Summer fun doesn’t necessarily mean endless outdoor activities to entertain the little ones; with the right help, they can have a day just as fulfilling indoors! LEGO offers very versatile and fun indoor toys that will allow your kids to create any scenario they can think up. Two of my favorites are Naida’s Epic Adventure Ship and the LEGO DUPLO Fire Truck, which my kids absolutely loves.
The first of the two is part of the Elves series, which has six sets total. This particular set – Naida’s Epic Adventure Ship has over 300 pieces, including the building blocks to make a ship with a gallery kitchen and diving board, two miniature dolls to play on the ship and a giant oyster shell with a key inside. Complete with a storyline in which the two dolls, Naida and Aira, are looking for a magic key to send their friend back to the human world, this kit had my daughter playing for hours.
There were a couple of points when building the ship that she needed just a little guidance and assistance, but for the most part the instructions were mostly very clear. Our absolute favorite part was that the steering wheel actually controls the movement of the sail. Not only is that a really cool feature but it allowed my daughter to learn a little bit about how gears work. This set is very detailed and has a lot of brilliant colors, including coral pink pieces which any LEGO fan knows are difficult to come by. It also includes a couple of completely exclusive pieces. Even the dolls have unique features; they’re dressed in very detailed clothes and have trendy ombre hair. I have to say that I will definitely be investing in the rest of the Elves series soon! The rest of the Elves series include Aira’s Creative Workshop, Naida’s Spa Secret, Azari and the Magical Bakery, the Elves’ Treetop Hideaway, and Farran and the Crystal Hollow. You can find this highly recommended set at the LEGO store for only $29.99.
Any parent of young kid knows that the LEGO DUPLO toys are absolutely perfect: they’re sized so that their little hands can play but big enough that the toys pose no real risk, and do great at encouraging early building and construction skills! They’re called DUPLO bricks because they measure twice as much as regular LEGO blocks, which keeps toddlers safe while offering a variety of different scenarios they can play out. The LEGO Company designs these toys with both play and development in mind, and tests them all to make sure they can survive every toddler adventure, pulling, throwing, and biting included.
My son loves the LEGO DUPLO Fire Truck for his summer toy and he had an absolute blast. It comes complete with a fire truck, little firemen, a retractable hose and a flame to allow the little ones to play out lots of different scenarios.
Personally, I used this opportunity to teach my son about fire safety while he played. Even though it has a restrictive theme, my son was still able to exercise his creativity by rearranging all the pieces repeatedly and playing out loads of different scenarios. It comes with 26 pieces, which is sometimes an overload for toddlers with short attention spans, but the good thing about these sets is that there is no need to use all of the pieces at once. The more comfortable and experienced your little builder gets, the more pieces you can pile on. We are thinking of combining this with the fire station soon, because immediately after playing with it his interest in anything fireman related skyrocketed. Not only did it provide hours of indoors summer playtime, but it turned out to be a really rewarding learning experience for him. This set is $24.99 at the LEGO store.
After hours of building and sharing with the little ones, I can definitely say that LEGO sets are a safe summertime investment. The ship entertained my daughter for a couple days, and she’s already asking if we can go buy another Elves set. I’m always on the lookout for an opportunity to teach my son while we play, and I couldn’t have asked for a better toy to help him grasp the importance of firemen and fire safety. All in all, I would definitely call it a successful day of summer play!