'Rona-Cation: Lego Challenge

Much like probably everyone else in our area right now, we are spending a lot more time at home because of the Coronavirus scare. Our school district has already extended the school closure from spring break all the way through April 6th, and there are some fairly educated opinions that we'll go even longer before setting foot in a classroom again.

For us, that means Mama working from home and a little kid re-learning of how to occupy your time without parking in front of a screen for 8 hours a day.

We've recently started watching Lego Masters, and from that show came the inspiration to have daily Lego challenges as part of that un-device-ing process. Two things have come from these challenges- first, Henry has overcome the reluctance he's always had to reusing Legos from previous creations, and many a build has been deconstructed to become something else in the past few days (which I love). Second, both kiddos have become so inspired that they're now building things outside of the little challenges I come up with (which I also love).

I'll do a 'qualifying' challenge after lunch, something they can work on together, and if it goes well and there's no fighting, they qualify to skip "nap" time and move on to the second, more complicated challenge. That one I'll usually think up so each person works on a piece of it independently, but it's a cohesive idea that is presented together when they're done. If they pull it off without fighting again, they win an hour on their devices (to be used when I start making dinner).

We're on day 3 of this rhythm and they're still enthusiastic about it, so I'm feeling a lot of winning over here right now. Here's what we've done so far:

Qualifying round: a St. Paddy's Day scene. They chose a rainbow coming out of a cloud and going into a pot of gold.

Round 2: a Dreamer and a Dream. Henry did the dreamer in a bedroom, Audrey did the dream.

The dreamer

The dream- Audrey walking on clouds with a neighborhood below

Yesterday's qualifying round: Animals Around Our House. Audrey's bee (Hen opted out)

Animals Around Our House: Rory

This morning's mini-challenge: Amazing Vehicle. Audrey's flying......... thing

Henry's re-worked flying thing on a pre-built trailer

Today, after lunch, I had them work on a video game scene where one person made the computer (Hen) and the other person made a snapshot of a video game (Audrey):

Clearly they qualified, and they are now diligently working on a good guy vs. bad guy scene. It's been kinda fun thinking these challenges up, if I'm being honest. I'm super glad they're still in to it all.

Stay tuned for other challenges we've been doing to fill these home-bound days!