<p>I have not read all the posts, but stellar super star tons of awards DD just finished her 3rd year of university. She had 6 great admissions options.</p>
<p>Youngest ended up following her own path, she happened to change schools which worked out well, as the old school was small and in love with her big sis, instead DD3 made her own way and ended up applying to only one school- having learned what she wanted by watching older sibs- and she picked the right fit for her. </p>
<p>Everything we did was about fit. D3 would not have matched D2s record, she does not care enough to work that hard in that environment, but she did a great job in her new environment and she stayed true to herself.</p>
<p>Ijmom,
Your son sound exactly like mine, and same age, too. I am not taking the Legos away. He still plays, uses them to make animated You tube videos, and building catapults and such.</p>
<p>Get rid of his LEGOs? No way. Actually, you should buy him more. As others have mentioned, check out the robotics stuff (Google Lego Mindstorms NXT).</p>
<p>S1,now 21, was a Lego maniac. For years all he wanted for Christmases and birthdays was more Legos. I think he had given them up by 12 but not because we pushed him to. He just became interested in other things. Still, I have great memories of him working on Lego “battle stations” and setting up elaborate armies of Lego men. I have saved all his Legos in a giant tub for the future grandchildren,lol. BTW, he didn’t become an engineer or an architect. He’s going to be a soldier.</p>
<p>I know three families who each have three kids going off to college in as many years or less. Two have a set of twins following a superstar singleton. The amazing thing is that they were so busy on college searches that they were really more concerned that they did not spend the time with superstar to give her the best opportunity to get into her high reach schools. But I see the state schools combined with LACs with the highly selects there. Each kid had their own niches and it worked out, I think because the parents were looking for fit not prestige. That can make all of the difference, the parental attitude.</p>
<p>Check out Nathan Sawaya’s Lego art - his work has been touring museums around the country. Nothing wrong with playing with Legos! [Nathan</a> Sawaya: The Art of the Brick | Gallery](<a href=“http://www.brickartist.com/gallery.html]Nathan”>404)</p>
<p>As the OP here watching the thread take off on a Lego tangent (with my complete approval!), I would just like to go on record as having a DD1 who has never showed the slightest interest in Legos and a DD2 who at the moment has a labyrinthine Lego construct taking up half of our basement (we don’t really know what it is supposed to be).</p>
<p>Could Legos hold the key to understanding our children’s psyches and abilities?</p>
<p>Gosh, I feel I could have written this thread! D1(sophmore) is self driven and just finished the semester with straight A+'s. D2 (8th grade) is sweating the possibility of getting her first B! It has been hard and our hearts go out to D2 as she tries to keep up. D1 was awarded many middle school awards. D2 was shocked last week when she was given an award for her gpa only. We try to tell her to do her own thing but she stubbonly trys to follow D1s path. She is joining the exact same EC as D1. Not sure how that is going to work. D1 and D2 are extremely close and I want that to continue. I have told D2 I appreciate her easy going nature. D1 is so self driven and alot of her self worth is tied up in her grades I worry about the day the first B comes. D2 is a very smart girl. I just dont think she is as driven, motivated to be the student D1 is. We have to try and convince D2 that this is fine. D2 has taken the same rigorous course load next year as D1 had. I pray all will work out.</p>
<p>Mammall, I am sorry that the LEGO tangent. We were all wrapped up in our D’s activities last 2 to 3 years, and my S was just tagging along. Your post just hit me on the head to think about my S a bit more. </p>
<p>Thanks everyone for all the good suggestions about LEGOs.
I will check on First Lego league, Lego arts, and Robotics.
We may even buy him a another LEGO set for his elementary school graduation. This morning I asked my H to set-up a table for my S to work on his LEGO. I am glad that I brought this up here.</p>
<p>I’m glad you brought it up too, Ijmom. I’m so happy you’re going to let him continue to play with his Legos. (My kids were reading the posts over my shoulder this morning and <em>strongly</em> agreed kids should play with Legos as long as they want.) I also wanted to add my oldest shares your son’s love of reading. I guess his interests are in the fantasy fiction genre. Some favorite authors of his are Terry Brooks, Terry Prachett, and Piers Anthony. He loves many books with a medieval era setting also. Dragons? Wizards? Bring 'em on. I know what you mean about a kid getting caught up in another world with all those books. He aced all his SATs and was extremely successful in his college admissions, including acceptances at HYP. All that reading really pays off, and I think it is such a gift in life to have a love of books. While it isn’t science fiction, your son might want to try the Redwall series by Brian Jacques if he hasn’t already. They are wonderful, well-written books both my kids have loved.</p>
<p>For the child who likes Legos – has he ever tried K’Nex?</p>
<p>I also loved Legos as a child, but I didn’t discover K’Nex until adulthood. Although I bought multiple K’Nex sets as gifts for my children, they unfortunately never loved them as much as I did. Still, this gave me the chance to sit around and play with toys in my middle age, building Ferris wheels and roller coasters that really worked. Now I have a stash of both Legos and K’Nex for my future grandchildren.</p>
<p>Engineering students at Olin College have used K’Nex to build a 10-foot-tall binary computer, demonstrating that it’s not just child’s play.</p>
<p>My kids are all Lego maniacs. That started when my sister gave S1 a Duplo set for his second birthday. Now the favorite piece of mail at home is the latest Lego catalog. Three sons and one daughter here.</p>
<p>S#1 is 7 years older than his twin brothers. To say that he is brilliant is truly an understatement. I have resorted to telling his brothers that he is just “wired differently,” when they question how easily virtually everything comes to him. The three boys have an unusual last name, one that would almost never have come along before, but I thought we were “safe” since they were 7 years apart. Not so. The first day of Bio in 9th grade, the Bio teacher looks at S#3 and says, “Oh, I had your brother! He was brilliant. Are you brilliant?” :rolleyes: The twins are also another issue-trying not to compare them since they clearly have different abilities, strengths and weaknesses. I’m trying to memorize the good advice in this thread, but I do slip up at times. ;)</p>
<p>^^ The situation is not exaggerated. These are direct quotes. I did not remove S#3 from the class because I knew that the teacher was an excellent teacher. IMHO, she made quite a gaffe. I never confronted her about it, and S#3 struggled a bit with the class, but ended up doing quite respectably and learned a lot.</p>
<p>My younger son had a fifth-grade math and science teacher who spent most of the year calling him by his brother’s name. She didn’t mean to, of course, but geez! In middle school, I was thrilled when my son got a different set of teachers, ones who weren’t as aware of his older brother. I hope our luck holds out in eighth grade.</p>
<p>lextalionis: The first day of Bio in 9th grade, the Bio teacher looks at S#3 and says, “Oh, I had your brother! He was brilliant. Are you brilliant?”</p>
<p>momof3sons: I would get S#3 the heck out of that class. Either you or your S exaggerated this situation, or that Bio teacher has no common sense. </p>
<p>I believe it - actually heard it said more than once (to d2 and about d2). Best thing that happened for d2 was the opportunity to attend a different hs than her sister.</p>
<p>I guess one advantage to a huge overcrowded public high sch. is that S2, the average student, has made it all the way through h.s without having one single teacher that S1, the star student, had.
The comparison would have been brutal. </p>
<p>One exception is football. Both had the same football coach but S2 owned S1 in that arena (which was really good for S2’s self-esteem).</p>
<p>We moved D to private school in 4th grade, but have kept S in (an excellent) public. This has worked out very well for both, with their completely different personalities and learning styles, and has completely avoided comparisons that would have been tough for S to take.</p>