> (snip) And lego...our specialty was lego airplanes, which of course disintegrated during lego aero-dogfights. We didn't do chain reaction things, but did play "poison water", which involved leaping from one piece of furniture to another--touch the poison water floor and you're out.

Hey, we did too. Must be pretty common for kids to come up with that one. In our "rules" we allowed one kind of cheat... a pillow. there were a couple places in the house that pretty much required you to place a couple throw pillows on the floor to step on.

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> > Likewise with prepackaged toys and entertainments; you can't get into trouble following what someone else has already decided is the "best" way to play with a toy. I would like to think that I haven't succumbed to the pressure to take things as they are given to me without considering my own way as well, but I've never been encouraged to, and neither have many of friends. It wasn't so unusual to be inventive as young child, but those who are later are considered, well, a little weird, and I wish it wasn't so.
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> > -Fob"instructions? we don't need no stinking instructions!"ulis
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> ...and while we're speaking of lego and instructions, I recall babysitting a couple of boys once who decided to get out the lego. I'm thinking, hot dog, let's build some cool 7-winged planes or a combination rocket/tomato picker/ shoehorn or something--when the oldest kid PULLS OUT THE INSTRUCTIONS and proceeds to build a fortress EXACTLY like the picture showed it. I was stunned. It was sooooo boring. And presumably, he had built it at least once before, since it wasn't a new toy.

Jeez! Where is the creativity? I thought that was the point of legos. I always strived to push the limits of structure, asthetics, and functionality. How else can a person successfully come up with creative solutions to ordinary problems. You need to train your brain to toss aside functional fixedness and think outside of the box, and be able to use things in ways that they may never have been intended, but still complete the task.

> Actually, maybe it wasn't so stunning after all, since his stated goal was to grow up and be an accountant.
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> koala "no offense meant to accountants, after all I ended up marrying one"mom

Tra "weird... any kid that still requires babysitting should still be dreaming of being a fireman, an actor, an NBA star, an astronaut, an artist, a ship's captain, or even a website administrator" nio