Sharing Part Of My Childhood

I still remember my first building toy: Lincoln Logs. I loved them, and I loved to construct little cabins with them. But, then along came LEGO and everything changed. I spent hours building vehicles and houses and whatever else my imagination could dream up. Other building toys came and went (Construx and Robotix being the two most popular), but LEGO was always my favourite.

In fact, even up to today, LEGO holds a special place in my heart. Here is a snapshot of my desk at work:


Once my daughter was (reasonably) past the "let me explore the world by placing everything in my mouth" phase, we got her some Mega Bloks. (Why Mega Bloks as opposed to LEGO-manufactured Duplo? At the time we were purchasing them, the Mega Bloks were on sale. In hindsight, it was the right move, since Mega Bloks licenses Dora, so we can ensure an addiction a love for building like her father's.)

She took to them immediately, and has recently progressed from the "stick them together randomly" phase into the "make a tower taller than myself" phase:


Now? We can pull out the bin of blocks and play for a half an hour or more (and those with toddlers know that spending more than ten minutes on an activity is like an eternity). I watch her stack and lock the blocks together, occasionally trying to teach her about stability and balance (and only rarely bringing out physics or engineering terms like "structural stability" or "critical tipping angle") and I am taken back to the time that I used to build mini-cities of my own design.

---

This post has been prepared as part of the Parent Bloggers Network blog blast entitled Blast From The Past on behalf of Highlights Magazine and their new publication for ages 2-6, High Five.