I love playing with them too!
I have to say, that set really does look fun! I would totally play with it. 🙂
I played with building toys back in the 1950’s – which, of course, at that time, were for boys only but I was fortunate enough to have parents who looked past the stereotypes. And for that reason, I have to be a tiny bit negative, having raised a son. The pink girly-girl of these sets is a real turn off to me as does the emphasis on “girl friendly activities”. If I end up with granddaughters, I honestly would not buy this for them, although I definitely would buy Legos for them.What is a girl friendly activity? I am still seeing too much stereotyping in the activities these “Friends” sets show-just as I did 20 plus years ago when my son wanted a play kitchen and I couldn’t find him anything that wasn’t geared to a little girl. What would I get for a granddaughter? Something like one of the Star Wars Lego sets. Why not?
Your girls are so lucky to have you in their lives to help them grow and learn in meaningful ways. You sound like quite the Dad. 😉 Those Lego Friends look awesome. I wish they’d been around when I was a little girl. Thanks for sharing!
Aww! I used to enjoy playing with Lego as a child!
Lego Friends would have been a big draw for my daughter. I think these are so cute and may get some for my cousin’s upcoming birthday.
My girls love both regular Legos and Legos Friends! Personally, I’m still a huge fan of my first Lego City sets!
We love our LEGO Friends kit!
I love that they are making legos for girls. My daughter loves playing with legos.