When my oldest was in second-grade, we visited a children’s museum, and I watched him have the best time in an area they had designated as their “Tinker Station”.
I made my way to IKEA and grabbed everything I needed to turn their current playroom space into what we now call our “Tinker Lab”. At first I set up tables where they could tinker and create.
Most all of their STEM toys and activities were organized on a KALLAX shelf in the closet for them to pull out anytime they wanted to play with them, and then their Legos were sorted under their table.
Paint, playdough, etc. continued to hang out in our kitchen area – but all of our other art supplies were housed here for the boys to access anytime they like!
They were THRILLED about their new space! They had outgrown much of what was in their playroom, so to have their play area transformed into a big kid space was really exciting for them!