Tuesday, August 26, 2014

New School Project and It Involved the "Lego"


If you are a homeschooling parent and need some inspiration, you might enjoy reading this post from Angry Chicken.  I want to go live in Amy's house so she can homeschool me.  :-)

Inspired from reading that post, I decided to try to think "out of the box" for our next project.  Like many parents, we have Lego creations galore.  Imp is especially creative and designs all type of amazing inventions with Legos, wires, rubber bands, dental floss, and other assorted things he can steal from my "junk" drawer.  I love seeing his creations, but I don't love the fact that he leaves them all over the house and doesn't want to take them apart.  His pile of "working" Legos is getting smaller and smaller and I certainly don't want to buy them more Legos.  They are Lego-Hoarders and those little plastic blocks are super expensive…

They love the The LEGO Ideas Book and while looking over it with them it gave me a wonderful idea. Imp could set up his Lego creations for a photoshoot, shot by Duke with my 50mm lens, and then the boys could design their own Lego photo book.  Once photographed, some of the Lego creations could be recycled into new projects that will be left all over the floor and cause pain to my poor feet as I trip over them at night.


Here is Imp setting up the shoot for Duke.  It is around 100 degrees out there, so they had to move fast.


Duke had so much fun playing with the controls on my camera and seeing how to make bokah and use manual focus on tiny Lego projects.  I left the kids out there to "create" so I could enjoy the a/c and work on this post.

UPDATE:  They just came back in and told me they were dying of heatstroke, so the shoot will continue tomorrow morning.  I am really excited about this project and will post more about it later.

What fun projects have you done with your kids?  I would love to hear all about it, so please leave a comment.

I also wanted to ask you guys what you think about Mindcraft.  It seems that every kid is playing it, and I have heard it is completely addictive.  Should I go ahead and jump aboard the Mindcraft craze with the boys, or run away screaming as fast as I can?

I have a new action/tutorial coming out tomorrow, so stay tuned!!!

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2 comments:

  1. I am responding to your question regarding minecraft..... I have felt the same as you. My son 9 and daughter 7 have both fallen in love with it. While it is addictive, how they can navigate their world is beyond me. They will often sit together with pen and paper and figure out what they are going to, why it may or may not work and then go in and try it. They can also "play together" by using my phone and the tablet. You can also buy Minecraft lego sets at lego land to expand the play. As any good mom I police it and set the timer for how long they can be on..... GOOD LUCK! :)

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  2. Just found your site today. Sounds like your boys would fit right in with mine: Legos, MineCraft, outside, mud...yep, we got all that and a dog (and 3 farm cats) too!

    My 3 boys all love MineCraft. There is two different "modes" in the game. In "creative mode" you can play and explore, trying different things out and building your world/mansion/horse stables, or whatever your imagination can dream up. There are lots of interactive parts that you have to figure out how to connect and make them work (ie: trapdoors, switches, cart tracks..) This is great for starting out and learning how the game works. There is also "survival mode" which is more like a video game. You can still create and explore, but there are creatures who try to get you and you "die" and "re-spawn" and that sort of thing. My boys love it...in both modes, depending on what they are trying to do/build.

    I usually set a time limit on how long they can play MineCraft or my 10- and 14-year old will literally spend all afternoon "in their own little world!" Good luck and have fun!

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Rita