Tinkering Labs Review

In May, my son (4 at the time, now 5) participated in "My First Science Fair" hosted by one of the local libraries in Boise. We decided to make a robot car using the directions from a blog. I bought parts from Amazon, a craft store and a dollar store. Many of the components didn't work well together and we had to fiddle with it quite a bit. We finally had to ask my husband, who has an engineering background, for help. It took us several days and hours to get it to work properly. It was a good experience for my son, but highly frustrating at times. The components and parts roughly cost around $20 and at times flimsy, not reusable for other projects and would break apart easily.


I wish I had known about Tinkering Labs prior to this experience. Tinkering Labs have Electric Motor Catalyst Kits that can be adapted for multiple projects and can be reused again and again. They are easy to clean-up and come with convenient storage bags. The kit is also very kid-friendly and I was highly impressed with the thoroughness of making everything easy-to-use and the quality of the parts. My son wanted to build a machine that drew curvy lines. It took us just a few minutes to assemble and everything worked properly. For younger kids, I would suggest following one of the suggested projects and as they get older, they can create their own. The price may seem expensive, but I think it's totally worth it considering you can easily dissemble a project and reassemble it to use it for something else (and considering what we paid for parts for 1 project in May). This kit is very STEM worthy and I think it's a must for classrooms, home use, preschool and homeschooling. I want to reiterate that I was very, very impressed with the quality of the kit. It was a vastly different experience than what we experienced in May with roughly the same components but of a vastly higher quality geared for kids usage. I would highly recommend this kit. It's something we will be reusing several times in our home. The kit does say for 8+, but with an adult's help it can be fun for preschoolers and kindergartners. To learn more about Tinkering Labs Electric Motor Catalyst Kits, click here.


Please note that I received a free sample to help facilitate this review, however, my opinions remain my own. Please note that there are Amazon affiliate links in this review.