Summer recommendation: Sparklelab
I first met Rossana Lopez one spooky Saturday in October. I visited her little red workshop on P. Guevara in San Juan with two of the kids in tow
There were signs this was going to be somewhat of a memorable afternoon either of tricks or treats, or of....
mayhem or madness. I sure could use some of the latter.So we rang the bell and the door slowly opened as Rossana welcomed us in. She looked so eager to see us, it almost felt like we were the missing ingredient to a witches' stew.
The space is a fun creative space filled with interesting people
Mentored by grown-ups who encouraged the younger ones to participate and get out of their shell, they learned to brainstorm, 
make storyboards
and build concepts
film, act, edit their own scary movies.
Then efforts were rewarded by teacher Rossana!
Sparklelab's workshops are made for kids of today. Creative, tech-based and progressive.
It reflects a lot on the kind of person the founder, Rossana is. She is constantly creating and innovating, doing research here and abroad on new courses and materials to bring to her Sparklelab studio. In Rossana's words, this is what Sparklelab is:"Sparklelab is a hacker/maker space for kids located in San Juan, amidst ancestral houses and little art galleries. We have launched a series of workshops for kids and teens in toy making; game design and development; wearable technology; physical computing; animation and film making.The mission of Sparklelab is to encourage innovation. We don't teach -- instead, we design learning experiences that challenge kids to find creative solutions to problems; to try out models; to overcome fear of failure and to engage in iterative design. We are, I guess, trying to fill the gaps left by our education system -- gaps that prevent kids from effectively competing in the 21st century."Highly recommended for the kids this summer! Check out Sparklelab on Facebook!