Exploring the importance of friendship with LEGO® bricks

Play is for everyone, no matter where you come from, what you look like, and how you identify. Learning through play is a great way to teach your child the importance of inclusivity as play can bring children together, helping them strengthen existing friendships and build new ones.

Whether your child is finding it difficult to make friends, is feeling left out or you’ve noticed them not including others, why not explore these actions and emotions further with a big bowl of LEGO® bricks? Creating a comfortable environment allows conversations to unfold and is the ideal safe space to talk about challenging topics.

Building friendships

Making friends and maintaining friendships can be tough for kids, especially if they become overwhelmed in social situations or simply don’t know where to start.

Set time aside to build and talk about what it means to be a good friend, how to make friends and how to identify positive friendships. It’s best to be armed with minifigures for these tasks so you can fully immerse yourselves in role-play. While you’re building, take the opportunity to ask them questions too.

Construct a bridge: Get your child to build one side of a bridge, while you build the other, and try to meet in the middle. This is a great challenge that requires plenty of teamwork and communication. The bridge represents the connection between two sides of a friendship and how they come together no matter where they originate. You could ask if there’s anyone at school that they would like to be friends with.

Build a bus: Create a bus out of LEGO bricks. The bus represents your child’s life journey, and as they go from class to class, school to school, they will ‘pick up’ new friends, and they will ‘drop off’ others – and that’s ok. You could ask who is currently on their bus and why they are sitting where they are.

It’s also important to teach your child about rejection. Not every child will want to play together, and your child doesn’t have to be friends with everyone either – that would be exhausting. Help them to understand how to identify a good friend vs. a bad friend and what they believe makes a positive friendship.

Creating cooperation

One of the key components of a well-built friendship is cooperation. Strengthening your child’s cooperation skills through play is a great way to ensure your child understands the importance of teamwork in everyday life. Our favorite way to do this is by taking turns to decide what to build.

Let them take the lead: Let your child decide what to make together first. Let them instruct you. Ask what you need to do, and how you can help. Then it’s your turn: Once you’ve made their creation, it’s time for you to instruct and lead. Make sure they are listening and valuing your ideas as you did theirs. All together now: Both decide what to make and bring all those wonderful, creative ideas together to make one epic construction.

Guiding your child through these builds shows them the importance of turn-taking, listening to each other, valuing each other’s ideas and opinions, and embracing them.

Creating cooperation

One of the key components of a well-built friendship is cooperation. Strengthening your child’s cooperation skills through play is a great way to ensure your child understands the importance of teamwork in everyday life. Our favorite way to do this is by taking turns to decide what to build.

Let them take the lead: Let your child decide what to make together first. Let them instruct you. Ask what you need to do, and how you can help. Then it’s your turn: Once you’ve made their creation, it’s time for you to instruct and lead. Make sure they are listening and valuing your ideas as you did theirs. All together now: Both decide what to make and bring all those wonderful, creative ideas together to make one epic construction.

Guiding your child through these builds shows them the importance of turn-taking, listening to each other, valuing each other’s ideas and opinions, and embracing them.