My oldest son came roaring in on children’s books at an early age. My wife gets the most credit here, as she spent the most time at home with our kids.  More on that later.  My son discovered the big, wide world through books, and took off like rocket, devouring anything he could get hands on. At age 10, he put together his Christmas present, a 3 ft. long battleship made out of snap blocks, before midnight. The detailed instruction sheet was over 100 pages long. I was floored. By age 12, he was reading a manuals in bed at night. At age 13, he was researching building materials for me and ordering literally tens of thousands of dollars worth of materials for us to build our chalet with.