- Planning and decision making (Do we follow the directions step by step or assemble and paint sections in our own order)
- Patience (waiting for glues to set and paints to dry)
- Hand/eye coordination (way beyond the button mashing hand eye coordination touted as a plus by video game companies)
- Perseverance (Working Through the frustration of assembling a particularly intricate portion of the model)
You may be wondering if your child is old enough to take on a project like building a plastic model airplane. You'll be happy to know that model planes have been designed with a very broad range of ages and difficulties in mind. There are even companies that develop and sell snap together models which require no paint or glue.
The hobby of assembling models is also (at the low end) very inexpensive to get started in. For just a few bucks you and your children will have hours of fun and good quality time together.
There's no reason not to introduce your child to this fun, inexpensive, and rewarding hobby.