28 September 2026
School holidays can fill up quickly.
There are outings to plan, activities to organise, things to get done and, inevitably, moments when someone tells you they’re bored five minutes after you’ve suggested six different things to do!
But amongst all of that, there is something wonderfully simple worth remembering: our children don’t need every moment of their holidays to be filled.
Sometimes, what they’re looking for most is us.
A few minutes sitting on the floor beside them. Letting them show us what they’ve made. Following their idea instead of leading it. Laughing when the LEGO creation looks nothing like anyone expected.
Research backs up just how meaningful those ordinary moments can be. The American Academy of Pediatrics describes play with parents and caregivers as an important opportunity to support children’s social-emotional, cognitive, language and self-regulation skills, while strengthening the safe and nurturing relationships children need to thrive.
And perhaps that’s the loveliest reminder for the school holidays.
You don’t have to make play impressive for it to be valuable.
Get down on their level. Be curious about what they’re curious about. Let them lead sometimes. Join their world for a little while.
Any meaningful play together is good play.
And if LEGO happens to be something your child loves, we’ve got a few ideas to help you play with it in a different way.
At Motivate Kids, our OTs love finding creative ways to use children’s interests and familiar toys. With a few simple changes, something like LEGO can create opportunities to explore communication, fine motor skills, visual processing, planning, problem-solving and more.
So grab the LEGO you already have at home and try one of these three OT-inspired ideas together.
LEGO Mission:
Rather than giving your child something to copy, give their LEGO a problem to solve.
Choose a mission and see what they come up with:
Can you build a bridge strong enough to hold a full water bottle?
Can you create a LEGO maze and get a marble all the way from start to finish?
Can you make a boat that floats with a LEGO passenger on board?
Can you build a ramp that sends a LEGO car towards a target?
Then test it!
Did it work the way you expected? What could you change? Is there another way you could approach it?
The fun isn’t about finding one “right” solution. It’s in coming up with an idea, testing it and discovering what happens next.
What’s happening behind the play?
Open-ended challenges like these create opportunities to explore planning, problem-solving, visual-spatial skills, flexible thinking, creativity and persistence.
They’re skills children draw on when starting and organising tasks, approaching schoolwork, adapting when something doesn’t go as expected and finding different ways to navigate everyday challenges.
Change the challenge: Keep the mission completely open-ended, or add different materials, parameters or a teammate to change the challenge.
Back-to-back Build
One person creates a small build, then has to describe exactly what they’ve made without showing it. The other person’s challenge is to recreate it using only the instructions they hear.
“Put the long red brick underneath the yellow one.”
“Add the small blue piece to the left.”
When you’re finished, turn around for the big reveal. How close did you get? Then swap roles!
What’s happening behind the play?
There’s a lot going on in this seemingly simple challenge. It creates opportunities to explore communication, listening, sequencing, spatial language, working memory and perspective-taking.
These are skills children draw on throughout their day when following instructions, communicating their ideas, completing multi-step tasks and working alongside others.
Change the challenge: Start with just a few pieces and simple directions, or gradually add more pieces and more detailed instructions.
Lego Rescue & Build
For this one, put the building instructions away and grab a pair of kitchen tongs!
Start by colouring a few scraps of paper to make simple colour cards. Mix them up, then pick one.
Whatever colour you choose, use the tongs to “rescue” a matching LEGO piece from the pile.
Keep picking colours and rescuing pieces until you’ve collected 10.
Then comes the creative challenge: what can you make using only the pieces you’ve rescued?
A tiny creature? A strange vehicle? A completely abstract creation? There are no rules for this bit. See where those 10 pieces take you.
What’s happening behind the play?
Using tongs brings hand strength, grasp, hand-eye coordination and motor planning into the activity. Searching for the right colour adds visual scanning and attention, while the final build invites creativity, planning and flexible thinking.
These skills connect with lots of everyday activities, from drawing, writing and using scissors to managing cutlery, getting dressed and finding what we need amongst other objects.
Change the challenge: Try larger LEGO and easy-to-grip tongs, change the number of pieces to collect, or experiment with different tongs and ways of choosing which piece comes next.
An OT lens on play
For children, play is an important occupation in its own right. It’s one of the ways they explore their world, express ideas, connect with others and spend their time doing something meaningful to them.
For an Occupational Therapist, play can also give us valuable opportunities to understand and explore the many skills that sit underneath a child’s everyday participation.
The clinical thinking is in understanding what we’re exploring and observing, how it connects with an individual child’s goals, and how an activity can be adapted to create the right level of challenge.
But at home, you don’t need to turn play into therapy.
You don’t need the perfect activity, the perfect words or even the perfect LEGO creation.
Sometimes, simply sitting alongside your child, following their lead and enjoying something they enjoy is enough.
So choose a challenge, tip out the LEGO and see where it takes you.
And if your carefully planned LEGO mission turns into something completely different?
That’s okay too.
Happy playing these school holidays.
