I can’t find my socks! Where did I leave my car keys? The study table’s too messy and there are too many unsightly cables! Sounds familiar?
How often do you and your kids face such seemingly trivial, but constantly recurring problems? These include everyday challenges such as misplaced objects, messy living spaces, lack of organisation and more.
Sometimes you may solve the problem while at other times you may feel like tearing your hair out. Well, instead of doing either of those, why not get your kids to design solutions for these problems?
Why Are Problem-Solving Skills Important for Children
The world we live in is highly dynamic. We blink and we miss a new breakthrough in science, a new discovery, a new shopping mall in Orchard Road. We are constantly hearing about globalisation, changing demographics and technological advancements.
We don’t really know what the future holds, but we do know our children need to be versatile - that they will be able to thrive in this ever changing world. Skills such as critical and inventive thinking, confidence, and self-directedness are what they need to thrive and say they are truly 21st Century ready!
In fact, these traits are probably wired in them, somewhere. We just need to create the right situations to bring them out. Children are pretty good at figuring things out and finding interesting solutions to the most mundane of problems! To put it in Gen Z terms, they are great at creating ‘life hacks!’
A great way to hone these skills would be to harness the power of playtime and fun family bonding activities. Wondering how to go about it? Look no further than good, old LEGO!
Why LEGO Play is Great for Resilience, Confidence and Problem-Solving Skills!
LEGO bricks have been around for as long as most of us can remember. There is a good reason why its popularity has not waned over the years. The LEGO System in Play has long been the ultimate platform for creative problem-solving. Why? Because LEGO empowers children and is centred on their creativity. With LEGO play, children are free to let their imagination take flight and to see it materialise in the form of their creations
Remember back in the day when we didn’t have digital platforms to entertain us? All we needed was a box of LEGO and we were good for hours on end. It’s hard for any child to get bored with LEGO as it’s an interesting process.
It starts with a vision and kids work out how to build this vision with LEGO bricks. Then they go about finding ways to improve and rebuild it. Through this process, children develop lifelong skills such as creative problem solving, communication, and resilience that many parents see as key to helping their child be successful in the future. LEGO is truly a platform for children to showcase their creativity and analytical skills, and one that combines the power of play and problem-solving.
LEGO Rebuild the World Campaign
It’s time to take LEGO to the next level. Discover meaningful ways to spend time with your kids by tapping into LEGO’s endless possibilities with LEGO Young Rebuilders, a new title for all kids that can enhance their environment with LEGO through building and rebuilding.
See, we talk a lot about children being problem-solvers. But there’s something that’s just as important as problem-solving – problem identifying. Remember those problems we talked about earlier? Invite your children and assist them to identify some of the everyday problems that they (or we), face.
These problems could be just about anything from constantly losing small items to messy spaces or even more significant problems such as food and water wastage. Again, you’d be surprised when you ask your children to identify the problems as they might mention things that didn’t even cross your mind!
It doesn’t matter how trivial or huge the scale of the problems seem. Instead, just focus on how they propose to solve it - with LEGO bricks. Encourage them to be architects and engineers and design solutions to these problems or to create interesting life hacks using LEGO bricks. What’s your role in this? Step back, observe, and advise not dictate their solutions. You could offer your 2-cents worth on the practicality or structural integrity of their ideas, but otherwise, leave it to them.
This is all about play, collaboration, resilience and confidence. In all of this, you also get to enjoy family bonding through creative problem-solving. Kills two birds with a LEGO brick, doesn’t it?
Mums and Dads, help your child to unleash their creativity through play and problem-solving with the LEGO Young Rebuilders’ Challenge. Have fun bonding as a family as you conceptualise, create, and challenge yourselves to see how far you can use LEGO as a tool for everyday improvements. Most importantly, have fun while you’re at it!