Brighouse company uses Lego bricks to make best during lockdown

Mark and Debbie Pullen from Bricks4Kidz.

Brighouse based Bricks4Kidz had been, up until the restrictions started to take effect, running regular LEGO brick building activities for Scouting and Guiding sections, as well as after school clubs and birthday parties.

Social distancing means that the company cannot bring together groups of young builders in the same location but the fact that most households have an abundance of LEGO bricks means that they’ve opted to shift their focus.

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“Children often need encouragement and inspiration from others to make the best use of the bricks,” said co-owner Mark Pullen, “and this can be parents, friends, or some other person.”

“During our sessions, the team is constantly looking to provide praise and direction so that the imagination of a child can be supported.”

With most children now being isolated at home except for some local exercise, many parents are having to come up with ways to keep them busy.

“Distance learning has become the normal practice by schools,” said Debbie Pullen, co-owner “and so we decided that we’d also look at providing young builders with the chance to be given inspiration when it comes to construction.”

The Bricks4Kidz team came up with their eBuilder Club which provides parents with four weeks of themes in a single package. Each week provides a unique printed LEGO brick linked to the theme and a multitude of offline activities and challenges for children to undertake.

“This isn’t about fixed lessons at certain times of day”, says Mark, “but more as a filler activity which parents can use to help avoid the onset of boredom …. And take some of the strain off the grown-ups!”

The response, so far, has been excellent and the Team are already geared up to distribute the resources across West Yorkshire for the next couple of months.

“A new opportunity to enthuse children to make good use of their LEGO bricks is welcome”, says Debbie, “but we look forward to the chance to return to delivering learning by playing in the community again.”