As a player in the hands-on, creative space, we try to keep our eyes out for other cool, fun, new efforts developing around unleashing student creativity.  We’ve discovered that there are quite a few popping up, and are psyched about the energy in this area.  We’ve highlighted a few we’ve discovered so far, and would love to hear about any others that we’ve missed!

KiwiCrate – a monthly offering of creative, hands-on projects with all the materials and guides delivered right to your home!  A huge time-saver for parents and a big win for kids, this young company makes it super-easy to bring back those authentic little projects that we all used to spend time doing before the rise of video games.

BabbaCo – a similar service to KiwiCrate, but with an additional ‘connect’ component of being able to share your projects electronically at the end through a picture or video.  Again, an opportunity to innovate and create, without the headaches of logistics.

DIY – in line with the Maker Movement, this small company is giving kids opportunities to do projects themselves and share through pictures with their parents and friends in a safe online network.  Think “digital refrigerator door” and the pride that kids associate with the projects they do themselves.  Yet no tears when you just have to throw away that diorama to make room for more.

Nanoogo – another early effort still in beta and piggy-backing on the Maker Movement.  The unique thing about this network is that schools, teachers, and other educational organizations can have their own private channels, making it super-easy to collect all your students’ projects into one central location.  Nanoogo also has a rewards system in the works.

There are of course many, many others out there focusing more on re-inspiring the innate creativity in children as opposed to over-stimulating them with games and other media forms.    But we’re psyched to at least be aware of these four, and hope that efforts continue to grow around inspiring our future young innovators, makers, creators !