The very different leisure activities in which boys and girls engage as young children reflect their different interests and adult role expectations. They also offer rather different opportunities to develop certain skills and abilities useful in later practical work in science. Further, they plausibly provide different experiential bases on which later conceptual learning both in mathematics and the physical sciences might be founded. This paper presents evidence of early-established sex differences in performance in some aspects of science and mathematics, of marked differences in the frequency of engagement of boys and girls in relevant practical hobbies and other out-of-school activities, and of an early polarization in scientific interests. Interconnections between these various aspects of educational development are indicated.
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