How do you Help Interest Grandkids in Woodworking?

[Stew Denton]

Hi All,

Jim mentioned something he has done to help interest one of his grandkids in woodworking on his post on my topic of heritage tools.

I am interested in any ideas that you might be doing to help interested your grandkids in woodworking, things that I, or others, can also do.

My grandkids are very little yet, the oldest being not quite 6.

What I have done to this point is pretty basic.

I play with the kids with Legos when around the kids. The older ones, both boys, love playing with Legos, and I think it helps their mechanical aptitude, and of course want to do things with them.

One other thing I do is let the kids drive blue lath nails into a soft 3X4 I keep in the garage. Blue lath nails are smaller than #3 box nails. We have a couple of small hammers, maybe 3 ounces or so, that are about the right size for the kids. The wife is fine with (and encourages me to sit with the kids and drive nails) the kids driving the nails in the board in the living room on the carpet. In fact, it was her idea.

Our daughters used the same 3X4 and hammer, with more blue lath nails, when they were little, the wife thought of the idea back then too. I have saved that 3X4 all these years, and through two house moves. Now it is the grandkids turn. There are hundreds of blue lath nails in that old piece of dunnage lumber. Now I have time to set and stay with the kids when they drive the nails until they tire of it. Back then it was to keep the girls occupied while "helping daddy" while I was working on the little house we owned back then. The money for the blue lath nails I bought back then was the best money I ever spent on nails.

The younger grandson will be here late this week. When he was here last I was doing plumbing on the house that desperately needed to be finished because I had surgery coming up. He was in the garage "helping grandpa." I was cutting up PVC pipe and gluing up replacements for drain pipe I had forgotten to drain so it froze and broke, it was for the air conditioner drain line. He wanted to saw up the old pipe and I wanted to keep it together for a pattern, but eventually he won out, me holding down the pipe on sawhorses and him sawing it using a coping saw. Even so, it was just about all he could do to saw the pipe in two, but he had a good time. He is not even 5 yet so is pretty small.

This time I have plenty of time and some soft 1X2s for him to saw up if he wants to. I am going to put a very fine blade in the coping saw thinking that may be easier for him to manage, but also may let him try my dovetailing saw to see if that will be easier for him. We will see what happens.

What things have you done, that I can do when the kids get a little older? (I built a bird house with my older daughter when she was young, and wish I had done far more of that.)

I am also thinking about getting some reasonably good quality small tools for them to use when here and a little older, hammer, saw, etc.

Stew

[Jim Koepke]

Kids love to crank things. This was discovered when I used to grind my own coffee with a hand powered coffee mill.

Eggbeater drills and brace and bit might be a bit of fun for them. You might want to keep an eye on them starting out on this.

My grandkids enjoyed drawing on wood for things they wanted me to cutout on the bandsaw. We made toy airplanes, swords and other things.

The oldest boy, Michael, enjoyed making shavings with a hand plane.

Most of them enjoyed watching me make them "magic wands" on the lathe. Of course they have good taste in wood. They chose some of my best stock to make their wands, rosewood and red heart.

Some times all it takes is getting them involved.

One of the mothers works with school children. She likes the shavings and some of my scrap wood so the kids can make paper bag puppets and use the shavings like hair and some of me cutouts from augers and forestner bits become eyes.

jtk

[bill howes]

A project that seemed to work for us-my grandson is 8- was to make wooden spoons on the shavehorse with a spokeshave for mothers day. I had roughed out blanks and hollowed the spoon with a gouge when he came over and wanted to try. The spokeshave is plenty safe and he quickly picked up the concept of grain direction. I gather his mother was pleased too

[lowell holmes]

http://paulsellers.com/2011/10/woodworking-with-children

Check the link above. Paul has written magazine articles on the subject. I remember in classes I attended, he would have his pre-teen children there. I remember one time his son was cleaning up an old handsaw.

His articles were in Woodwork magazine in one case.

You might email him for suggestions. I'm sure he would respond.

IIRC, Doug Stowe had articles in Woodwork magazine on the subject also. A link to Doug Stowe is below.

https://www.blogger.com/profile/13003845322415622289

[Jesse Busenitz]

I have a nephew, who whenever he comes over and i'm in the shop is asking to carve with my spokeshave.... doesn't take a lot of coordination and is pretty safe.

