TinkerSpace came about through a confluence of many events, but I'd like to tell you about one of the earliest realizations that led me down this path...

There was a period of time that my 3-year-old's greatest desire was to play with trains on wooden train tracks that I would put together for him. I realized how uncomfortable it made me to free-form design the track. We had purchased many individual pieces over the years and I did not have directions to follow in assembling the track. So, while I was fantastic at putting together puzzles, enjoyed recreating craft projects that I saw on the internet, and I could follow Lego instructions with ease, the thought of putting one track into the next not knowing if I was going to be able to connect the ends terrified me. It made me so uncomfortable that I realized I was telling him no or always making the same track that I had once made.

Upon realizing this was going on in my head, I noticed that my early school aged daughter was having similar difficulties. Her fear of making a mistake was crippling her in her school work and carrying over into her play.

A change needed to be made in our household!