We came home from Sweden, my son started kindergarten, and soon thereafter he got his first cold of this year. Though it was to be expected, I had even anticipated it, it would have been nice to have a few more days to get life in order before turning our house into a sick bay. As it was now, I just tried to be grateful for us not getting sick in Sweden while making the days as happy as possible for our son as he struggled with high fever.
Although for a long time now my son has enjoyed playing with LEGO, while in Sweden he really got hooked on it – building, tearing down, rebuilding, playing, tearing down again, and so on and son on. My parents have saved a lot of LEGO from when my siblings and I were kids and this LEGO heaven made a strong impression on him. Add to that a lot of LEGO for Christmas presents and we have now a big fan of LEGO in our house. His LEGO we packed in plastic bags and as his fever slowly lifted we started to unpack the bags and together rebuilt the little fire station and the cattle farm with a greenhouse. It is a joy to see how he is quickly getting used to reading the instructions, picking out the pieces and assembling them accordingly. But more than following the instructions, what I most enjoy with LEGO is the creativity it inspires, to build new things, make new creations from your own ideas. My son has gone all in on freestyle creations during this sick period. So even when he wanted a break from LEGO, he still wanted to build things.
I had an idea that this sick time would be a great chance to do some playing and learning with letters to get more comfortable with the Swedish alphabet. We got a magnetic alphabet in Sweden and this would come in handy now I thought. My son thought the letters looks like fun building blocks and started to make his own letter-sculptures, caring about which shapes he could fit together instead of how they sounded or what they are called. Although I look forward to us soon starting to read together I found myself quite pleased seeing the little sculptures coming into existence. For him to be able to explore his creativity is something that feels much more valuable than reading right now, so happy building son.
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