Woodworking with my kid
I wanted to come up with a good activity to do with my kid that we could enjoy together. A couple of months ago, I found Jack McKee's Woodshop for Kids at my local library and after renewing the maximum number of times, ended up buying a copy. It has a few dozen project ideas as well as some good recommendations about how to make tools safe for kids, starting as early as age 4. Well, my kid's birthday is right around the corner!
I built a toolbox for my kid, based on plans in Rex Krueger's Everyday Woodworking. Building the toolbox was pretty quick asended up using my tablesaw to make the parts. I had my kid help assemble it, using the hammer and nails I purchased to put in it. He did about 10% of the hammering and left me to do the rest. I might need to add some glue, as the nails don't seem to hold every joint as well as I had hoped. I finally sprayed it with shellac, which really helped bring out the woodgrain and gave it a little bit of protection.
I purchased some handtools for him to use, based on the recommendations in McKee's Woodshop for Kids, and that I felt were safe enough that he wouldn't send himself to the hospital:
- Safety glasses (I added an adjustable strap to help hold these on his face)
- Coping saw
- Tape measure
- "6-in-1" screwdriver
- Small 10oz Hammer (replaced a 7oz hammer I had in my toolbox I keep in a kitchen cabinet) and small wire nails
- Speed square
- Surform plane for smoothing and shaping
Tools spread out on workbench.
So far my kid has been really enjoying cutting out shapes with the coping saw (or at least telling me what to do when he gets tired) and then nailing them together (or at least telling me how to put them together). He seems to be developing some of the skills to saw a board, although he gets tired of doing it quickly. It's been a good outdoor activity as the weather gets nicer. He knows which tool parts are sharp and is careful with them, and he's been learning to measure out and mark his cuts. He has clearly developed a sense of what he wants to do in each session, although putting it all together takes some help from me.
Since we had been using the bench of our picnic table, I finished building the other project from Rex Krueger's Everday Woodworking that I had alreaedy planned for myself to keep it from getting damaged. I had built the bench top on my own, and then my kid helped me bore out the mortise holes, mostly with him dusting up the woodchips at the end. Carving down the tenons on the legs was easy enough to do while he was occupied sanding some wheels for a toy car, and then he helped me do the final assembly.
This evening we finally used the finished workbench together to help finish assembly of his toy car. He can use it to hold wood to saw or sand, either with his clamp or the carpenters vice that I sometimes get out. I can sit on it to help while not having to sit on the ground or squat the whole time.