In the previous article “Activate Your Child’s LEGO Assets: These Four Steps Are Most Effective”, I discussed how to utilize the LEGO assets at home to maximize their value in helping children improve their skills.
At the same time, I would like to thank everyone for your likes, collections, and comments. We will continue to answer your questions in this column.
In today’s article, I will recommend some LEGO sets that I believe are worth purchasing based on age stages.
These sets come from the LEGO “teaching tools” group introduced in the previous article. Although the finished products may not be as refined and flashy as LEGO toys, the building process can better unleash children’s creativity and problem-solving abilities.
Disclaimer: This article contains no advertisements. All recommendations are based on my nearly ten years of LEGO teaching experience and interactions with hundreds of children.
Children in this age group can develop grip strength and hand-eye coordination through building blocks. Safety should also be considered when playing with LEGO.
The basic goal for building LEGO blocks at this stage is: Children should be able to understand and complete relatively stable structures.
Therefore, a suitable choice is: Primarily large particle basic blocks, supplemented by large particle animal blocks and figurines as decorative accessories.
I recommend the “LEGO – My Big World Set” (No. 45028).
This set has 480 pieces, primarily consisting of DUPLO large particle basic blocks, along with some decorative pieces, interactive pieces, and a small number of figurines.
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: legoeducation
This set allows children to complete basic structures such as planar interlocking, three-dimensional interlocking, and single-point interlocking, which are foundational structures in building blocks and can enhance children’s hands-on skills from gripping to pressing to secure assembly.
Children in this age group also enjoy building structures like houses and amusement parks to recreate life scenes they observe.
If you want to create a more enriched building scene for your child, you can also consider purchasing the “LEGO – Animal Set” (No. 45029) with 91 pieces of animal blocks and the “LEGO – People Set” (No. 45030) with 44 pieces of figurines.
👆Image courtesy of the author | LEGO Education: Animal Set
👆Image courtesy of the author | LEGO Education: People Set
Since children in this age group enjoy playing games in the form of “playing house”, adding these two sets can enhance the richness and interactivity of the finished product. After the children complete their building, parents can join in and play different roles with them, learning about animals and professions together, which can be very interesting.
👆Image courtesy of the author: Kaplan Early Learning School
Children in this age group can coordinate grip strength, torque, and finger dexterity, and their cognitive abilities also develop, often leading to bursts of creativity and imagination.
Therefore, at this stage, I recommend using large particle threaded blocks that resemble screwdrivers – for example, the “LEGO – Versatile Engineering Set” (No. 45002) with 95 pieces.
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: LEGO Education
👆Image courtesy of the author: Real product images of Set 45002
This type of block can not only build vehicles and engineering machinery but also guide children to use their imagination to create everyday items, fostering their observation and creativity.
Of course, some children may not be interested in mechanical types of blocks, so I recommend another set with 109 pieces, the “LEGO – Fairy Tale Kingdom Set” (No. 45005).
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: LEGO Education
4-5 years is also a period of rapid language development for children. The Fairy Tale Kingdom set combines imagination and language expression with building blocks. This set allows children to create stories and role-play while building, naturally exercising their language organization and expression skills.
👆Image courtesy of the author:
The Fairy Tale Kingdom set is widely used in kindergarten education abroad. It not only cultivates children’s imagination, design, and building skills but also facilitates collective storytelling activities.
If parents want to introduce some simple English enlightenment while playing, they can also consider the “LEGO – Letter Set” (No. 45027).
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: Creative Hut
This set has 130 pieces, and there are also many similar domestic block sets, such as phonetic sets, with the same principle. This type of letter block can help children naturally use letters and spell words in a playful context.
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: LEGO Education
While this type of block set helps cultivate early language skills in preschool children, it should not be overly forced.
Moreover, since this set has a relatively simple format, it is recommended to use this set in conjunction with other sets.
Additionally, the letter blocks should ideally be related to the actual scenes that children build, rather than simply becoming tools for learning English.
For example, if a child builds a zoo, they can use this letter block to spell the colorful “ZOO” sign. Or after designing and building a farm, they can spell “FARM” – this way, children can truly experience the joy of language while building.
Children aged 5-6 begin to rapidly establish a lot of connections in their minds, entering a stage of cognitive enlightenment and development.
During this stage, parents can strive to make LEGO blocks more active and connective to better align with children’s cognitive development.
Large particle mechanical blocks are a great choice at this stage, such as the large particle mechanical block “LEGO – Early Simple Machines” (No. 9656).
