Block Building for Children

Architect Lester Walker's Block Building for Children : Making Buildings of the World with the Ultimate Construction Toyshows several interesting projects for a set of Unit Blocks (aka Kindergarten Blocks), but uses a somewhat odd block mix that is hard to match using any normal set of blocks (though Barclay Blocks does offer a special set for use with this book).

After months of muddled cogitation, I finally set out a few days ago to make the missing blocks. I've now actually cut and sanded the board blocks, and hope today to cut and sand the dowels. I'm pretty happy with myself, but the noise and fuss of the power tools has put me into a sensory overload condition.

I'm not sure how my parents fit into all this. The easy part is that getting the basic unit block set was made possible by some money my dad gave me for setting up his copier for him, but there's more to it than that.

I went and had lunch with them this week.

Even without any specific contextual PTSD triggers, I came out of it badly PTSD disrupted, and looking at several days of recovery. Pursuing the block-making was partly intended as a distraction and recovery aid. Doing the power tool activities was partly an exploration to see if the adverse effects of that would be cumulative with the PTSD or more in parallel.

I know that associated sensory & PTSD triggers can be cumulative, but I waited until after I had gotten over the sensory overload from the restaurant. I thought at the least that the benefit/cost ratio would be better when I needed the boost. I'm not sure how it all balances out. I may never be.

But at least I'll have my blocks.

From the book, with modifications [BlockPlay].