My son has had one of those toy tool benches since he was three years old, but he never showed extraordinary interest in the thing before. Sure, he would play with it occasionally, but it was never his favorite or anything like that.
Recently, however, he has been showing more and more interest in real hand tools. We keep a bunch of basic tools (hammer, screwdriver, wrench, etc.) in one of the closets here, just for doing quick touch-up work around the house. Well, my son has been taking those tools out of the closet and has been busy disassembling things!
He has mostly stuck to his own toys, using the screwdriver to take off battery covers and whatnot. But after he got bored with that, he moved to the kitchen where he promptly proceeded to remove several cabinet knobs before I wandered in and put a stop to the project.
I guess it’s good that my son has such interest in tools and how things work. As long as he doesn’t start taking apart cell phones, televisions, and stereos, he’ll be fine. I’ve just got to remind him to stick to experimenting with his own stuff!