LEGO creates a new niche for Kindergarteners

Up until now, my son's all time favorite toy has been his DUPLO BLOCKS.  He'd spend hours having fun with imaginative play building all sorts of things with those building blocks.  Duplo Blocks are made by LEGO for kids aged 18 months to 5 years old.  They are bulkier blocks with large props and no small parts compared to standard LEGO meant for toddlers to safely and easily play with.

My son turned 5 in December and I noticed towards the end of last year, he was losing interest in his Duplo's and even told me that "Duplo's were for babies."  So at Christmas we gave him some "real" Lego building block sets.  Although the age range for the LEGO CITY item from Santa was listed at 5 - 12, we still had some troubles.  My son had a hard time with some of the motor skills necessary to build, and more importantly take apart, the Lego City vehicles and I found myself barraged with requests from a frustrated child to constantly be pulling apart bricks for him.  And than there was, I'm embarrassed to admit this, the visit to the doctor's office.  Our other 5 year old twin thought it would be funny to steal one of her brother's really small lego pieces and stick it up her nose so he couldn't take it back from her while grandma wasn't babysitting.  My daughter couldn't pull it back out herself, Grandma couldn't get it out, my wife came home early from work to help try and get it out, and finally a trip to our pediatrician's office and an extra long pair of tweezers saved the day.  So the Lego's were put away until our kids get a little older and we also stored away a memory that we can use to embarrass our daughter when she has a family of her own.

We must not be the only parents who are finding themselves in a gap when it comes to transitioning from Legos to Duplos because in a few weeks LEGO will introducing a new line of building block sets aimed at children ages 4 to 7, a kindergarten niche so to speak.  The new LEGO JUNIORS sets will be compatible with tradition Lego sets for continued use as children get older but will have easier components to assemble and not include the small parts that could potentially get stuck in a child's nose, ear, or who knows where else they might be stuck.

LEGO JUNIORS will be on store shelves starting March 1 2014, just in time for Easter gifts.  We're planning on the Easter bunny leaving "DEFEND THE BATCAVE" Batman playset and THE PRINCESS PLAY CASTLE playset in our kids' baskets this Spring.  Other interesting playsets include a pony farm, race car rally, spiderman adventure, and a teenage mutant ninja turtles assortment.  Check out all the sets here:  http://www.lego.com/en-us/juniors/products/products

Obviously, I haven't bought these products yet but once we've picked them up and given them to our kids, I'll post A Geek Daddy review.While we're waiting you may want to check out the FREE Lego Juniors Create & Cruise game available on Apple App Store & Google Play.  Kids can create their own minfigures and vehicles to cruise around a 3D world collecting coins.  As they gather coins they will be able to unlock virtual LEGO sets that can be build with a few easy touches.  The game is aimed at the same age group for the Lego Juniors toys 4 - 7, but looks  like an app kids' geek daddies and mommies may enjoy playing along with their little ones as well.