A Home Lab/Shop For Kids?

sharp-bang writes "When I was growing up, my Dad let my brother and I have the run of his wood shop, and kept up a steady stream of Lego kits, Estes model rockets, chemistry sets, Heathkit projects, and other fun science stuff from the Edmund Scientific catalog, and the rest was history. I'd like to give my kids that kind of experience. If your kids were interested in science, computers, robots, and building stuff, how would you build and outfit a lab/shop for them (and you) to play in?"

Comments

Half of the innocent stuff I did as a kid...

[NotQuiteReal]

Is probably illegal now.

I doubt you can even buy the same science kits anymore.

My brother and I had hours of fun doing all sorts of "science", but it usually ended it burning or blowing up something.We probably took years off our lives hacking out great clouds of purple smoke from god knows what... but it usually involved sulpher and potasium chloride, and magnesium (gotta let the retinas get some fun too - no use ruining just your lungs.)

We did eventually develop an appreciation for goggles, ventilation and gloves.

Back then, the cops would just say "don't launch rockets in your yard anymore" and that was it.

I also remember carrying .22 rifles thru suburban San Diego, on the way to a gravel pit for plinking. Only once were we stopped by a sheriff, who admonished us to make sure those weapons were unloaded and to go home.

This was all just a couple of years before Brenda Spencer of "I Don't Like Mondays" fame. Talk about ruining it for the rest of us.

I think we even had some Jarts.

If we did that now, we'd be surrounded by SWAT and branded terrorists. Same stuff, different perceptions.

Oh yeah, Get off my lawn!