I decided to resurrect this topic I started about 2 years ago because yesterday I attended the wedding of my almost 32 year old son and had the time of my life.
As I mentioned in my original post here, I believe my son's mental development was enhanced when I introduced him to Lionel trains as an infant.
Coincidentally, this afternoon my wife and I watched a TV program on our DVR about Mr. Rodgers. During that program, Mr. Rodgers mentioned that young children crave control. Did you ever let a young child grab hold of the handles of a ZW and control the movement of a locomotive? Their joyfulness when they do that is palpable.
Getting back to trains and a child's mental development, I remember reading somewhere that toy or model trains can be very stimulating to a young child, and that stimulation is very good for their mental development. Do you agree?
Although I cannot prove my hypothesis, it seems to be true for my son. When he was an infant, I let him grab hold of the ZW handles and run an indestructible Postwar Lionel steam engine around the Christmas tree. Then, I built a first layout on the ping pong table in the basement, and let him experience the delight of running trains in my arms under my supervision on a regular basis.
I am very proud of him. He is very smart (smarter than me) and at a very early age was very interested in opening up the locomotives, accessories, and switch tracks to see how they worked and how to repair them. He graduated #2 in his class in mechanical engineering, and is doing fine as a project manager of a construction company. He is a very intelligent, independent-minded, critical thinker.
Although he has other interests now, including being deeply in love with his bride, I have no doubt that he will someday return to model railroading, especially when he has a child. It's in his DNA to do so because his paternal grandfather did the same thing with me as an infant, that I did with him.
Don't discount the little girls. They can be just as stimulating for them as it is for little boys. My now almost 34 year old daughter also loved the trains when she was an infant. I let her run the trains with the same ZW, and told her countless stories about the O scale little people and animals who rode in the gondolas.
Do you also believe that toy or model trains can be very stimulating to young children and aid them in their mental development? If so, why?
Arnold
