What is the ultimate unisex travel toy?
If you can fit just one unisex travel toy in your suitcase for your sons and daughters what would you choose and why?
Despite how imaginative our little ones are, so many toys are restrictive in what they can be used for. Like dolls and balls, LEGO construction blocks are fantastic in the scope of play they encourage and the list of uses is almost endless.
Lego blocks make great counters or markers for other games. Here I’m using them for a game of Noughts and Crosses with H.
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LEGO bricks have been around for years and there are so many imaginative and educational ways in which you can use them. Best of all, the colourful little blocks are loved by girls and boys, young and old equally. I must admit they are one of the few toys that I really enjoy getting down on the floor and playing with my kids with.
You might get annoyed with constantly stepping on these tiny bricks at home (OUCH!), but don’t let this stop you travelling with LEGO. Here are my reasons why LEGO is the ultimate unisex travel toy for girls and boys.
LEGO: the perfect STEM unisex travel toy
If you have school-aged children, it is very likely that you already know that that STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Traditionally these subjects and their associated jobs have been associated with men but, all around the world, these presumptions are being challenged. Currently, there is a global movement towards encouraging girls into studying STEM subjects.
LEGO blocks are an excellent way to encourage young children (girls and boys) to enjoy engineering and mathematics. As a primary school teacher, I’ve used LEGO bricks in so many different classroom projects. LEGO is also the perfect unisex travel toy because there are 101 activities that you can use them for. Based on my experience from the classroom and family travel, here are my favourite ideas:
Construction
Of course, construction blocks are for building. Cars, Houses, Planes, Intergalactic Space Missiles, Farms, Whatever You Want. If you want to get down and build something too, kids love to see adults joining in construction too.
Tip: Challenge your child to build something that they wouldn’t usually build. Better still, build something that they’ve seen on their travels like the Eiffel Tower or a Pyramid.
Imaginative Play
My children absolutely love imaginative games. Ice-cream shops and cafes are two of their favourite scenarios. If you’re travelling with few toys, construction blocks are so adaptable and can be used in so many games. Use the blocks as pretend food on paper plates in a play café or make mini objects to sell in a pretend shop.
Here’s Zizi using Lego as food in a shopping game with her favourite soft toys.
Small-World Play
A key part of early years education is creating pretend worlds in which the children ‘control and adapt’ as their imagination guides them. As well as using the blocks to construct objects, vehicles and buildings, take it a step further and create a whole ‘world’ using the small characters and combining different constructions. Create whole scenes like farms (include farm buildings as well as paddocks), planets and cities. Ask the children what is happening in each scene and what they think will happen next.
H and Zizi use Lego blocks with other toys to create new worlds in their make-believe games.
Tip: Don’t just use construction blocks for small world play. Use whatever you can find in your hotel rooms. Use towels to represent grass or water. Boxes can be buildings and empty shoes moon craters. Let your child’s imagination run wild…
Patterns and sequences with construction blocks
Construction blocks are a fantastic teaching resource for all numeracy skills. Use the different colours and/or shapes to create patterns and challenge your children to carry on the patterns. The blocks are the perfect resource for teaching about 2D and 3D shapes (well the ones with straight edges at least).
General Numeracy Skills
Did you know that you can teach mathematical concepts as diverse as geometry, probability and ratios with Lego blocks?
Whether or not you’re homeschooling/worldschooling on the road, construction blocks can be used for an incredible range of numeracy lessons and skills practice. Use a handful of blocks to teach basic grouping as a precursor to division. Arrange blocks into arrays – a great way to visually show simple multiplications. Find different sized blocks to teach counting in twos or simply use the blocks to practice early addition and subtraction skills.
The different sized Lego blocks help H and Zizi develop their basic maths skills.
For older children, you download some LEGO challenge cards from www.stemlaboratory.com and make learning with LEGO into a game.
Fine Motor Skill Development with construction blocks
Here’s one for little ones – grab your tweezers out of your wash bag. Yep, you heard me right. Learning to use tweezers to grab small LEGO blocks is a great challenge for pre-schoolers. It develops their grip and pincher movements.
In fact, just general play with small construction blocks will help small children develop their fine motor skills. Think how difficult it can be to put certain blocks together. Or take them apart.
Using tweezers to pick up Lego blocks helps develop fine motor skills.
So next time, you go on holiday pack a small bag of LEGO. See where your children’s imagination leads them – they might even pick up some new STEM skills too.
How we pack our LEGO
A small zipper bag is perfect for packing construction blocks. Most sets of packing cubes have some suitably sized bags. I bought these packing cubes before my most recent trip and they’ve been awesome for general packing as well as keeping the LEGO packed up.
As an alternative, some parents swear by putting the blocks in small tins for playing with on flights. I must admit that whilst I think they are a great hotel room toy, I’m yet to let my two loose on a plane with a box of small bricks. There’s enough to pick-up from the floor during the flight anyway!
Our Lego sack is a packing cube that I bought in a set to help segment the stuff in our suitcase.
How we keep LEGO tidy when travelling
OK, so all those little blocks can be a pain to tidy up and yep, they can get lost easily. At home, we use a custom play-mat (which doubles as a sack) with curved lips which is perfect for keeping all the blocks off the floor. It converts to a sack to hold the LEGO and is easy to tidy up via a drawstring. One pull and you’ve created a neat sack that you can store away.
We decided against bringing the mat/sack backpacking with us. Instead, when we get the LEGO out we pour it on a beach towel. It works pretty well at containing the little bricks although you still need to have a good look under the furniture. H has got pretty good at doing final checks for stray LEGO as he doesn’t want to lose any of his precious blocks. But we have to admit, it’s not as easy and the mat/sack we use at home.
However, I do have one gripe with LEGO….
Like many parents, I was dismayed when a few years ago LEGO (the world’s biggest and most popular manufacturer of construction blocks) began selling LEGO Friends: gender-specific LEGO marketed solely at girls. They are sets of bricks in pink and lilac tones to build talent show venues, ice cream parlours and petting zoos. This seems unnecessary to me and out of character for a decidedly socially-conscious and proudly Danish company. Not only do these gender-specific themes turn away many girls and their parents, but also boys who love building these types of sets (H loves constructing ice cream shops as much as spaceships).
Rather than these gender-specific sets, I prefer gender-neutral LEGO sets. You know the ones I mean – the LEGO that we used to play with as kids. Not exclusively pink and lilac tones but blocks of all colours, shapes and sizes. H and Zizi play colourblind with their gender-neutral LEGO. Not once have I heard them complain about what I’ve suggested they build. Zizi loves building spaceships and H loves building shops. These gender-neutral LEGO sets are often branded as ‘Classic’. Call me old-fashioned if you like, but these are the sets I like. And our kids love them. Just make sure you have a good variety of blocks, bases, parts (wheels, windows, etc) so that your children’s imaginations can run wild.
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Featured Image: Photo by Rick Mason on Unsplash
What do you think about LEGO as the perfect unisex travel toy?
I’ve given a number of examples of why I think LEGO is the perfect unisex travel toy. Do you agree? Do you have better suggestions on what the ultimate unisex travel toy is? I’d love to hear your comments and ideas on unisex travel toys.
Also, I’ve talked above about LEGO exclusively as they are the most famous construction blocks brand, but there are also other alternative brands who supply construction blocks. The eagle-eyed amongst you may spot that not all the bricks in my photos are LEGO.