Lego partner with National Geographic

Daddy A here! So, I was in town (London) the week before last working when Sam rang me and said that she had to collect B from nursery early. She said “Everything’s fine I just won’t be able to go to the Lego event this evening”. She’ll tell you that things go in one ear and out the other with me, and that I have selective hearing.

Now granted, I’m the first to admit that may be the case sometimes, but I think I’d have heard the mention of a Lego event…“What Lego event?’ Her reply in its entirety isn’t really bloggable (Is bloggable a word!? I’m getting the red wobbly line! Both with one G and two. Are you telling me in 2014 the latest version of Pages or Word doesn’t recognise ‘bloggable’?) Anyway I digress…

After she took a deep breathe, she went on to explain that she was suppose to be going to a Lego event at the National Geographic Store, and that Ben Saunders, the Arctic North and South Pole explorer was going to be there. It was at this point that I knew she hadn’t mentioned it, but this post will be up by the time she reads it! I headed to the National Geographic store, with little time to do much homework so didn’t know exactly what the event was to entail. Turns out I wouldn’t be disappointed.

Lego have teamed up with Ben for their new Lego City Arctic range, and it all looks absolutely amazing. I had tons of Lego as a kid and to be completely honest I think every dad (of my generation at least!) will tell you theres nothing more fun than playing it with your kids! I’ve watched Lego get better over the years and this Arctic City range is no exception.

In addition to Ben becoming an ambassador for Lego, they have also joined forces with National Geographic Kids, and have launched a joint ‘Young Explorers’ campaign. There’s a competition for children to design an arctic piece of survival equipment that could be used to well, survive! Ben will use his expertise and experience to choose the best one, with the winner getting a holiday to the polar regions of Finland! More info can be found at on the Nat Geo Kids website

The Nat Geo Kids Mag was an added extra I wasn’t expecting, and I wasn’t surprised that B loves it! B is at that really lovely age where he can’t read but pretends that he can! The mag is obviously for children a bit older, but that doesn’t stop toddlers! There’s so much visually going on that B, who’s not even three, remained engaged for ages, identifying lots of wildlife and pretending the animals were chatting! There’s competitions, posters, puzzles and games, as well as plenty of facts that adults won’t know and will find interesting. It’s a really great mag that I’d highly recommend.

The event was kicked off with the man himself Ben Saunders, giving an insightful presentation of his time in the South Pole. There were pictures of him coming up close and personal with polar bears which the children were amazed by, and he even explained to everyone what he had to do once when he looked over his shoulder in the South Pole and saw one! He kept the presentation to around ten minutes and that was perfect for the kids which, that let’s face it, by then just wanted to get their hands on the Lego! Ben giving his presentation and cutting the celebratory polar bear cake!

I wished that B was with me. The children got stuck in building and playing with a Lego expert (Great job I imagine!) on hand to help where required and, with an Arctic scene backdrop for all the fun to take place on it was just a really awesome couple of hours. There has been events in the past where we’ve turned up somewhere to be relieved that we hadn’t brought B along but this one was definitely the opposite. How was I there without him!?! Myself and another dad got chatting and we were both blown away by this new range. He had a little girl of about five who was getting stuck in and she absolutely loved it. There’s no reason why your little girls wouldn’t love Lego, and this Arctic range is no exception. Because we’re usually writing with B in mind it’s always from the perspective of a parent with a little boy, so that’s my reason for adding the above observation!

Something else that Lego is embarking on is sponsoring a large research project to try and establish if career choices are in any way influenced by the toys that children play with growing up. I think this is a fantastic project in itself and the findings will be extremely interesting.

Personally I took far more away from the launch than I expected to. Lego’s Arctic range has an obvious natural link to the outdoor world that National Geographic is famous for, and in an ever growing world of technology and kids spending more and more time on computer games, it really hit home for me the importance of stripping B’s childhood playing back to basics. Lego is over 80 years old, and if it was good enough for his father and my father before me, then it’s good enough for B! I came away from the event promising that there will be a lot more push, click, lock Lego action going on in our house.

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