Woodworking for children

[McAldo]

Could I have some opinions and advice about introducing little children to woodworking so they can get creative with it while keeping it safe?

I am not much of a woodworker myself, I just enjoy leanrning new things, but I have read an interesting pubblication from a wood sculptor who worked for several years with a nursery in Bristol, teaching woodworking to little kids.
So I took the plunge and introduced my 6 years old to some of my tools, of course under heavy supervision.
He loves it, which is a good thing. He is patient when I ask him to come with me to the garden because I want to finish this and that, but obviously he gets bored after a while to play by himself, so I keep woodworking at a minimum when he is around.
But now, we can actually go there and do things together.
I got him a little hand drill, a tiny hammer and a toolbox saw, which is a bit rubbish to be honest, he much prefers my dove tail saw and I don't blame him.
We got some scrap pine and he tried sawing, planing (which he loved) , drilling and I showed him how to use a vise with benchdogs, make a saw kerf with a chisel and a few ways to use a combination square to trace cubes and other shapes he likes before sawing.

This week we'll learn a bit about nails and screws, which he is very much looking forward to.
And then spokeshaves, I think he will love that. Perhaps not rasps and files.
Sawing and chiselswork will stay an heavily supervised activity, but perhaps drilling, screwing and nailing with time will become something I can trust him doing by himself safely.
To be fair, he is very good at following advice and he understands not getting hurt comes first no matter what, but still he can get distracted and confused easily so I'll take it vey easy and slow.

Any advice would be very appreciated.

Aldo

 

[mouppe]

I've been taking my kids to my workshop since they were two years old. IIRC, they started with model saws and a cordless drill (driving screws), glue-ups, then came block planes and spokeshaves, rasps, sanders and drills. I still don't let them go near chisels but I could (the oldest boy is 9). Now I let them have a corner of the bench and they do what they want within reason. I also let them use a sloyd knife to whittle wood. There are a couple of safe methods where the blade is pushed away from the body. They design their own stuff and choose their own wood. I don't have any kids' tools, but some of my tools are suitable for little hands.

I don't use machines except sanders when they are in the workshop.

We have made all manner of things: cabinets, models, wooden games etc.

 

[lanemaux]

Seems to me Aldo you are doing pretty well already. One tool you might want to introduce (supervised of course) is a coping saw and birds-mouth. With scrap pine , some printed pictures (or original art) and some patience your young padawan will soon be cutting his own decorative arts and toys. Unpowered scrolling is fairly safe and quite satisfying and leads to a result that can be pointed to with pride by a young artisan.

 

[Alexam]

In my early years, I had a Mecano set. Metal with bolts and nuts, spanners etc. It was great fun and started the creative mind buzzing. I added to the original set with gifts from the family and eventually got up to building a steam engine. Similar interests which then moved me to a tredle fretsaw. I built mountains of dolls furniture for the dolls houses of my two sisters and it kept my interest for many years. Happy days!

 

[Steve Maskery]

I think the coping saw idea is a good one. They can make decorations for the C******* tree. And it's real woodwork, sawing, drilling, sanding finishing.

 

[mseries]

I started by 'helping' my Dad in the garage. I certainly remember in my early teens us making RC Model boats together and even earlier than that messing about with his brace and bit, surform and saws on scraps of wood. My Dad showed me how to use them, I don't remember any safey talks and I don't remember and serious mishaps either. H&S wasn't such a big issue in the 70s and we did OK.

Like Alexam I love Meccano and inherited my Dads, quite large, 1950s collection. Augmented with some modern motors I used it to create allsorts of things - mostly bridges and cranes. I think it's excellent getting children involved in craft things, it's education in all sorts of areas not just woodwork. My career in IT was grounded in my passion for learning and making/reparing things.

 

[PAC1]

Aldo, you seem to be doing pretty well. Keep going in that direction. My only advice is that toy tools can actually be counter productive because if it does not work they will soon find out and get frustrated. My son has been using my normal tools since about the age of 8 with heavy supervision. He can now cut mortice and tenon, dovetails etc. In fact his first M&T was so perfect, I keep it to show people. He did a secret mitred Dovetail which was very good. For his GCSE's he produced a Krenov style cupboard.
Keep up the good work

 

[Zeddedhed]

I spend many hours in the workshop in the evenings with my 10 year old son and 7 year old daughter and they are some of the best times ever!!
Both my kids started off with Mora Frost knives at the age of 6. A big mistake is to give them blunt tools - as we all know they are actually much more dangerous.
My view is that cuts will happen - all part of life/learning/growing up. Obviously I aim to make sure that accidents are minimised and impact of accidents reduced, but a knife cut will heal, as will a bruised thumb from a hammer.
Always keep a good first aid kit handy.
With whittling I taught my kids about the 'forbidden triangle' and not to cut within it.
Like the others I think using a coping saw is excellent for the young 'uns. My boy loves cutting out Zombies from 5mm thick stuff held in the vice with a fairly cheap Bahco coping saw.

