At the tender age of five, my daughter Kimberlina DeeDee has more experience acting onscreen than I do in the 20 years of my professional career as an actor.
Ever since she was a baby she has been tagging along with me to my auditions, rehearsals, performances onstage and film shoots.
I would be breastfeeding her in the middle of a script reading with my co-actors for an upcoming play; or she would sit in the corner quietly playing with her toys during my rehearsal for a show; most of the time she would be happily eating snacks backstage as she watches me perform in front of a live audience.
I wasn’t even sure whether she would share the same interest in acting as I did as a young child, neither did I want to force her to do something just because it was my own passion — but I must admit I was quite happy when she told me one day that she, “wants to do acting like mummy”.
Although I am mainly involved in theatre, at that time she was only three years old so I figured she was probably too young for the stage and would have a better chance at getting roles onscreen.
So I brought her to a few casting calls and she started to land herself some jobs appearing in commercials, corporate videos and television shows.
One of the best experiences so far is the both of us being featured in the LEGO Build Amazing campaign video, which was like a dream come true for her because not only was she behind the camera with me for once, she also had fun engaging in one of her favourite activities – playing with LEGO!
Creativity outside the box
Diapers, bibs, strollers and cribs come to mind when you think about the must-have items to get for your baby.
So to me, LEGO is the quintessential toy for children and no childhood would be complete without a box of LEGO sitting proudly in the playroom, ready to be built into something amazing.
DeeDee received her very first set of LEGO as a present when she turned one and her collection has been steadily growing ever since — in fact, I even shamelessly request for family and friends to get her more LEGO sets when her birthday rolls round each year because I know it is something she will truly appreciate and enjoy playing!
With LEGO, my daughter can spend hours building anything she wants out of these colourful bricks and is only limited by her own imagination.
The adorable crocodile my husband and daughter created together with LEGO
Build your parent-child bond
As a Work At Home Mother (WAHM), I have the flexibility of arranging my schedule according to her weekly play dates, home school lessons, fun outings, and our playtime together.
My husband who works fulltime looks forward to the couple of hours he has to spend with her before bedtime, and his favourite parent-child bonding activity is to play with LEGO, almost every single night.
He says, “LEGO is something I can play with for hours on end with her at any time of day. I wish I had it as a kid because it’s great fun and I really love it — so I guess I’m making up for lost time now!”
Whether you are a chatty parent who likes to re-enact exciting scenes with your LEGO figurines in the micro-town you constructed with your little one, or you prefer to sit in silence and work side by side to create beautiful art made entirely of colourful bricks, building something together with LEGO is the perfect way to spend quality play time with your child.
Behind the scenes
I was amazed to see how much fun DeeDee was having working together with the other children to build a “candy cloud” for the LEGO Build Amazing video.
Not only were the kids using teamwork to complete this creation, they were also communicating to one another as they asked for different brick pieces or wanted to voice their ideas.
The children were all concentrating on building the perfect candy cloud together out of LEGO
LEGO helps kids with their fine motor skills as they try to connect the small bricks together or pull it apart, improves their focus, and can also play a part in developing their problem solving and mathematical thinking skills.
Be amazing
Being part of the LEGO Build Amazing campaign made me realise that children have wonderful imaginations filled with such innocence and unbridled creativity.
As a theatre practitioner, I still constantly get to tap into my creative side, but as an adult I tend to overthink things at times and may hesitate before carrying out the ideas I have in my head.
Children on the other hand, are filled with an endless amount of creativity and revel in wild ideas that border between being peculiar or actually just pure genius.
This sweet and innocent idea of a floating cloud which rains down with candy can even be converted into a relief aid contraption that delivers food supplies to people who need it in disaster zones.
Kids can be silly and absolutely amazing at the same time!
Although DeeDee seems to be following in my footsteps for now, it’s probably going to be just a hobby because she has told me that when she grows up she actually wants to be “a special doctor-vet who treats animals and people who are sick and need help”.
She is adamant that such a profession doesn’t have to be separated into two different job titles — just like how a green LEGO brick can be pretend food for her horse figurine, or part of an airplane’s wing, or the body of a tiny duck — anything can be possible!
If adults remember to keep our creativity alive and believe in our own ideas, then perhaps there could be some more great changes in the world.
And if parents remember to spend more time playing with our children it can nurture their creativity and imagination, and help build them into amazing people.