Kids Woodworking Projects
Kids woodworking projects can be fun and rewarding for both parent and child. Knowing what projects to start your child off with can be confusing though. Especially if you haven’t had a lot of experience with woodworking yourself.
When I first began teaching my children about woodworking, I began by buying them some basic tools, a small kids sized hammer and screw driver set. You can find some examples of these in the WoodworkingTutor Store in the Kids Tools section. Your child will do much better with these kid sized tools rather than trying to handle your much larger ones. They will fit in their hands better and they will be lighter. A young child trying to use a full sized hammer may be cute to watch at first, but the child will soon become tired and frustrated trying to handle it.
A great starter project for kids is a small toolbox. Not only does it teach them some basic woodworking fundamentals, but it will be useful for them as well because they will have a place to store their tools. One of the best things to teach them at this stage is to put their tools in the proper place when they are not using them. Tools are not toys, and therefore need to be cared for properly.
If you don’t have many tools of your own or don’t have much woodworking experience, there are kits you can buy with precut pieces of wood and predrilled holes for the screws. These kits provide all the necessary parts and instructions needed to assemble the project.
If you have the right tools and woodworking experience you can make all of the parts yourself and then have your child put them together. Even if you don’t have much experience woodworking, this is a great way to get started yourself. I have free plans you can download with full instructions on how to cut the pieces yourself and instructions to assemble the toolbox with your child.
There are some basic fundamental skills that this project will teach your child. Such as learning to follow directions, (not just from you, but from diagrams), using a hand saw, a hammer, a hand drill, and a screwdriver.
Cub Scouts and Woodworking
This year I was fortunate enough to lead my son’s Bear Den during the month that we built toolboxes using only hand tools. This is a great beginner woodworking project for kids. The boys were all about 8 years old.
This was definitely an interesting and rewarding experience. All of the kids did a great job and had a lot of fun with this project. It took us 2 den meetings for the boys to complete their toolboxes. There were five scouts present and three adults, including myself, the first night we started working on the toolbox. The two other dads and myself kept very busy hopping from one scout to the next, helping or guiding them through each step. (more…)
