Yes!  Your child makes their own wooden torch using our kitset which includes laser-cut pieces, electronics and instructions.

Make our kitset Bluetooth speakers and enjoy the way they work properly and give quality sound.

Tinker Tiles are a new system we have developed which enable kids to design things "in the world".  The tiles can screw onto a base board - this helps your child work out the circuit needed.  We also include lots of wire so they can take their design "off the board".

For example, they might want to make a few origami lights above their bed, or their own mini fan.

Coming in 2020, we will be releasing our new subscription kits all around the theme of exploring electronics.  Yes, there will be LEDs but we're moving into the world of remote control, boosting charge, capacitance, resistance and more!

We find it hard to give an age because it depends on your child's "makiness".

In general, our kitsets are more challenging than usual.  Often this is because children's motor skills need refining and they struggle with stripping wires, screwing in small screws and gluing pieces together.   It may be that they are still learning about following instructions carefully - so skip steps, or don't follow them.  Some adults struggle, some younger kids find it easy,  some don't use instructions, some wait for a parent's help.

You know your own child so it's safe to say that our kits should be manageable by most 10-year-olds with a little help.  Children younger than this may need a parent to assist them.  Teens age 13+ should be able to manage it on their own.

For example, Kylie says her very keen 5-year-old daughter was too young for the torch kit but sheer willpower meant that she attempted a lot of it on her own.  Her parents helped with the instructions and held things for her as she put it together.   However, she still had the satisfaction of making most of it.

In contrast, a 12-year-old at a workshop we held struggled to put the batteries in the right way and I also had to explain which way to turn a screwdriver.  This is quite common.  He was thrilled when he finished making it.

We aren't the same and need different levels of help and that's why an age range is tricky.

We design and make our kits ourselves here in NZ.

Stefan draws them up then laser-cuts them in Russell, New Zealand.

He sends them to Sophia in Auckland who packages them all up, writes instructions and sends them off to you.

We order our electronics from overseas because NZ doesn't manufacture these.

We try as much as possible to get our packaging and anything extra from NZ local sources.

We make our kits from eco-ply wood.  If you drop them, they don't shatter - unlike say, a plastic item.

One of the neat things is that if a bit falls off or a tile or wire comes loose, the child knows how to fix it because they put it together themselves.  Maybe it needs a bit more glue or a rubberband to hold it securely.  Maybe a quick tighten of a screw.

Our torch has a wide and strong beam so is perfect for camping.  Our speaker sounds good - good bass and quality sound.  You can use the Sparkle Tree year after year.

There isn't too much that can go wrong unless you give them an extremely hard life.

Yes!  In 2020 we are planning a new subscription range of kits all around our new Tinker Tiles.

Tinker Tiles by SharperThinker™ is a new system we have developed.  Each tile has an electronic component on it, such as an LED, and a unique way of wrapping wires around the corners.  This means the tiles don't need soldering and can be reused again and again.

We have developed them this way so that children get familiar with the proper "real" component - rather than something that has been artificially surrounded in plastic or magnetized.  The wrapping of the wire also promotes fine motor skills and reinforces the concept of conductivity - metal must touch metal for the circuit to work.

Our "prongs" on the tile, mean that the wire doesn't come loose easily, but there are also screw holes on each tile and a baseboard available to screw the tiles onto.  No more frustrating loose connections.

These tiles open up a huge array of possibilities from free playing and making up their own ideas, to making up some of our new subscription kits coming very soon.  We have a heap of very exciting ideas in the works so sign up to our newsletter and follow us on facebook so you can be the first to know what's going on!

Looking after the planet is a big value of ours.

We choose to drive hybrid and electric cars - or bus and walk.   We both compost and recycle and use our "Rubbish Whisperer" bags to buy our veges!

So we decided from the start to try and source the good products.

We choose sustainably harvested Italian Black Poplar.  It's grown in land that was once used for agriculture.  (So it was already cleared).

A lot of places use bamboo which can be amazing but you do need to check the provenance.  Unfortunately, bamboo has become so popular, that people are cutting down rainforest to plant fast growing bamboo.  MDF is also a bad choice for us because it's full of glues and can also be made up of scarce native woods.

We do get our electronics from overseas so we try to buy in bulk rather than tiny orders.  Because we're small, this is somewhat tricky.  We try to use metal or resist plastic where we can.

We buy our packaging here and don't have fancy plastic windows in our box.  We've been asked to.  But it just adds more soft plastic into our landfills.   All our packaging is paper or card and can be reused/recycled.

And, we've made a conscious decision not to use coin cell batteries.  These cause dreadful burns to the oesophagus within 20 mins of accidental swallowing.  They can't be recycled or reused.

We're not perfect, but like everyone, we are trying to work through the issues and practice sustainability.

These are just some questions we get asked.  Do you have one?  Please either use the "Contact Us" form, or email Sophia at:

sharperthinker@gmail.com.