5 Ideas To Engage Young Athletes With LEGO At Home
If you have high-energy athletes looking to blow off some steam at home, try these ideas to engage young athletes at home using classic LEGO bricks.
Some kids are born with a knack for quietly playing at home while other kids … are not. Parents of really active children who thrive in high-energy environments understand the unique challenges faced by being quarantined in our homes for long periods of time.
I know being cooped up in our homes is a challenge for all parents. But I have two very different kids, so I know parents with highly active children are struggling in a unique way to keep those kids productively engaged (i.e. out of mischievous trouble and not bouncing off the walls). One of my boys is active but he also loves LEGO, art projects, cooking and baking with me, and many more activities. We always joke that he could have been a city kid, and he would have loved every minute of urban childhood.
My other son, on the other hand, seems to never stop moving. He seeks out high-intensity physical activity all day long. Honestly, the amount of energy he expends without getting tired is astounding. He also loves to play sports. It’s evident that through this time of quarantine, he’s really missed his team sports activities.
As our current circumstances have inspired all of us to be creative with the resources and time available to us, my boys (with some help from my creative problem-solving husband) have found some rather ingenuitive ways to use LEGO bricks to create sports games and satiate their active interests.
5 Ideas To Engage Young Athletes With LEGO At Home
If you’re looking for ideas to keep your young athletes engaged and moving at home, try some of these ways our boys have used LEGO to bring sports into their life at home.
LEGO Ping Pong Net
Who said kitchen tables are only for eating? Over the last several weeks, our kitchen table has been a homework desk, my workstation, my husband’s work station, our family dinner table, and even a ping pong table.
Using Duplo LEGO bricks, my boys built a simple wall about the height of a ping pong net to create their own ping pong table in our kitchen. It’s a bit smaller than a real ping pong table, but for young athletes, this LEGO ping pong table works perfectly.
LEGO Tablet Stand
We are lucky that our son’s hockey coach hosts several practices via video-chats each week. Our son created a LEGO tablet stand to hold the tablet while he participates in his hockey drills and listens to his coach’s instructions.
Even if your child’s coaches aren’t posting these types of web-based drills, there are lots of online videos to follow and use as guides to lead sports-based activities and drills. I’m sure YouTube offers a plethora of these types of videos for any sports you can imagine.
Build Your Favorite Sports Stadium and Play a Game
Reuse LEGO bricks you already have to build a sports stadium, field, or arena for their favorite sport. You could build a tennis court, soccer field, baseball field, and so much more. Your kids may even choose to build something like a playground if they are more into monkey bars and swings.
Encourage your kids to hold a game or match on their LEGO sports field or stadium. Use mini LEGO figurines, create your own characters, or even just use little individual LEGO pieces as players. Although this is not a physically exhausting activity, even our high energy kids can use a calming break once in a while.
Create a LEGO Obstacle Course
Possibilities are endless when creating an obstacle course using LEGO as obstacles. Use LEGO bricks to create ladders, arches, and other structures to jump over, climb through, sneak under, and more. In a similar manner, our hockey player son has used LEGO to create obstacles for stickhandling hockey drills.
LEGO Mini Sports Goals and Nets
Over the last several years, my boys and husband have created countless mini hockey nets, soccer goals, and even football goal posts using Duplo LEGO bricks. They play mini-games in our kitchen, our living room, and anywhere they can find a few feet of open space to set up their goals or nets and kick or swat a ball to score on each other.
Old Trafford Stadium LEGO Set
Both of our boys are sports fanatics, so this Old Trafford LEGO set struck a chord with them. Although we haven’t been buying a lot of new LEGO sets lately, that all changed when quarantine kicked in. The boys have spent many hours lately at the LEGO table we set up in our kitchen, and I think this set would keep them busy for quite a while.
The set is targeted for older builders (16+ according to the box), so consider what level LEGO builder your child is and how much help you want to offer. Our boys have both done sets at this level mostly independently, though they do need help from us on occasion to find certain pieces, figure out and fix mistakes, or just provide a bit of encouragement. These technical sets are pretty darn complex!
Classic LEGO bricks are a pretty incredible toy that stretches imaginations, fosters engineering skills, and brings colorful creativity to life. LEGO bricks aren’t just for kids who prefer to sit at a table and build. LEGO bricks can offer opportunities to be active, build muscles and coordination, and pursue interests for just about anybody.
What do you and your family build with LEGO? Do you have other ideas to engage young athletes and active kids with LEGO? Share all your ideas in the comments!
