Last spring we took our daughters to a trial Tinkergarten class. We loved it from the outset! For the rest of the spring and throughout the summer I took my daughters to Tinktergarten every weekend.
If you have kids between ages two and seven, I encourage you to find a Tinkergarten class in your area. The one in my area starts in a couple of weeks.
What’s Tinkergarten?
In short, Tinkergarten is an outdoor play group organized around the framework of a lesson. Each week’s lesson has a connection to science, cooperation, and respect. Don’t think it’s a “sit and learn” lesson. The kids are engaged in play, songs, building, digging, and songs.
Every Tinkergarten class starts with a welcoming song and ends with a closing song. The closing song is nice because it mentions every child by name and ends with “we’ll see you again next time.”
My Favorite Tinkergarten Lesson
We went to ten Tinkergarten classes last spring and summer. I have lots of pictures from all of them. Without looking at the pictures, the lesson that stands out to me is the one in which the kids walked through the woods gathering sticks, leaves, wildflowers, and dirt to make their own “nature paints.” The kids then made drawings with their nature paints.
Parents Included!
Tinkergarten isn’t a “drop ’em off and pick ’em up” type of class. Parents are encouraged to be explorers right along with their kids for the whole hour. As a parent I loved this aspect of Tinkergarten because it not only gave me bonding time with my daughters, but it also gave me lots of ideas for activities to do at home with them.
Find a Tinkergarten in Your Area
Any time is a good time to play and learn outdoors. Find a class near you!