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Comment by thorin | Hacker News Reader

I'm pleased you said that, because we also have a mixture, but most of the sets that were built were broken up and are now in communal boxes. This seems pretty unusual compared to most parents, I guess it's mostly because the parents don't want things to get mixed up. In theory we could rebuild according to the instructions, but in reality it's never going to happen as it would take so long to find all the pieces. Almost every day my kids (Boy 6, Girl, 8) do free play with the mixed lego, sometimes for hours. I'm really pleased with it, as it makes a good break from Youtube etc.

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I wish my kids were more into free play. When their sets inevitably get broken and end up in the communal box, that's usually the last time they play with it. I should stop buying them more sets, but as an avid collector myself I enjoy getting sets as much for my own enjoyment.

For them I think Minecraft scratches much that creative itch that Lego used to bring me.

Necessity is the mother of invention. I played with legos a lot to try and build a toy I didn't get. When I didn't get a Megazord action figure one year for Christmas, I tried the best I could to build something like it out of legos.

Bingo. I think this comment nails it. Minecraft is the digital lego for alot of kids these days. My youngest daughter is 9 with autism, and she is always talking about minecraft. She just absolutely loves it to death.

This is absolutely the correct way Lego intends you to play. They even make the boxes flimsy and cheap on purpose to not encourage saving them. There are some Lego employees on TikTok that speak of their training and "secrets" if interested. Not a source of truth, but interesting none the less.

Personally, I enjoy the modern Lego in that there is parental choice. As a company, they cater to all audiences without a strong opinion either way. This is the way.

Yes, I think a proper Lego setup for young children requires the parents to set up the right environment. We devote quite a bit of space to Lego so that it’s always on hand and I’m a bit fanatical about Lego organisation. That helps both when starting a free build and also finding the pieces for an official manual. Flip side is the classic pain of stepping on Lego!

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