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Honest question: once a kid is old enough to have mastered/outgrown Legos, why not get them using real tools? I loved using Legos late into my childhood, but in

Honest question: once a kid is old enough to have mastered/outgrown Legos, why not get them using real tools? I loved using Legos late into my childhood, but in retrospect as I got older it was probably closer to art than building. Art is of course fine, and art overlaps with building sometimes, but they are different.

0xfaded 8y ago
I literally didn't understand the concept of tolerances until adulthood, which I blame on Lego. I used to wonder how one could possibly build a house, when there weren't slots to piece the frame together.
pasabagi 8y ago
I always had real tools as a child, and wasn't particularly interested in Lego. I think there aren't that many transferable skills between Lego and making things more generally. Frankly, I don't even think there are that many transferable skills between different mediums, or even between processes in the same medium. Forging steel with a hammer and anvil, for example, teaches you a lot about fire management, temper, and so on - but teaches you absolutely nothing about accurate machining of steel parts. The attitude isn't even the same. If you go into a wood workshop after six months of working with metal, you're going to break things, destroy finishes, and waste work. There are some general principles that apply to a lot of mediums, but I think they're the exception, not the rule. For instance, sticking stuff together generally relies on the surfaces being very clean - and that's true if you're using glue or welding. On the whole, however, I think the reason why distinct processes, finishes and materials exist is because they offer different possibilities.
icc97 8y ago
My 5yo classroom has metal saws, files, hammers and nails. Plus lots of wooden blocks to hack at. I haven't seen her come home with anything constructive from it, but it's there to be played with all the time.
crysin 8y ago
I think one thing with engineering / building with Legos are the restrictions it imposes. It forces creative thinking, makes it so you have to think through the whole problem and a way to solve it with the tools available to you. This to me seems especially true if you include Technic and Mindstorms where you can start building automated machines to a certain degree. It doesn't require the mastering of wood or metal tooling but allows you to get right to the mechanical building of a machine.

0xfaded 8y ago

I literally didn't understand the concept of tolerances until adulthood, which I blame on Lego. I used to wonder how one could possibly build a house, when there weren't slots to piece the frame together.

pasabagi 8y ago

I always had real tools as a child, and wasn't particularly interested in Lego. I think there aren't that many transferable skills between Lego and making things more generally. Frankly, I don't even think there are that many transferable skills between different mediums, or even between processes in the same medium. Forging steel with a hammer and anvil, for example, teaches you a lot about fire management, temper, and so on - but teaches you absolutely nothing about accurate machining of steel parts. The attitude isn't even the same. If you go into a wood workshop after six months of working with metal, you're going to break things, destroy finishes, and waste work. There are some general principles that apply to a lot of mediums, but I think they're the exception, not the rule. For instance, sticking stuff together generally relies on the surfaces being very clean - and that's true if you're using glue or welding. On the whole, however, I think the reason why distinct processes, finishes and materials exist is because they offer different possibilities.

icc97 8y ago

My 5yo classroom has metal saws, files, hammers and nails. Plus lots of wooden blocks to hack at. I haven't seen her come home with anything constructive from it, but it's there to be played with all the time.

crysin 8y ago

I think one thing with engineering / building with Legos are the restrictions it imposes. It forces creative thinking, makes it so you have to think through the whole problem and a way to solve it with the tools available to you. This to me seems especially true if you include Technic and Mindstorms where you can start building automated machines to a certain degree. It doesn't require the mastering of wood or metal tooling but allows you to get right to the mechanical building of a machine.