Gears of my childhood

This is for Learning Creative Learning's second week activity. We were asked to read Seymour Papert’s essay on the “Gears of My Childhood” and write about an object from our childhood that interested and influenced us.

Honestly, I couldn't think of one specific item like Papert's gears. What I do remember was that I played with what was available. Because my mother's a civil engineer, I had drawing materials and made child-version house plans and transparent-walled houses. Because my father built things, unfinished cabinets were transformed into ships. Unused blocks of wood worked as keyboards. I just had to draw letters and other keys on them. I liked the feeling of pushing combinations of buttons like what they do on planes and ships. 

Pretending to be a scientist, flowers (particularly gumamela and santan) and leaves were mashed, kept in a martayolet (LOL I don't know what this is in English) bottle, offered at the grotto, and used by my cousin as wound medicine. :)

I watched a lot of movies then. The television, while a problem for some parents, was for me a source of inspiration. I recall several instances when I stayed up late with or without lights, with or without companion, just to watch a movie. That must have been the reason, because I never had books then, why I made up stories. My childhood playmates and I would sometimes act the stories out. Sometimes I write down the corniest things, with illustrations.

Then there was the radio. I would always turn the volume up so I could sing along. I didn't want anyone else to hear me. When my uncle gave me a little keyboard, having no formal music education didn't stop me from writing songs. I could always pretend. These things might imply that I can act and write, but I assure you I'm not very good at both. The nearest thing to acting that I can do, and in private, is mimicking.

Overall, I had varied activities as a child, most of them concerning the arts, just like what I'm doing now although in still rather undeveloped qualities. What I can't understand though is why I can be good with Mathematics. I wasn't aware of it until I won some academic contest at about 5 years old and have been interested with it eversince. Maybe it has to do with growing up having a sari-sari store? Maybe because of what I play with, I developed a sense of structure, shape, navigation? Or maybe I just had pretty good logic skills as what an early story my father always relates suggests? But how do children develop logic?