LEGO is Danish

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One of the interesting things about Denmark would be Lego.  Lego is a line of plastic construction toys that are made by The Lego Group.  This is a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. 

Lego has a very interesting history.  Many years ago, a carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen was down on his luck.  He lost his business and soon after he lost his wife, but he was not the type of man who easily gave up.  He had to take care of his sons.  One day, he made a toy and when he saw how happy his sons were with what he made, he decided to make toys for a living.  He used the finest wood to put together his creations.  When he thought of a name for his company, he got it from the Danish phrase “leg godt”, which means “play well”.   That’s where the name Lego came from.

As they continued producing different kinds of toys, they came upon an idea.  Godfred, Ole’s son, thought that the problem with the toys that time was that children were given ready-made solutions.   The toys needed an idea and a system built around it.  He wanted to put system into play.   He believed children needed something that will strengthen their imagination and creativity.   So, he tried to put Lego into a system and it made a splash.  Then Lego started producing the first Lego system of play.  

 

Children could then make houses from the Lego bricks.   The town plan gave play a realistic town setting.  With this, children learned many things such as traffic safety.  They could play with the Lego system for hours.  These children were the luckiest children in the world.  It was a breakthrough so Godfred decided to sell it outside of Denmark.  It became so popular that he managed to sell it to many countries.   That’s how Lego came to be.  With a child’s imagination, Lego can be anything in the world over and over again. 

1 Comment

  1. I was born in Denmark but immigrated to Canada with my parents when I was 2 yrs. old. For Christmas our Grandparents sent us Lego every year. I somehow got all the Lego in the family and have since passed it on to my 4 year old grandson. He loves playing with it as long as we play with him and do the creating. I don’t mind this but would like to incourage him to try his own. He playing with the larger bricks called Duplo when he was younger but again wasn’t much into his own creating. My question is: “How can I encourage him to do his own creations?” He gets frustrated and annoyed when we refuse and go on to do our own thing. Will this com in time or is he destined to have to creativity in him?
    Tak ska du haj
    Jenny Jensen

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