I read a recent article about how to engage children in the digital age -- and they specifically mentioned model-building as
a great way to get the young'uns to use all 10 fingers, good exercise for hand/eye coordination, and a great way for parent/child to interact.
Here's the link: http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/basic-model-building-kids-23017.html
Good article - I would even say getting children started with LEGOs as a route to scale modeling. I used LEGOs with my son (he has Asperger's Syndrome) to him how to recognize colors, shapes and count (the number of pins on a block).
It might be interesting to have a LEGOs category in our next show - judging criteria might need to be modified or we just give a certificate of participation for each young modeler (under age 12) entering a model.
Regards,
Steve