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: LEGO Education
This set contains 102 pieces. Unfortunately, LEGO no longer produces this set, but it is still available on domestic online shopping platforms, and many domestic brands have also launched similar sets.
Why do I recommend this discontinued set?
Because this block has an irreplaceable advantage: it transitions well between large and small particles.
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source:
The 9656 set can showcase a variety of building forms.
When children turn 5, their focus on building blocks begins to change. Many children will shift from simply pursuing the visual representation of shapes to exploring the principles of movement.
For example, many of my students at this age start asking me questions like:
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: dproboticslab
Many children aged 5-6 develop a strong interest in the principles of movement behind phenomena. If we can guide them accordingly, it can lead to a small leap in their abilities.
Therefore, mechanical sets containing gears and axles are very suitable choices, as they allow children to achieve their desired results by mastering principles.
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: dproboticslab
By the way, many videos and tutorials for various large particle creative combinations seen online are often achieved using the 9656 set. This means that once children have this set, they have access to many free course resources.
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: BrickOwls
Children creatively build using gears from the 9656 set.
This stage also sees some parents starting to introduce small particles to their children. However, in my opinion, small particle mechanical blocks are too complex for children in this age group due to the variety of parts and combinations required, and they also demand higher finger strength and patience. Therefore, parents need not rush into transitioning to small particles; large particle simple mechanics are better suited for children.
If you also want to further cultivate children’s logical thinking abilities, I recommend trying the “LEGO – Programming Starter Train” (No. 45025).
This set has 234 pieces and involves many physical principles. It is also one of the simplest programming blocks for preschoolers.
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: LEGO Education
This block is integrated into a classic train scene with sensing blocks, where each sensing block corresponds to a specific action.
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: Brick Architect
The appearance of blue and yellow sensing blocks embedded in the tracks.
When children play with the small train, placing the sensing blocks on the track allows the train to perform actions such as stopping, changing direction, honking, and pausing.
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: LEGO Education
The red, green, blue, white, and yellow boards are the sensing blocks.
These intuitive instruction operations can help children understand sorting, looping, conditional programming, and causal relationships.
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: Brick Architect
In practical use, children control the train using action components from the red, green, yellow, blue, and white sensing blocks.
As a LEGO teacher, I have conducted extensive teaching on “programming”. I believe that compared to learning graphical or language programming on a computer, this physical block-based or card-reading programming is easier for children in this age group to understand.
When children encounter problems, solving them through physical adjustments is also easier for them to perceive directly.
Additionally, this method is gentler for 5-6 year-olds, who are just beginning to develop logical thinking, and will not lead to premature advancement.
At this stage, children’s small muscle groups in their hands begin to develop actively, allowing a transition from large particle blocks to small particle blocks!
In the small particle stage, it is important to start with basic sets. I recommend the “LEGO – BricQ Play Basic Set” (No. 45401). It has 523 pieces and is a very basic small particle set.
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: LEGO Education
👆Image courtesy of the author: Appearance of Set 45401 after opening
This set has been upgraded from the discontinued 396-piece “LEGO – Simple Power Mechanics Set” (No. 9686), with improvements in color matching, part richness, and fun. Many similar domestic block sets exist as well.
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: LEGO Education
I have several reasons for recommending the 45401 set:
Children who have turned 6 have accumulated quite a bit of common knowledge, their understanding abilities have improved significantly, and their finger operations have become more precise. This set contains many mechanical blocks that can present various mechanical structures in a more tangible way.
For example, children can create gear reduction systems, link combinations, and other mechanical components, enabling them to find different solutions to the same problem, laying the groundwork for future programming learning and fostering a habit of thinking in multiple solutions.
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: blog.teaching
The 45401 set can create many seemingly simple yet dynamic shapes, which is very helpful for breakthroughs in children’s building abilities.
In the 7-10 age group, children will solve problems through self-awareness and thinking, with simultaneous development in learning and social skills.
At this time, we generally encourage children to build a robot independently or collaboratively and let the robot accomplish a task. This is a key task in LEGO education training that cultivates children’s comprehensive abilities.
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: LEGO Education
Recommended sets include the discontinued 280-piece “LEGO – WeDo 2.0 Science Robot Set” (No. 45300) and the still available 528-piece “LEGO – SPIKE Prime Innovation Set” (No. 45678), both of which can be purchased in China.
👆Image courtesy of the author: A small car built using 45300
This type of LEGO block can be called an early robot, but compared to true LEGO robot sets, its building difficulty and programming logic are simpler, making it a good entry choice for children learning about robots.
