So Eric was using the directions for building Lego sets as
instructions to get him started and then he reworked from there. That
makes so much sense. I've built things and taken a piece off to put
elsewhere to see what would happen, and Karl does that too, but I
haven't taken the whole thing apart and remade the whole thing. That
shows how pre-fabs can be "open-ended!"
I've definitely seen people do the same thing with Barbies and other
dolls-- take them apart and remake them in ways they weren't
"pre-fabbed" for. It's what I would think of as creative for sure.
Found art making is the same way. People mix and match machine parts
and rebuilt them in ways that work but that they weren't originally
designed for. Fun stuff.
~Katherine
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On 3/21/10, Su Penn <su@...> wrote:
On Mar 21, 2010, at 4:50 PM, Rebecca McClure wrote:
My son (9 years) also really enjoys the motorized pre-fab projects. He has
learned so much about Lego construction principles from doing sets like
this, it's amazing! I used to be a bit of a snob about this stuff,
thinking that "open-ended" was best, but I've changed my mind based on
watching my son apply what he's learned via the project-based sets to his
own projects.
I got some Lego Educator sets on gears, pulleys, and so on. We like them a
lot, but when we messed around with the gears projects Eric had already
figured it all out from doing Lego Star Wars sets that used gears.
I was just mentally ranting about the "open-ended" thing the other day,
having been with some moms who were sort of parroting the idea; it's a
really easy thing to say that I'm not sure every writer or person talking
about it has really thought through. I used to kind of vaguely agree with
it, that all these "build this very model!" Lego sets were somehow bad
compared to the enormous boxes of rectangles that were all you could get
when I was a kid. But watching Eric really changed my mind.
For one thing, he didn't used to keep most sets made the way they were. He
would build them according to the instructions, then almost immediately
start taking them apart and re-configuring them. He never took the
instruction booklet as gospel. (Now, he has some sets he keeps built--his
"collection"--and some he is willing to play with. Sometimes we have ended
up with two of the same set if he has both wanted to keep the model AND use
some of its specific cool pieces in another project.)
He has actually in the past built a couple of very small models and then
made instruction booklets for them. Eric takes ownership of everything he
does-- he doesn't see Lego instructions as something made by these experts
off somewhere that he can never be one of, or whose rules he has to follow.
He can invent a set, make a booklet of instructions, package it all in a
box, and give it to his brother as a gift. Likewise, he really likes
computer and video games that include "build your own level" features, and
he will spend a lot of time with those. And I always tend to brag on this
board game he made year before last that was actually playable! Not a great
game (too easy to win) but it had coherent rules and you could actually play
it.
I suppose it's _possible_ that there are some kids whose creativity are so
weak that giving them a pre-designed Lego set kills it. On the other hand,
there may be lots of kids who are like me--I do not have the kind of mind
Eric does, that can imagine something in three dimensions and then create
it. But working with him and Carl, I have really enjoyed building complex
models from Lego kits. For me, doing kits has made Legos fun and satisfying
in a way they never were before (I could never do more with those
rectangular bricks than make a wall, as a kid). Maybe some kids who like the
models but don't do their own "creative" Lego building are like me--it's not
that they're not creative, but that doing that kind of building was _never_
going to be the direction their creativity took them. But maybe people look
at them and say, "Oh, look how doing the pre-designed kits has destroyed
that kid's creativity," and they let that reinforce their belief.
Su, mom to Eric 8; Carl, almost 6; Yehva, 2.5
tapeflags.blogspot.com
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