Construction set:Boston Manor Building Set

Construction sets are as simple as a pile of rectangular blocks and as intricate as sets designed to replicate Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Waters and Guggenheim Museum. Child experts have long known that the importance of construction sets is in what kids make of them--literally. Using building sets require imagination, creativity, planning, critical thinking, and strategizing--all skills that kids will rely on when they enter the adult world. Since the nineteenth century, toy makers have tried to produce a better construction set. The wooden blocks were succeeded by such twentieth-century classics as Lincoln Logs, Erector Sets, LEGOs, and K'NEX. The Kenner Girder and Panel construction sets of the 1960s inspired engineer Paul Flacker to design Bridge Street sets for his young son. In 2005, Flacker offered new girder and panel sets assembled in his family's garage. The sets available include, in addition to the girder and panel set for constructing buildings, a Bridge and Turnpike set and a Hydrodynamic Set with water tanks, pipes, valves, and an electric pump.