Make Your Own Tinker’N Box

Kid Inventor’s Day is celebrated every January, in honor of Benjamin Franklin – another kid inventor! Did you know he invented the first pair of swimming flippers at age 12!

I’ll show you how to set up a tinker box that is sure to inspire creativity – EVERY DAY!

Tap into kids’ natural curiosity and ingenuity with this idea to create a Tinker Box for Kid Inventor’s Day!

What can inspire creativity in a Tinker Box?

You can put all sorts of household items into a Tinker Box. Anything kids can use to create, construct, invent, and even demolish! Think of it as an extension of the sensory bins used for babies and toddlers. It’s a sensory bin gone LARGE!

Find a tinker box container.

Consider a large shoe box you may have in a closet, one big enough for boots, with a hinge-like lid making it perfect for the task. And, the box is something kids can decorate later if they want.

Other ideas might be an old tool box, a photo storage box, a large salad tub container, or even a drawstring bag.

Fill the tinker box with items kids can use

You don’t have to spend a dime to create a tinker box, which is the beauty of it. Just walked around the house, opening drawers and putting bits of this and that into the box as long as it is safe for them to use and play with.

Things like:

• Tape (Scotch, masking, and painter’s tape work best for younger children. Duck/duct tape and/or electrical tape for older)

• Glue sticks or small white school glue bottles

• Paperclips

• Carabiners

• Binder clips

• Rubber bands

• Wooden clothespins

• Plastic spoons

• Cork pieces (perfect for floating inventions)

• Pipe cleaners

• Balloons

• Straws

• Wires (not with plugs in them, but small pieces of copper or metal wiring for crafts)

• Nuts and bolts and any stray hardware

• Tongue depressors and popsicle sticks

• Egg crates and small cardboard boxes from food items (they’ll love to poke things into the sides, or tape them together to make a spaceship)

• Leftover party streamers

• Old CDs (these are starting to be hard to come by!)

• Aluminum foil (fold up and possibly place in a zip bag so it doesn’t get torn)

• Dental floss (makes great string for older kids; please don’t put in a toddler/preschool box as there is risk of strangling)

• Magnetic metal containers (to store small parts)

• Pencils and/or markers

• Scissors (older kids)

The list of items you could use to create a tinker box could go on and on. As long as the item is safe for children, toss it in. The worst that could happen is they won’t use it. But… I bet they will. Open-ended sensory bins have a way of bringing out the kid inventor in everyone (even adults)!

Option: You can bring them to Tinker’N for a wide variety of unique materials and tools to tinker with or purchase a box of unique materials to tinker with.

Every kid becomes an inspired inventor with a Tinker’N Box!

To celebrate Kid Inventor’s Day, give your child a tinker box and watch them light up as they set about exploring each piece, asking questions and seeing what else it could be.

What other items would you include in a tinker box? What kinds of activities keep your kids engaged for lengths of time?