My son was having a hard time making sure that his legos would fit in the design he was creating the other night. This task was in no way mundane for him, but for a parent, it was an interesting opportunity to talk about shapes, colors, and to model how to cope when we get frustrated when something doesn't work out. I asked him about what he was trying to build, and what was important about the design, and then I suggested he sort the legos by shape so that he could decide where to put bigger and smaller ones. Not only did he enjoy the actual sorting, but he also didn't get frustrated when he ran out of legos of a specific size, because he could see how many of each he had left.