Woodworking for kids: woodworking projects with your children teaches basic skills for planning, measuring, and the use of basic carpentry tools.
Kids love to make things.
My daughter is always asking me “Papa, what can we make? Let’s do a project together.” And woodworking is our usual mode for making things.
Messing about with wood is one of my favorite hobbies. I learned the basics by working with and watching other men build, but even if you’ve never built anything in your life, you and your kids can do homeschool woodworking projects together.
Here’s a list of free online woodworking resources to get you started:
Online Resources for Woodworking Projects with Children:
- I Can Do That, a PDF from Popular Woodworking magazine, explains the basic tools and shows you how to perform basic woodworking in a step-by-step format.
- The Folding Rule, an online journal about woodworking in a garage shop, has a post about kids in the shop. Also available are downloads for a bird house plan, a wood buying guide, and Boy Scout woodworking merit badge requirements.
- Charles Niel made a video about introducing kids to woodworking called UnPlug the Kids
- Woodworkers Resource’s book with 21 woodworking lessons and 14 projects for kids: Woodshop 101 for Kids
- A Basic List of Hand Tools Needed For Kids to Get Started in Woodworking
- Plans for a small bat house from the USGS
- The Wood Whisperer’s Basic Hand Tools videos on 5min.com
- Using-Tools is a great basic resource for info about, what else, using tools.
- Nathan Scott’s page about how to use hand tools
- Canadian Home Workshop: Introducing Children to Woodworking Fun
- For Wood Lovers: Basic Wooden Box Basic butt joint box guide
- Free woodworking plans
- the3House.com has free plans
- Jack McKee’s Hands On Books: Woodshop for Kids
- Absolutely Free Plans: Projects for Children
- Woodworking tips from KidsCanMakeIt.com
- Building your home hand tool kit
- How To Dominate Your Son’s Pinewood Derby: Wired
- How To Make Beginner Stilts
- How To Build an Amazing Ant Farm
- azWoodman sells woodcraft kits for kids: My First Project
Tips for buying tools and hardware:
- Don’t buy cheap tools. Ever. You’ll regret it. You don’t need the top of the line tools, but you will end up replacing a cheap tool soon. Buy quality tools that feel good in your hand. Ask at your local hardware store for guidance, ’cause there’s a lot of crap for sale out there. Stay away from “kid’s tools”, as they will frustrate the heck out your child (try driving a nail, even a tiny one, with an itty-bitty hammer…).
- Yard sales are awesome for finding good tools at a reasonable price. Look for an old guy in a baseball hat cleaning out his shop. Tell him you’re setting up a shop for your kids, and he’ll probably hook you up.
- Only get the basic tools. Most shop gadgets that you see at the big box stores are gimmicks. You don’t need a laser level to build a bird house.
- Buy an assortment of nails, especially “box” nails with a big head. Smaller finish nails and brads are for when kids can comfortably drive box nails consistently.
- A drill and driver will speed up large projects by enabling you to drill pilot holes and sink screws quickly. Kids get a kick out of using power tools, and you won’t spend all weekend on one project.
- Drywall screws are great for fastening wood together quickly and securely. Get a couple of different sizes. Deck screws go in fast, but can strip out the hole too easily.
- Clamps are handy, but not a necessity. An old bicycle tube can be cut and wrapped like a huge rubber band to hold parts being glued together.
Tips for finding wood cheaply:
- Cruise the cull bin at the hardware store. The culls are the cut-offs and the wood with bigger knotholes or splits. The big home supply store by my house usually has a bunch of random pieces for fifty cents each.
- Craigslist is a good place to look for free materials.
- Find a cabinet shop and ask about raiding their scrap dumpster. Last fall I found enough cherry, walnut, and oak scraps for a year’s worth of little projects.
- Swing by a building site with your kids at quitting time. Most foremen will let you pick through the scraps if you ask. If you get a lot of good stuff, bring a six-pack by the next day to say thanks.
- Pallets can be cut with a circular saw to get short pieces. Run the blade alongside the stringer to cut them all the same length. If you’ve got time and a crowbar, you can pry them apart to get longer pieces.
Originally posted at Eco Child’s Play
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Don’t buy cheap tools. I wish I could drive that through my head. I always want to walk out without spending a bunch of money, but it usually bites me in the butt. Spend what you should spend even if it is a little extra than you would like – it keeps you from having to spend even more later on.
Christopher –
I had the highly educational experience of blowing an entire tax return at a discount imported tools store one year. I walked out with mad amounts of stuff, and spent almost $500 there, thinking I was getting a great setup for myself.
After a short while, I realized that not only were the tools cheaply made and poorly machined, but that I had bought a whole bunch of ‘short cuts’ and specialized tools that I didn’t use or need very often at all. I would have been much further ahead to have picked up a lot fewer, less specialized tools that were well made. For example, I have a set of about 20 different woodcarving tools – chisels and gouges – that I never use because they’re cheap and frustrating to work with. I would always rather use one of the old chisels that I found in a flea market, because they’re well made and well worked and easy to sharpen again and again.
Now I never buy the high end tools (but drool over them sometimes), and I never buy the cheapest ones – a good solid practical tool is worth so much more than a gimmicky gadget every single time.
Another great source for woodscraps.. or even ideas for projects are Habitat for Humanity Re-Stores. There are lots around my area, not sure about the rest of the country though.
I am amazed at the things my little boy can make himself; it’s such a cool way for him to learn physics (among other things). But two nights ago he build a tipi-like house out of old cedar shank shingles (N.England thing) by perfectly balancing different sizes and shapes of wood. I SO wanted a picture but the light wasn’t very good.
He builds lots of little things for the house with his dad (I am not such a woodworker) but dad’s skills are rubbing off on him so quickly.
We get the benefit of him feeling very special and we get great things for round the house!
(PS I don’t have a daughter, but I assure you, if I did (and she wanted) she’d be doing these things with dad too! My high school woodwork teacher was a woman!)
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One easy suggestion to do with kids is to do simple wood sculptures. Find some scrap wood at a local lumber yard. Or find some of the local handymen and see if they have some scraps. The cool thing is kids will see the various sizes and shapes from the scrapes and explore to see how the shapes will interact with one another.
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What a great way for children to experiment with something that may turn into a lifetime hobby. I would think that storage boxes would be an easy place to start. And they’d be so useful!
Tina´s last blog ..Fast Power Wheels? You Betcha!
Great post. We homeschooled all three of our children and loved doing things together. Woodworking was one of those things. Thanks.
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