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: LEGO Education
👆Image courtesy of the author
45300 is widely used in LEGO education training and competition training camps at home and abroad. The children in the image are generally in the lower grades of elementary school.
Children over 10 years old have developed proficient building abilities. If they have a certain understanding of programming, they can start trying out LEGO robot sets.
While building robot sets and completing tasks, children will encounter issues related to math and physics. In the problem-solving process, there will be discussions, disputes, sharing, and collaboration until they ultimately taste success.
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: LEGO Education
The most classic LEGO robot sets include the 541-piece “LEGO – MINDSTORMS EV3 Robot Core Set” (No. 5003400, previously No. 45544) and the 853-piece “LEGO – MINDSTORMS EV3 Robot Accessory Set” (No. 5003400, previously No. 45560).
👆Image courtesy of the author
These two sets are classic LEGO robot sets:
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45544 is the core set that includes a controller, sensors, and other electrical components.
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45560 is the accessory set that includes various mechanical parts and decorative accessories.
👆Image courtesy of the author
Although the LEGO SPIKE Prime Innovation Set has been released, I personally believe that in terms of the direction of children’s ability cultivation, the new set cannot replace the old set.
The old set may be discontinued, but it is still available on domestic e-commerce platforms. If you need to purchase it, I personally recommend starting with the core set.
In practical use, if there are not enough parts, you can purchase additional accessory sets or directly buy the required loose parts.
👆Image courtesy of the author: Core set of 45544
I personally recommend the LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Robot Set for two reasons:
First, after using many children’s programming robots, I find that the EV3 robot performs more stably in hardware and has better quality in software upgrades.
👆Image courtesy of the author: A small robot built with EV3
Second, compared to purely software programming, the learning method that combines hardware construction and software programming has advantages in cultivating children’s problem-solving abilities.
Especially in the future Internet of Things era, most programming procedures will likely need to be reflected in hardware responses.
Only by applying programming results to hardware can children clearly and intuitively see the results of programming, identify issues in the programming process, and better solve problems or find new solutions during observations of movement.
The EV3 robot set can meet most of the building, exploration, and learning needs for children aged 10 and above.
However, if children want to pursue a broader understanding in programming, they can also try learning and exploring Arduino circuit boards and programming languages.
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: image
To purchase this type of teaching tool, simply search for “Arduino” on e-commerce websites. Currently, many domestic products are also of good quality and have similar prices.
👆Image courtesy of the author:
Combining Arduino and LEGO can create richer and more interesting combinations.
Children at this stage generally possess higher reading abilities. If they are particularly interested in LEGO robots or programming, parents can also purchase some books to assist.
For example, if children enjoy playing with early robots, they can choose books like “WeDo 2.0 LEGO Robot Beginner’s Tutorial” and “LEGO SPIKE Prime Introduction”.
👆Image courtesy of the author
If children frequently play with EV3, they can choose to read “LEGO Robot Design Techniques: EV3 Structure Design and Programming Guide” and “The Art of Programming LEGO Robots EV3”.
Those who want to learn Arduino can try reading “Playing with Arduino Using Scratch” and “Arduino Development Introduction and Creative Applications”.
However, after writing this age-based purchasing guide, I still recommend that parents enroll their children in an extracurricular programming class for more professional and systematic learning.
After all, starting with robot programming at school age, relying solely on parents teaching or self-learning can be quite challenging.
Of course, for those children who love robot programming, enjoy researching, and have strong patience, they can first enroll in an extracurricular class, and once they grasp the basic processes and thinking methods of robot programming, they can also study and delve deeper at home with the help of books.
👆Image courtesy of the author | Source: treehugger
The above age-based recommended building sets are based on LEGO.
If parents wish to purchase domestic blocks as alternatives, the principles and guidelines remain the same.
LEGO excels in quality and detail, but domestic sets offer better value for money.
👆Image courtesy of the author
You can search for “set name or number” or “domestic + set name or number” on e-commerce platforms to configure sets; you can also search for “LEGO type building block loose pieces” or “large particle basic blocks” to configure loose pieces.
In the upcoming articles, I will also share how to choose LEGO educational training classes for your children to avoid pitfalls, as well as how parents can guide and provide feedback while playing LEGO blocks with their children at home to achieve “twice the result with half the effort”.
I hope everyone continues to follow this series from Tongxueguan, and feel free to ask any questions in the comment section!
Author: Book Si Yi, a senior LEGO teacher and an explorer curious about everything
Editor: Guoren Ma, Kang Kang, Antelope
Cover: Creative: Mihail
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