It's that time of the year...the start of a new Homeschool LEGO Club season! This is the second year that I have coordinated a Homeschool LEGO Club. It all began with a conversation I had with a friend about another parent starting a club in another city. Knowing how much my children love LEGOs, I thought it would be a good idea to start one in our area.
I belong to several homeschool email groups, so I emailed everyone letting them know of my desire to begin a Homeschool LEGO Club and asked that they contact me if their children were interested in participating.
The first year I had about 20 children. This year there are about 22 in my group. There were so many children that wanted to participate, that a friend of mine decided to start her own group. Today both groups met together with a total of about 30 kids.
At the end of each meeting I bring the boxes of LEGOs home with me. This year my friend and I will share the LEGOs so that she can have them for her meetings.
Each meeting will be a bit different. For our very first meeting, I asked the kids to build something at home based on a particular theme. Last year they were to create something that they would want to have with them if they were stuck on an island.
This year the theme was military defense vehicles or machines, and airplanes. I love seeing what each child creates!
The children LOVE guessing! It's fun to see all their hands rise up at once.
Once the children were finished with their presentations, they had "free build" time. The containers are passed around and each child starts building either by themselves, or with their friends. Then they play with them.
As I mentioned before, each meeting will be different. Some will be "free building" meetings; others will be based on various themes. Sometimes the themes will be given in advance, and they can build at home and bring it to share, other times they will not know what the theme is until the day of the meeting.
I have the children suggest themes that interest them. A few they shared today include pirates, castles, and Star Wars.
- Find a location. Our group meets at a local library.
- Decide how often you would like to hold your meetings, including the day of the week and time. (Changing our meetings to Thursdays vs. Fridays helped to increase membership.)
- Determine what the age range will be.
- Establish a membership fee. The first year in addition to the $5.00 per child fee, I also asked that parents bring $5.00 worth of LEGOs to the club meetings once a month. Some parents chose to give me the money, others donated additional LEGOs.
- If you would like the children to take home some of their LEGO creations, you may want to charge a higher fee. The group that met in a different city I believe charged $5/meeting.
- Once you've gathered this information, share your interest in hosting a LEGO Club with other homeschoolers through any homeschool groups you belong to.
- Create a LEGO Club email list and email the members with all necessary information concerning meeting location and meeting dates.
- Prior to your first meeting, collect all fees and order your LEGOs. I suggest getting a LEGO VIP card so that you can get LEGO points for your purchases which you can then use towards future purchases.
- Purchase any necessary containers to hold the LEGO pieces.
LEGO Education
LEGO Quest
LEGO Museum:
Toy and Plastic Brick Museum
Some More Tips:
Tips for Starting a LEGO Club
I hope I have created a desire in you to begin a LEGO Club in your area! If you have any questions, just leave me a comment.
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13 comments:
I was just telling a friend that I wished our homeschool group had a lego club. I guess that since I read this I need to be the one to start it:) Thanks for all the great ideas!
Your welcomed! I had an email come through from a lady who coordinated a Lego club in her area and she charges $3/meeting.
Stopping by from the Hip HS Hop. We participated in a couple online lego assignments, but I've been wondering about starting a group within our co-op. Thanks for sharing what has worked for you!
Lovely blog, I'll be subscribing in my reader. We host a F.I.R.S.T. club and Jr F.I.R.S.T. club - it can get crazy.
Do you host it as homeschoolers? I looked at the website and it seemed like the events were mostly hosted at schools.
Thanks for stopping by!
Thanks for sharing your experience - I'm doing a Lego Learning Club to try to launch some interest in our middle school age group at our co-op - which will include some history of Lego, designing/art/engineering aspects as well as enjoying team building, solo free time building.
Denise, that sounds great! I wish you success and lots of fun!
This has inspired me to start a club in our area. How fun!
What do you do with the Legos when the club no longer meets? I started one but I've just been bringing our large collection of Legos from home each time. I thought about having people contribute to purchase more Legos, but then what happens to the Legos in a few years? I'd hate to have people pay for them and then I end up keeping them, KWIM?
Hi Candiss! When I held our club I had the parents donate Legos, but I also used our personal blocks so as to have more to work with. When we stopped the Lego Club meetings, I kept the blocks. In my opinion, I don't believe anyone minded; maybe they felt it was a way to give back for the time I was investing in their children?
I never asked for a large amount of donation (to purchase blocks), so I think that helped too. :-)
Thank you for the information. How much time did you allow at each meeting?
I believe we met from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
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