Wondertime: Growing Up Erector Web Products - and More Joys of Parenting Young Children

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Nuts and Bolts

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Great Construction Toys

Just try to keep your hands off your kids' girders

You know what you do with the instructions that come with an Erector set? Throw 'em out. (At least, once you get going.) As a kid, I dutifully built the "official" models — which were superb tutorials — and then never looked back. Nowhere did I find plans for my centrifugal-force tester or miniature guillotines or moon bases, my Evel Knievel jumps and working catapults. Some designs were disasters, some I saved by tinkering. Either way, I learned a lot about How Things Work — and how sore my fingertips could get and still function.

I wasn't alone. "Children love to build," says Joan Almon, coordinator of the Alliance for Childhood. "It's the most basic form of play, using any material, even sticks and stones." And if kids can create fairy houses out of sticks, imagine what they can do with steel girders and plates. "These sets have a dual appeal: They're basic building material, but also very much in the mechanical, human-made world," Almon says. "They speak to the child who is drawn to the complicated world of construction."

Next: Construction Toys for All Ages

By Gregory Lauzon

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