 

[Lons]

I read this with great interest as I have fond memories of messing around with tools as far back as I can remember. My dad used to do up old cars and didn't have a garage so that was counter productive for me 'cos now I hate fixing cars. :lol:

Started woodworking of a sort making "bogies" / go carts, sheds for the rabbits out of old floorboards when about 10 and got my first "drill powered lathe" at 12 or 13. Both my kids were involved in the workshop as soon as possible and they are now very practical around there own homes though haven't followed my hobbies.

My granddaughter will be 3 next February and loves nothing more than using her plastic toolkit and drill so I intend to make her a small wood bench with wood vice, nails, nuts & bolts, and tools. Not quite sure exactly what as in the middle of planning it but will start soon. I can make a wooden vice but need to integrate it into the bench so the whole thing can fold flat and I need to cover the vice screw so it doesn't trap little fingers.

Bob

 

[damo8604]

My daughter loves to accompany my to the shed but as she has just turned 5 she likes to play 'shops' rather than try anything creative, this involves me saying "have you got any of these"? showing her a picture from the screwfix catalogue and she runs off to collect said item, this goes on for an hour or so and ends with me spending 20 minutes putting everything back .

Yesterday she got a 'cbeebies' magazine as a reward and decided she wanted to make some bats out of cardboard tubes. We spent a good couple of hours painting and gluing and then while it was all drying, she spied some plastic conduit and suggested we made some magic wands. Obviously it took mere seconds to cut two pieces of conduit and stuck a couple of which connectors on either end, she then asked if we could make a shield! I was quite excited as this is the first time she's actually shown an interest.

I'll definitely introduce her to the coping saw and make some Christmas tree decs in the coming weeks.

 

[Wizard9999]

Catching up with a back episode of George Clarke's amazing spaces last night. Grandad (a retired builder) is making a cricket pavilion in the garden and hands the paslode to his grandson, looked between 8 and 10 to me. Seemed to be keeping pretty close to what was going on, but still going a bit too far for me, lol!

My daughter is 12 and at her school they have a well equipped DT facility, she has also just joined wooden toy making club. She was amazed when I told her that almost everything she has available at school is within feet of the back door. Hoping she'll be showing an interest in the workshop shortly. But then of course she will no doubt ask why I only have a Record Power band saw when they have Startrites at school .

Terry.

 

[GarF]

The reception classroom where my daughter has just started has a corner with a workbench with a small vice, some pieces of scrap wood and a few quite blunt looking junior hacksaws to use. I was well impressed when we went to look around. Being only four she has only the patience for one operation at a time in the garage- so far mostly fastening things in the vice for hand sanding or drilling with brace and bit. I'm hoping we might make her sister some simple cut out toys as a Christmas present during half term next week.

 

[bugbear]

Old thread: "Tools for 8 year old apprentice"

tools-for-8-year-old-apprentice-t60342.html

BugBear

 

[JonnyW]

A really good post Aldo. Like yourself, I've been taking my 6 year old son into the garage for a couple of years now. Now his 3 year old sister accompanies him.

His granddad bought him a small plastic tool box and filled it with tool. The only thing I took out, was the needle sharp small Philips screw driver.

I gave him an old 1970's Stanley 102, which he runs over wood to get shavings - he absolutely loves that thing. I have a red handled 102 waiting in a drawer for his sister, but she's not showing as much interest in it, that my son did at that age. It's a bit of common sense really. The blade isn't set out the plane far enough to remove fingers, but it'll cut him if he's not careful - Darwin. He'll learn. And the same goes for his little ball pein hammer. He sits and makes caterpillars with a bit of 3x2 and brad nails. He's hit his thumb a couple of times and there were tears, but hey, we've all done that! He learned not to hit the wrong nail....!

Like other posts, I work away in the garage on projects and I absolutely love their company. Best times every.

Selfishly, I hope the pair of them will have the knowhow to help their old man around the house some day.

Jonny

 

[siggy_7]

Interesting stuff. I've recently become a Dad for the first time and can't wait to take my daughter into the workshop, although I may need her to be able to hold her head up first...

