February 11th is Thomas Edison’s Birthday and in honor of this great man we are celebrating your child’s spirit of inventiveness! Creativity and new ideas come easily for children – they don’t doubt themselves the way adults sadly have learned to do. Many great inventors and creative geniuses have described themselves as being child-like in their approach; they remove the preconceptions and look at something with fresh eyes. Your child already has that gift; now give them the space to explore it!
“Many of life’s failures are men who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
Though there were other more comfortable rooms in Edison’s home; this nook with all his books and its proximity to his work area allowed Edison to remain immersed in his work, day and night.
Today’s young Edison would love an area that kept him in the action and maximized even a small space to give him room to create! Use some industrial touches like in the room above and plenty of storage for those invention materials.
From Apartment Therapy
Any inventor will tell you they need to be able to record their ideas as they occur! Make sure you include plenty of interactive spaces like these blackboard walls from Design guru, or the metal walls over the desk above for keeping records, testing hypotheses or doodling.
Lots of interactive materials like simple screws, straws, string, washer, etc. encourage open play. And when we don’t have instruction books to follow we think more creatively. Be sure you present the materials in an open unstructured way for them to be used as the inventor sees fit. And then include a space, maybe just a shelf or a whole bookcase where they can display their final creations!
Create a fun multi-purpose workspace with something like this great vintage table and these stools. In a pinch they also work for tea parties or art centers.
From Design Squish
Spotlight the work area with a tribute to Edison in this fantastic light fixture!
From Bay12
Make the concept of time a hands-on experience with these great gear clocks available in do-it-yourself kits from Wooden-gear-clocks.com
Or start on a smaller scale with a great invention idea book.
Add in a tribute to another great inventor with some telephone fun!
Anything that inspires your child is the perfect item…we are ready for a whole new generation of creative genius!
I LOVE the book Cheaper by the Dozen a true family memoir where they describe the bathroom with the Periodic Table painted on the ceiling, the dining room with the solar system above the wainscoting. Any surface in the home is a surface for learning.
Here are real science equations to use as wall décor in any inventor’s space. Maybe bathroom walls? We found these equations in Discover Magazine, a favorite read of many inventors!
Forget no bucks—without this equation there’d really be no Buck Rogers. This is the equation that made space travel possible.
This equation puts a limit on the destructive power of one of the most awesome celestial entities believed to exist.
Even if you don’t recognize the math, you’ve probably heard of this equation’s name in more than a few shows and movies. Essential to modern physics, it comes in many flavors—and has even appeared in a Wierd Al Yankovic video.
Important for some nuclear-weapon-related plots, this equation ultimately also provided the name for one of the most successful series of video games.
The general form of this equation pops up throughout science, but this particular version has relevance to scary plague movies.
As always, if you want to turn your family’s space into a YES Space, check out our design packages and contact us.
If you enjoyed this article you might also like:
.jpg)
Connect with Barbara