Having the old Tonka toys next to Baz's MegaBlok "CAT Company" construction vehicles also highlights the difference thirty years makes in toy technology, consumer sensibilities, and child safety. Tonka's use of metal seems inconceivable these days, and I'm sure they didn't come with the long list of warnings about their use. Even now, watching the boys play with them, I wonder if Tonka used lead-free paint (I turned out relatively OK and lead-free, I guess).
But Tonka also strove for realism, and their toys look less like approximations of construction equipment than miniature versions of the real thing.
Maybe I'm just biased. But it was great seeing my old stuff again, still in working condition and bringing happiness to yet other children, this time my sons. Maybe we can keep both sets intact, so that when Baz and Hadrien have kids, they'll have something to pass on as well.
I've still got my Star Wars character and playset collection to share, but that's something the kids aren't into yet, so we'll save that for later on.
This continues Baz's fascination with building and construction, which is truly in evidence now as we prepare to construct a house. We've got a really great architect, Denise De Castro, working with us. Denise has translated our two preliminary floor plans into working models, to help us appreciate the flow and layout better.
Needless to say, Baz was fascinated when he saw the models. He's been interested since we showed him and Hadrien the floor plans, pointing out where their rooms are going to be and asking them if the locations are all right. But he had trouble understanding the 2D drawings: they didn't match, after all, with the mental picture of a house.
What's great though is that he understood how the floor plans worked as soon as he saw the models. With hardly any prompting, he put floor plans and models side-by-side, and matched the room layout of the 2D plan to the 3D model.
I think that means he's really spatial!
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