Teaching Emotions With LEGO® Super Heroes!

Between my two boys (4 and 7 years old), life is a whirlwind of LEGO^®, superheroes, emotional outbursts, and dirty socks. Seriously, you can’t go five feet in this house without stepping on someone’s feelings or a brightly colored building block! I finally decided that if I can’t beat them (which I totally mean the figurative use of “beat”!), I might as well join them and utilize the awesome LEGO^® Super Hero sets to help my boys become more comfortable expressing how they’re feeling!

Let’s Talk!

As with most kids, I’ve found that an element of fun has to be included when teaching important lessons. True, my final goal is to help them express their feelings verbally (instead of physically!) but for them, it’s all about the process. We all love playing with LEGO^® Super Hero sets but I especially love the conversations that these toys start!

Age Appropriate

Obviously, there are so many reasons to love LEGO^®  but recently, one of my favorites is that they have three designated super hero sets for different ages. Even though my 4 year old has grown up around LEGO^®, he’s still too young to fully grasp the sets his older brother puts together. Giving him the Juniors line means he gains the confidence to work with the blocks with little to no help from his parents. This keeps frustration to a minimum and enjoyment at an all time high!

How Do You Feel?

As I mentioned above, one of my favorite times to talk with my kids about emotions, is when we’re playing as a family. They may not want to tell me how they would react in a difficult situation (Example: what would you do if a friend was being a bully?) but they’ll definitely role play a similar circumstance with their superheroes (Example: Scarlet Witch stood up for Captain America when Iron Man was being mean to him.) It really is a win/win situation. They love that I’m playing LEGO^® with them and I love that we’re exploring deep emotional feelings together!

Today I Feel…

To further reinforce talking about our emotions, I created these “LEGO Feelings” cards to use as a family. I just photographed a few of my kids’ favorite superheroes and added a personality characteristic that they’re known for. I laminated ours since we’ll probably use them on the dinner table where glasses have a habit of being toppled over! We usually start the conversation with either my husband or myself saying “Today I felt ___” and then hold up one of the superhero cards. I even made one blank in case someone wanted to fill in their emotion. Feel free to download and print a set for your family as well. Hope it helps with the emotional journey of parenting!

{LEGO Feelings Flash Cards}

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.