Creative play Kids at C-H library let imaginations run wild with Legos
A few of the Lego creations built by youngsters during the second session of Chartiers-Houston Community Library’s Lego Club are arranged in the display case in the entrance to the library.
Jadon Cole, 4, of Canonsburg, concentrates as he attaches another Lego to his tower during a meeting of the Lego Club at Chartiers-Houston Community Library.
Alexis Jenny helps her 5-year-old son, Jacobi, add to a previous creation during free play at a recent session of the Lego Club at Chartiers-Houston Community Library.
Natalie Metzler, 7, of Houston, puts the finishing touches on what she calls her “zebra cow” during the Lego challenge at Chartiers-Houston Community Library.
Pacey Heider, 7, left, and his friend, Noah Miller, 9, add a few more Legos to their dragons during the Lego challenge at Chartiers-Houston Community Library.
An elaborate view of the world made of Legos at the Lego Store at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.
A tiger growls at a girl with a spear in a scene at the Lego Store at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. All of the characters were created from Legos.
HOUSTON – Chartiers-Houston Community Library has organized a Lego Club, and judging by the youngsters’ unbridled enthusiasm at just the second session two weeks ago, it is going to be a very popular group.
Seventeen children packed the activities room, where they engaged in about a half hour of free play, followed by a building challenge.
“It seems like a good model,” said Laura Swanson, who based the format on what she observed at Citizens Library in Washington last year after she was hired as the librarian at Chartiers-Houston.
The biggest hurdle in implementing the club, Swanson said, was obtaining the Legos.
“Now that we have them, I hope it’s a thing that will take off,” she said.
Alexis Jenny of Houston has already noticed a difference.
“It’s definitely more lively this time,” said Jenny, who brought her 5-year-old son, Jacobi. “It was very low key the first time.”
Legos have been around since the 1940s, when Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter from the small town of Billund, Denmark, began producing the plastic toys. He figured they could be more easily mass-produced, unlike the wooden toys, such as the cars and yo-yos, that he started to make during the Depression when the demand for furniture declined.
For the next few decades, Legos popularity grew as Christiansen introduced “systems” of play, creating different Lego worlds, based on specific themes. The first system was a train set.
Then in 1968, a Legoland amusement park opened near the Lego factory in Denmark, the first of six parks that are around the world today.
By 2003, however, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy, as competition from video games and the internet, coupled with some questionable business decisions and internal fears that Legos were old-fashioned, cut deeply into the company’s profits.
After some restructuring and the introduction of adult building sets, for which consumers were willing to pay more, even though they contained the same number of pieces as kids’ sets, the company slowly started to gain ground.
The resurgence came full circle in 2014 with the release of the computer-animated “The Lego Movie,” a film that was not conceived by the company, but rather pitched to them by filmmakers.
Today, Legos are as popular as ever, with elaborate Lego experiences expanding into retail stores that feature life-size characters and creatures, and pick-and-build walls with hundreds of shapes and colors.
And to keep pace with technology, Lego has created a Future Lab, composed of designers, programmers and master builders, who are working on hybrid digital/physical play experiences that involve the plastic bricks and a piece of software.
Sarah Metzler of Houston brought her two children, Natalie, 7, and Carter, 5, to Chartiers-Houston library to join the fun.
Since they enjoy playing with Legos at home, Metzler figured the family would help support the library after she noticed a friend’s Facebook post about the Lego Club
The attraction for her kids, she believes, is that “they’re creating and making whatever they want, and they’re working together.”
“They can make it once and tear it apart,” she said.
In addition to Citizens and Chartiers-Houston libraries, several other local libraries provide dedicated time for Lego play, including Bentleyville, Donora, Frank Sarris in Canonsburg, Monongahela and Peters Township.
Amy Cole of Canonsburg got caught up in the fun along with the kids at Chartiers-Houston, bringing her son, Jadon, 4, her niece, Kallie Azman, and her nephew, Landon Azman.
Cole said Jadon plays with Legos in preschool and at home, and has been playing with them since he was a baby, when he received the bigger Lego pieces suitable for young children.
“He is so obsessed with them. He could sit on the floor for hours and play with them,” Cole said.
Like Metzler, Cole believes the fascination with Legos is that “they are something they can tear apart and rebuild. … and especially they can use their imagination and create.”
Her 6-year-old niece confirmed that, responding with “because you can build whatever you want” when asked what she likes most about Legos.
After the free play, the kids were given an optional challenge: to build their favorite animal in any color.
While Natalie Metzler quietly built a “zebra cow” at one table, Pacey Heider, 7, and Noah Miller, 9, were busy swapping tales at another table as they added pieces of Legos to their projects.
At one point, Pacey said, “I have no clue what I made.”
But after some thought, he said he made a dragon, just like his friend Noah. “I like that I can build big stuff,” Pacey said.
Perhaps the most exciting part for the kids, however, is when they can place their creations in the display case in the entrance to the library at the end of the session.
“When we came, Jacobi said, ‘Look Mom, it’s still here,'” Jenny said, referring to the building Jacobi made at the first session.
He also noticed that the flag was backward. “He pays such crazy attention to detail,” Jenny said. “He wanted to fix it.”
And he did, right before embarking on a new creation.