TSO-E Day 7: Amusement Park Opens for Parents
Parents arrived to collect their children from Tinkering School Overnight (TSO) camp Saturday and were invited to go to the TSO Amusement Park full of rides and games for all ages to enjoy.
As parents like Liz and Terry walked through the two build sites and saw The Fun Zone, merry-go-round, zip line and roller coaster, they echoed what could be heard between smiles, laughs, and all around merriness.
Ted braces himself while riding the merry-go-round his daughter, Daisy, helped build.
“I think this is awesome, so clever, so blown away,” Liz, parent of Tinkerers, Patrick and Tommy, said. “I’m going to wind up with a shop in my backyard.”
Some parents were even willing to try their kids’ creations. Ted and Lily, parents of Tinkerer, Daisy, joined other kids and parents on the merry-go-round, which Daisy helped to build. They laughed with others as volunteers whirled them around in a circle.
“Daisy loves to build, so it’s really exciting to see her work on a project at this scale,” Lily said.
Even more daring were parents like Ed, father of senior Tinkerer, Charlotte.
Ed rolls by at 13.6 mph while riding the roller coaster that his daughter, Charlotte, helped build.
As Ed climbed into the roller coaster his daughter helped build, he said, “This is the scariest roller coaster I’ve ever been on.”
Ed survived well enough having gone 13.6 mph according to the GPS Speedometer application, eyes lit with sheer joy.
“That was awesome and such an amazing thrill!” he said.
Charlotte was ecstatic that her father had given her roller coaster a try but was also excited at the potential for her own shop at home.
“Dad has convinced me to build a tree house at home,” Charlotte said, fulling empowered to build even more great things of large scale.
May prepares for take off on the zip line ride her son, Max, helped build.
Finally, May, mother of Max, hopped onto the zip line chair lift, perfectly willing to ride the zip line her son had helped build.
“I can’t believe they built it,” she said after completing the ride, noting the children’s thoughtfulness to safety and design. “As adults, we have a preconceived notion,” she said of the “unbridled confidence” of empowered kids.
Check out the photo slideshow of Tinkerers and parents tour of the TSO Amusement Park.
