Toys can have a major impact on a child's life. Most toys for children are not created to be gender related, but the way the child interacts with them, influences what they learn. They teach the child basic skills and concepts, whether masculine or feminine, that can be useful in their future. When I was a child one of my favorite toys that I played with were Legos. Legos is not sought to be for just girls or guys, but instead for both. Carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen created Legos in 1932. By playing with legos, I adapted the skills of using creativity and imagination, how to build and construct, and also basic engineering concepts, which I still have today. .
First, the traits of creativity and imagination, normally observed to be more feminine, were learned by my interaction with legos. I built various structures by arranging the pieces to make my own unique object. As a child, just like many others, I was not permitted a lot of freedom to do what I pleased, so playing with legos gave me the freedom to follow directions or create a new design. The assorted colors mainly of red, blue, yellow and white also allowed me to create artwork and not just structures. These colors appealed to me as a child and I enjoyed placing them in certain ways to make my construction "beautiful". I remember shuffling through a bucketful of legos just to find a block of a certain color when I could have simply chosen the same block of another color. I agree with Dr. Roberto Araujo when he stated, "any toys are good, except for large ones." The smallness of the legos further allowed me to be creative because I was able to place several tiny pieces to construct a larger piece. The assortment of blocks and colors allowed my creative imagination to run wild.
Next, by playing with legos, I learned basic engineering skills such as following directions in order to build and construct models, which are seen as masculine traits.