Love, love, love, love, love the workshop idea. Think of how much we learn by doing! It's fantastic! I think all of you should make the workshops for your kids! Maybe there should be a kid workshop thread!! With pics!!!!! We are learning SO MUCH by working on our house. It's just tinkering on a much more expensive level

My parents always had junk around that we could use to build stuff - even art stuff, like one-sided castoff paper from work so it didn't matter if we blew through 500 sheets in a day. We also learned a LOT by participating in set construction hours in high school theater. That's where I learned to use power tools And we ruined SO MANY cans of paint there, because none of us knew to clean out the rims before closing them up. Geez . . .

I think those formative experiences are part of why I am brave enough as an adult to try things out. Well, that, and this board . . . hmmm, which brings me to a thread idea . . .

This author has written quite a bit about tinkering: http://blog.genyes.org/index.php/tag/tinkering/
Twin Citians, if you wanted some cool finds to stock the workshop (tho all the supplies for such a workshop area could easily be obtained for free . . . ): http://www.artstart.org/artscraps-reuse-store/

Ok, hopefully you can bear with my enthusiasm for this . . .

(P.S. If you are really hardcore about education reading, check out my new favorite blog. You may not agree, but you will be challenged.)