Leggo my Lego

How do you sort out a bucket of the miscellaneous? 

Teaching children to sort Legos is quite the challenge.  Information architecture is not easy such as is an orange a fruit or a color or both?

Out of context a six dot block is also brown and a rectangle is not round but how it is used makes one question what bin it goes in.

What cup do you put an eight spot green block or a one dot yellow block? Is it one level, two or three?  Is it one row wide and tall or a flat 3x3 to plant a tree?  How can we create a city?

What do we do with the firemen, tires, horses and waterslides?  What happens when the instructions ask for a missing piece? Can we work as a team to be at peace?

Can Dad create an XML vocabulary for Lego parts from which he could use an XSLT process to make perceptions align?  In this context that might be benign.  No schema to be found here.  It would be too rigid and the lego room in the basement is too frigid for me to create and relate. 

If I invest in a robot kit when they can build a "Penrose Staircase" would they be at their best?  Will they get any rest? Maybe we just dig in and have fun looking for that elusive bowl shape thing that finishes off the cafe next to the castle with an outhouse nearby so the astronaut has a space to pee.  That would be fine with me.

Sometimes being a Dad is just about the simple things.