[Darrell LaRue]

There are lots of projects you can do with kids.

Here's one I did a few years back (2004) for our Cub Pack, which I tested out with my son first. It's a Christmas craft, so you have time to acquire wood and tools (if you're like me you need 4 months head start on just about any project).

I cut some birch branches into short bits of half-logs, then cut out a bunch of roughly shaped Xmas tree shapes from scrap 1 inch stock. Some braces and bitstock tools (see, this is why you need lots of braces) and a sanding block. Then it was time to turn the boy loose on it.

292929

Drill a hole with the brace, prep the end of the tree trunk with the spoke pointer, and then run the hollow auger up the trunk to make it round-like. Rough is ok, crooked is fine too. Looks more like a real tree trunk that way. Sanding block to clean up saw marks and round off sharp corners, and then plant the tree in the hole. Get out the craft paints and make it pretty.

292930

There are lots of things to do with kids that are reasonably easy.
Darrell

[Winton Applegate]

How do you Help Interest Grandkids in Woodworking?

Strand them on a desert island that has trees and be sure there are a few woodworking tools in the wreckage.

Or ice skates will do in a pinch.

[Jim Matthews]

Birdhouses (Grampa does the milling prep, kids cut boards to length and drill holes)

Spokeshave spoons (Grampa roughs out the hollow of the spoon)

Search "spurtle" for a good starter project, intended as a gift from the child.

My boys show real pride in something as simple as banging nails in a board.
Carrying things, and sweeping up - not so much.

[Jim Koepke]

One project I hope to work on with my grandkids is kite making.

Should be fairly simple.

jtk

[Tom Vanzant]

Check out the L-N website for a very heart-warming photo...a father's hands guiding a pair of young hands, complete with fingernail polish. "A giant step....."

[Stew Denton]

Guys,

Thanks for the ideas and experiences. My grandkids are still pretty little, but they are growing really quickly.

This does give me a little time to get my ducks in a row to do a lot of the things you have suggested. For example, I don't have a spokeshave, but do have a couple of draw knives....time to start looking for a good spokeshave....a good excuse to get one.

Stew

[lowell holmes]

The LV Cast Round spokeshave is one I really use a lot. I was not sure I would use it when I bought it.

With a good edge on it, it leaves the wood glistening smooth. It makes translucent shavings.

[Stew Denton]

Hi All,

I just saw an article in the section in the "Woodworking Articles and Reviews" section of "Builder Boards: A Playhouse Kids Build Themselves," neat article, and then ordered the book. It is like a giant Lincoln Log set up, but using flat dimension lumber. The kids put it together, but can put it together in different ways. It looks like I could let the two older ones help with some simple things, maybe some minimal sawing, once I have a saw small enough for them, or putting on stain on one of the pieces, etc.

I have to check with my two daughters, to see if there is room to store the stuff, and if it is an OK project to make for the kids. (Believe me, I can get in trouble with my daughters. When they were little it was the other way around, when they got older I started to get in trouble with them and the wife about the choice of shirts I wanted to wear to church, etc. Consequently I am not about to start on a project for my grandkids without their approval.)

At any rate, if the grandkids can help with one board each, and I wouldn't tell them what the boards were for, and then they get the complete set up for Christmas, and know that they helped, it might be a nice encouragement for them....and fun for grandpa.

Anyway, just a thought. (I did just buy a new copy of the book on Ebay.)

Stew

[Dale Murray]

I don't have a kid or grandkids but I was once both.

One of my earliest memories in life is the smell of wood off a belt sander. When I was a child my dad had a modest shop as a start - belt sander, radial arm saw, metal lathe, and band saw were the big tools. He finished the basement, built a "watchmakers" desk for hobbies and drafting, etc. He outfitted the home with various this and thats.

My dad was, and still is, always up to something - be it woodworking, repainting the truck, tying flies, reloading, whatever. And as I recall, when he was doing all this stuff if I asked a question he gave me an answer, a legitimate, real answer.

I recall asking how a refrigerator works, by making things cold, he said.
I ask how it makes things cold? He told me about the entire system, Freon, condensers, compressors, insulation, etc. I was eight years old and still remember it plain as day.

I also have a brother. He is four years older than me. He was raised in the same house as me. He has ZERO interest in pretty much any of this stuff. He had all the same opportunities but it just did not click with him.

