Podcast: How Emily and Liam Wound Up on LEGO Masters

Brave Writer Podcast

Our guest on the podcast today is a Brave Writer mom, Emily Mohajeri Norris. She homeschooled her kids, using our Brave Writer program extensively. She and her children have taken online classes and used our writing manuals to boost their skills. She’s also read my books and applied what she learned there to her teaching and parenting while personalizing it to the needs of her and her family.

But that’s not the most amazing thing about her. Both Emily and her son, Liam, are contestants in the third season of LEGO Masters! Season 3 of LEGO Masters features 24 contestants competing in pairs against the show’s most ambitious challenges to date, with the hopes of winning a $100,000 dollar cash prize.

In this podcast episode, we go into the story of how Emily built a family culture that allowed her son to dive deeply into his passion for LEGO building—and how investing deeply in any subject allows you to:

  • grow a rich vocabulary,
  • develop cross-disciplinary skills,
  • and create a rich, meaningful life.

Show Notes

When passion seems like distraction

While Emily was always supportive of Liam’s LEGO interests, there was a time when his love and passion were so strong that he wouldn’t want to do anything else. At first, Emily was forced to limit the LEGO to one room and lock the door when it was off-limits to get Liam to do the things she thought he ought to do. Eventually, Emily’s perspective changed when she realized that integrating his passions into their homeschooling efforts was the quickest route to teaching everything he needed to learn.

The value in hardship

Following your passion isn’t always easy, however. There were plenty of setbacks along the way. Liam had set himself a personal project to build a mythical lion—a massive, five thousand-plus pieces build—that he decided to enter into a LEGO fan exhibition. On the night before the exhibition, as he brought his original LEGO creation into the living room, it toppled, breaking into many pieces. He and Emily spent hours frantically reattaching pieces before the exhibition, but they managed to rebuild it in time.

At the LEGO fan exhibition, they found out LEGO Masters season one was being cast. They had never heard of it before, but a casting director reached out to them. You may have already put together that since they are now on season three, Liam did not get into season one of the show, as they decided not to include minors. While the story does have a happy ending, it goes to show that there was plenty of hardship along the way—much of it necessary for teaching Liam valuable lessons. But being passionate about something gives kids the necessary motivation to push through those setbacks.

The opportunities a passion provides

Not only has his passion for LEGO taught Liam about engineering, design, art, history, and more—it has opened up new opportunities for his future. Liam is currently at university on scholarship and may seek (or apply) to do an internship with LEGO in Denmark. All of that came to be because he went all-in on his interests and because Emily was there to support, encourage, and lead him.

Pay attention to those early passions in your child’s life. Lean in with curiosity and see where they take you.

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