Thoughts on Creative Play for Grown-Ups

“Tinkering School is a place where kids can pick up sticks and hammers and other dangerous objects and be trusted. Trusted not to hurt themselves. And trusted not to hurt others.” – Gever Tulley

What Gever and…

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Learning and Memories – Tell Us About Yours

I have a scar on my left index finger where I learned an important lesson about pocket knife safety when I was eleven years old. I had forgotten about it until I’d re-watched Gever’s TED talk on…

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Dangerous Assignment … Choose Your Own Dangerous Things

Dad? What are cooties?

It’s one of the oldest questions known to human existence, right? Okay, well, that might be slight exaggeration, but it does seem to be a “right of passage” sort of question that all…

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Adventure Playground

Adventure Playground, Huntington Beach, Ca


Did you get a chance to see the latest from Tinkering School last week? Coming home to see those photos after a day at Adventure Playground made me feel like I was almost…

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Take a Hike … Without a Map

Hello all. My name is Mark Heisten. I’m this week’s guest blogger. And I’m the father of two sons, ages eight and five, who have numerous bumps, scrapes and bruises (and early-onset wisdom) to show that they…

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A Dangerous Season


Summer seems to draw out nostalgic feelings in every adult. Personal memories frame our expectations for our own child’s summer activities. I am certainly no different but my ‘tween daughter is growing up in a huge city…

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Warning, Danger Ahead

“Oh, you may get a few little cuts and scrapes — that’s inevitable. But don’t hurt yourself just because you didn’t pay attention to what you were doing.” 
— from Introduction to “Fifty Dangerous Things”

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Okay, I couldn’t resist sharing this

My old work colleage Eddie Hernandez blogs about a very tinkering-oriented way to clean a children’s toy castle repurposed as a hamster habitat.

Added on edit: Eddie pointed me to this earlier entry wherein

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My last guest blog for this shift… and tinkering on TV

I’ve come to the end of my guest week. I’ll be handing the keyboard to Mary Beth Trautwein starting tomorrow, as the Seniors start at Tinkering School.

I’ve had fun doing this, and I hope…

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Friday: gateway to tinkering with stuff

It’s Friday! And it was payday at Nameless Employer, which means a small group of us go for Thai food at lunch.

Which has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with what I did when I got home after…

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