One thing I've noted here in the replies is a real retisence to let children anywhere near power tools or machines, which intrigues me. I do most of my woodworking by power, and I was taught as a young child to use power tools (I was using a 12" cabinet saw, 10" P/T, drill press and Colchester metal working lathe before I reached double digits). I'd be amazed if most forum users were fully fledged adults before picking up a power tool or operating a machine for the first time. Leaving aside all the BS in manuals that implies that no-one under the age of 18 could possibly be even trusted to use a butter knife, if appropriately instructed and supervised on a well-guarded and set up machine why is everyone so apprehensive of allowing children to use machinery? Obviously there are physical limitations to consider - e.g. being tall enough to use a cabinet saw, being strong enough to use hand held power tools that can bite - but as with anything education-related surely the earlier you can instill good practice the better?

 

[Zeddedhed]

Interesting stuff. I've recently become a Dad for the first time and can't wait to take my daughter into the workshop, although I may need her to be able to hold her head up first...

One thing I've noted here in the replies is a real retisence to let children anywhere near power tools or machines, which intrigues me. I do most of my woodworking by power, and I was taught as a young child to use power tools (I was using a 12" cabinet saw, 10" P/T, drill press and Colchester metal working lathe before I reached double digits). I'd be amazed if most forum users were fully fledged adults before picking up a power tool or operating a machine for the first time. Leaving aside all the BS in manuals that implies that no-one under the age of 18 could possibly be even trusted to use a butter knife, if appropriately instructed and supervised on a well-guarded and set up machine why is everyone so apprehensive of allowing children to use machinery? Obviously there are physical limitations to consider - e.g. being tall enough to use a cabinet saw, being strong enough to use hand held power tools that can bite - but as with anything education-related surely the earlier you can instill good practice the better?

Personally I'm not in the 'reticent' camp. My kids both use cordless drills, jigsaw, sanders, rail saw, domino and just started on the bandsaw (I've only just got one last week). The 10 year old has also used a palm router and loves doing round overs and edge profiles for me.

It goes without saying that all this activity is well supervised and always preceded with a short refresher talk. I've also shown them images of what can happen if things go wrong - it made them very thoughtful and subsequently careful.

But then again both my kids also shoot (air rifles, small bore rifles and for the 10 year old a .410 shotgun) and my daughter (7) is now competing in a Junior Archery team.

They both fully understand that these things can kill or maim, as can tools if used unsafely.

Maybe I'm a bit cavalier about safety but I think that kids, if brought up to be instantly obedient can generally be trusted. Mine can sometimes be almost boringly safety conscious at times - they won't let me start the car if I haven't buckled up and give me proper stick if I sometimes need a third hand and temporarily hold a knife between my teeth.

 

[graduate_owner]

I was a keen Meccano person too, although in my day a motor was something we saw in catalogues but never managed to own. Great fun all the same and creative too. I rarely built from the Meccano booklets, almost always my own ideas instead.
I was hoping my grandson would accompany me in the workshop but I had to give up on that idea. He just could not be trusted not to fiddle with anything and everything. If he saw a button he just had to press it, a lever had to be pulled etc, no matter how many warnings he was given. In the end he was actually banned from the workshop. If he was sent to call me for dinner or whatever he had to stand in the doorway and shout - never allowed to cross the door threshold. It was a real shame but it was the only safe way to be. He is 9 now and much better, but no longer living nearby unfortunately.

K

 

[McAldo]

Between night shifts and other things I did not manage to reply, and now I have to run out of the house again, but I will.
Just wanted to say thanks so much everybody for all the replies and precious advice!

Aldo

 

[DiscoStu]

My eldest daughter quite likes a bit of design work and will ask if we can do things in the workshop. My middle daughter did something called the civic award - a bit like a junior duke of edinburgh's award. So she did several weeks of wood working with me. She made:

A tool box
A robot
A sculpture of a pig (made just by glueing off cuts together)
A sweet dispenser - made this out of a oak and it's lovely and sits on the lounge was now sill.

Look for children's wood working on pintrest

 

[mseries]

I was a keen Meccano person too, although in my day a motor was something we saw in catalogues but never managed to own. Great fun all the same and creative too. I rarely built from the Meccano booklets, almost always my own ideas instead.

My Dad saved some 1950s Meccano magazines, as well as really cool Meccano projects they contained articles about proper engineering, trains and ships etc. I found them facinating and they really spurred my imagination. I built mostly cranes and bridges, usually attempting to copy what I remembered seeing while out in the car or from pictures in the magazines. I rarely followed plans, still don't now, I could never see the need when I could do it myself. I think this stood me in good stead for programming were plans don't exist.