Arrange engaging hands-on ideas

The Schoolhouse sweet spot is early childhood (ages 3-8). Most of the prompts are open-ended and exploratory, making them accessible and friendly for families with younger children, children of multiple ages, and older children who enjoy exploring and tinkering.  

You'll gain access to your hub as soon as you sign up. Once you enroll, we'll send you an email with your login details.

You'll have access to Schoolhouse as long as your membership is active. 

The activities are EASY to set up, even if you don't consider yourself creative. The wide range of art, science, and tinkering projects are designed as starting points for further discovery, and leave room for experimentation, ideation, and creativity. It's all grounded in best practices so your child has fun while they learn and grow. Each activity comes with a downloadable PDF, short-format video (+ transcript) that you can watch with your child or that they can watch independently. Families who don't want to access video can still have a rich Schoolhouse experience with PDFs alone. Some of our members keep activity binders for children to flip through and select activities on their own time. 

When you join Schoolhouse we'll invite you to work through exercises that can help you establish a creative habit. Building on that, each week we'll send you a curated calendar with 5 prompts (plus a supply list and tips for success). If building a creative habit is important to you, set aside time to try at least one prompt each week and you'll be on your way to developing more creative confidence. For families who would rather choose their own adventure, pick and choose from our growing library and go at your own pace. Implement as you learn and take as much time as you need. 

We like to keep things simple and our focus is largely on basic materials like crayons, markers, paper, watercolor paint, playdough (we'll give you an easy DIY recipe), and household supplies, so you won't have to dig deep into your pocket to join in. Every now and then we'll introduce more unique materials because they're fun. When possible, we'll share alternative supplies for these items. 

TinkerLab Schoolhouse is designed for families to use with their child or children at home. One membership per family. The home membership is not designed for classrooms, art classes, art studios, businesses, or to be shared by multiple families.

Teachers, art studio owners, or playgroup leaders: Please email us at rachelle at tinkerlab dot com and we can set up a classroom membership for you (extra fees apply).

We welcome makers with all skills and have helped so many parents who were new to making. Our simple projects carve a clear and easy path to open-ended making, and our four-stage TinkerLab Journey will help you develop the creative skills you need to support your child along the way.

We're happy if you're happy. Schoolhouse is risk-free. If it's not a good fit, email us within 7 days for your money back. Once you're a paying member, you can cancel at any time and will only pay for the current billing cycle. 

Yes! We recognize that some families can use extra help and we don't want anyone to get left behind for lack of resources. If you're facing financial hardship, scholarships are available. Apply here.