The Official Lego® Channel on YouTube: A Safe Haven for Kids {Giveaway}

When Boy Wonder was 5 or 6, he got stuck on a level of Lego® Star Wars™ video game. My husband said, “I’ll bet there’s a video walk-through for that. Let’s search Lego® on YouTube.”

And so it began: my son’s YouTube addiction.

He could sit on YouTube all day long and do nothing but surf around and watch videos.

He loves watching video game walk-throughs, movie and game trailers, tutorials on how to whittle sticks or build rockets, you name it.

Our generation was trained to “just Google it.” HIS generation has been trained to “just YouTube it.” Because sometimes, it’s much easier to learn something by watching a visual than reading instructions, right?

But here’s the rub:

There’s a lot of really bad stuff on YouTube. If your kids aren’t old enough to be on YouTube, let this be a warning to you. You won’t believe some of the stuff that’s out there. I gasped in horror once as I watched Boy Wonder type “Spongebob” into the search bar and get presented with some very, well, “R” rated results.

Not cool by me. We’re in a constant push-pull with YouTube. The kids adore it, but I am afraid of it. The parental controls aren’t particularly strong.

So I was delighted to learn about The Official Lego® Channel on YouTube. It gets my vote for being one of the safest and most fun places on YouTube for kids of all ages!

There are over 500 videos on the channel, with more being added every day. There’s something for everybody here: mini-movies with some of the most popular Lego® themes, behind-the-scenes looks at Lego® – how they’re made and who the designers are, even tips on making cool Lego® creations.

Boy Wonder and Little CEO love making movies on their iPads, so they really loved the Lego® video on how to create a stop-motion movie with your Lego® figures and bricks. SO COOL!

One other fun feature of The Official Lego® Channel is the ability to create playlists. Your kids can save their favorite videos from the channel into a handy playlist that they can access again and again from anywhere you’ve got YouTube! Here’s how your kids can make a playlist:

· Visit Youtube.com/LEGO and watch one of your favorite videos

· Click “Video Options”

· Select “Add To Playlist”

· Sign-In using your YouTube Login

· Add your selected video to an existing playlist or create a new one

· To prevent non-LEGO® videos from being recommended, build your playlist using only Official LEGO® Channel videos.

The LEGO® The Lord of the Rings™ videos? Awesomeness. This is definitely the next video game we’re picking up in the house!

So what do you say? Let’s giveaway a $50 gift card to the Lego® store! This gift card can be used in the store or online. The winner will be selected at random. Babycenter will send the winner his or her prize approximately 6 to 8 weeks after the close of the contest. The giveaway will run from now until midnight on February 4, 2013.

***this giveaway has closed ******
There are two ways to enter for a chance to win:

1. Mandatory Entry: visit The Official LEGO® Channel and leave a comment here with a link to your favorite video on the channel!

2. Extra Entry: tweet about this giveaway and leave a separate comment here with proof of your tweet. Here’s a sample tweet for you to use:

Enter to win a $50 gift card from @Lego_Group and @KludgyMom. http://bit.ly/VrZ5W0 #giveaway #LegoYouTube

Now…if Lego® can just make a video about how we can get our kids to pick up their Legos off the floor? We’d be all good.

***this giveaway is now closed*****

This post is part of a sponsorship on BabyCenter. I received compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.

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