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After years of buying and building LEGO sets, my six-year-old son is tearing through the first level of the Master Builder Academy. He's fascinated by micro-building, and generally seems liberated after learning some of the fundamentals of LEGO design and building.

There are so many books and blogs, but many of them just show (fantastic) finished projects. I'm looking for the best published material (of any era), websites and individual blog posts that teach techniques and ways of thinking about building with LEGO -- that show and tell.

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I'd particularly recommend The Unoffical LEGO Builder's Guide. It covers all of the basics and gets into many of the more complex building techniques.

If you're interested in getting right into the details, The Unofficial LEGO Advanced Building Techniques Guide by Didier Enjary covers a wide variety of building techniques and is freely available. I don't know a lot about this document, but I first came across it on The Brothers Brick.

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    These are great. I followed the links at the bottom of Enjary's wonderful guide and ended up at some old Brickish Association newsletters. Good stuff there, too.
    – Jeff Severns Guntzel
    Apr 12, 2013 at 2:16
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I highly recommend the LEGO Ideas Book by DK Publishing. It shows several building techniques and ideas for projects and it is full of full color large pictures and building steps for several of the projects. Also, all the LEGO books by No Starch Press. They are more advanced, but with the speed your son is going he might enjoy them. Get one and see how he likes it and then get the others.

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  • I've heard great things about the LEGO Ideas Book, but had never seen the No Starch Press offerings. Thanks much!
    – Jeff Severns Guntzel
    Apr 12, 2013 at 2:18
  • I second No Starch, especially the trio of books from Yoshihito Isogawa.
    – gev
    Apr 12, 2013 at 5:53
  • Isogawa's books look really great. Both of my sons love playing with their grandmother's Dacta Technic collection. She's a grade school teacher and brings them home with her for summer vacation.
    – Jeff Severns Guntzel
    Apr 12, 2013 at 12:03
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Don't forget the most important resource: LEGO parts.

In my opinion, there will be a point later on where you will want to consider whether offering yet another book is worth it versus spending the same amount on bricks.

In my opinion, this is a key factor when you'll want the creative design process to successfully shift from printed documentation to your son's brain - you'll want him to be able to come with his own ideas too. Of course, this may not be for now, but don't forget to ask him from time to time if he prefers more books or more bricks.

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    I'm very grateful for this. And I could not agree more. In the end, these resources are things I want to have absorbed myself so that I can help nudge him along whatever paths he opens up for himself through play and experimentation - it's to know what to put in front of him when play makes him hungry for that kind of learning. But that approach, too, can get in the way of the kind of learning you're talking about here, so I'm very glad for your response!
    – Jeff Severns Guntzel
    Apr 12, 2013 at 11:55

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