My dad is also a golfer, bowls, and was the pitcher on a fast pitch softball team - and does exceeding well at all the above.
My brother had a golf scholarship, played baseball, and bowls.
I could not care less about any of those sports. Sure, I tried. I also was very bored.

According to my dad I got the woodworking gene and my brother got the sports gene.
Also, my brother got the father gene and is very involved in everything the kids are up to. That gene skipped me as I have none, as outlined above.

My point to all this is you have no idea if woodworking will click with the kids. You can expose them to it but you cannot make it happen. If it doesn't happen then you will have to find a middle ground and share that.

Dad and my brother frequently golf together, do some bowling, and dad helps him fix things around the house when needed.
Dad and I talk woodworking on the phone, I ask for advice and pick up nuggets of knowledge.

[Edward Mitton]

I have two grandkids that are enthralled with all the things in my work shop. They especially love the hand crank grinder and vice handles. They could play at turning those devices all day long! I have introduce the oldest (the girl) to pounding nails in scrap with a hammer and making holes with a small eggbeater, but we haven't really started on any projects.

Of my 3 daughters, my youngest took an interest in tools and woodworking when she was in high school. She even took a shop class where she built a toy truck using sheet metal, wood and plexiglass. I still have it in my curio cabinet. She also built a wood paper towel holder, which I still use, and a little display box. She doesn't do too much of that any more but at times when she visits my shop, she will proudly display her skills at tool identification.
My oldest daughter has started getting into doing a lot of "crafty" things, much of it involving basic woodworking. I have been buying her the occasional tool and showing her how to make this or that item out of wood, so she is learning. Hey! She still has my woodburning station that I loaned her last year...

[Stew Denton]

I just picked up a book: "Woodshop for Kids" by Jack McKee, pretty good stuff!

It is obviously written for average folks, not woodworking/carpentry junkies like the types that inhabit this site. I say that because everything about how to use the tools wisely so you can teach the kids, make things like kid size benches, etc., is stuff virtually all of us know, and probably have even forgotten when we learned them, many we learned as kids working around our dads tools.

That said, it has a lot of practical stuff on working with kids, shop safety for them, and projects that he has done with kids, so you know that those projects are "tried and true" for kids.

I am in the process of slowly rounding up tools, even though I have most of them. I didn't however have the kid sized handsaws until I just bought them the other day. They are the one I just posted the question about restoring, and they are for my grand kids to learn with. It will be a few years until they grow into them, but time goes fast. Nor, do I have things like an eggbeater drill, and other simple hand tools that I haven't used myself in 40 or 50 years.

I wish I had kept my dads eggbeater drill now, but at the time never thought I would ever use it. I don't think I will ever use one myself again, but when my grandkids are here, will help them use one. Still, you never know, sometimes one would be handy for a small job that I don't want to run a long extension cord for.

My wife chewed on me a bit about Ebay purchases when the book came in this morning, as I have made 3 purchase within the last week or so. However, when she saw it was a book about kids and woodwork everything was good. She thinks that Grandpa doing things like that with the grandkids is great stuff. Then everything was good again.....she has absolutely no problems about spending money on the grandkids! In fact, all of my recent Ebay purchase have had to do with grandkids and woodwork.

Last week our younger grandson was here, and I set up a way to hold some soft 1X2s I have at his height, and he had a great time sawing off sections. My dovetail saw was too much for him, but I had grabbed a coping saw with a very fine blade in it, just in case the dovetailing saw was a bit much. The coping saw worked great, and he loved it. I used a try square to mark lines across the 1X2s square, and encouraged him to try to cut to the line, and he did pretty well after he had some experience using the saw, that is when I reminded him.

However, mostly he just wanted to saw the boards off into the small sections I had marked....I now have more clamp blocks than I did before. I had to loosely hold the top of the coping saw frame to help him keep it straight but he didn't seem to mind that at all. After cutting off about a dozen sections he was ready to quit, but he obviously had a great time...and grandpa did too. I had to badger my wife and daughter to come out and watch him but they came out, and were glad they did, and in fact my daughter used her cell phone to tape him cut one section off. I started the cut for him each time, but he tried some, and the last time did a good job of starting the cut. He is a few months from being 5.

Stew