Kids Woodworking Projects

Just yesterday they were so cute hammering on a plastic nail with their little inflatable hammer. But kids do tend to grow up and when they do, there’s a good possibility that their attention will turn towards things other than making pretend houses in the living room.

The idea of doing a few kids wood working projects with your child isn’t too farfetched and you might have an easier time getting them to join in than you think.

Kids woodworking projects are great ways to spend some quality time with your little one.

Not only will this allow some one on one time, but woodworking with your child will sharpen math skills and help build a sense of accomplishment leading to having self esteem. As an added bonus, your child will also gain dexterity and a little self reliance.

Popsicle Sticks are a Great Place to Start

Getting started is as easy as a bottle glue and a few packets of popsicle sticks. Yeah, it’s cheesy, but it’s a lure to entice them into your parent-child quality time web! The idea is to start off pretty slow. For a 7 or 8 year old child, the idea of building a birdhouse or box out of sticks (usually for Mom, sorry Dad) is a novel concept.

The whole idea behind the process is to spend some time with Jr. or Jr. Ms, so help them draft the plans with some graph paper. Let them do the gluing and assembly, and for once you can be the gopher.

This is a good chance to introduce your child to some of the very basic hand tools, such as clamps and vises. Be sure to teach them about sharp point and edge safety.  Make sure that you supervise them at all times when using each tool.

Perhaps if you feel a little more aggressive or if your child is a little older, you could try a few more advanced projects. The internet has many plans for kids woodworking projects. Obviously, you’d want to work the power tools, but explain to your child what you are doing and why, as well as put an emphasis on the safety procedures of your power tools. Quiz them a lot, just make sure that you keep it verbal. No one wants to have to take a graded quiz at home!

Once you have established your child’s skill level you can always graduate them up into some of the projects you are doing. Let’s face it, as fun as a picture frame is to do, they are going to get a good look at what you are doing and want to help out.

A few fun Kid's Woodworking Project Ideas include:

• Wooden Puzzles 
• Signs for their bedroom doors 
• Toy Boxes 
• Trains, Planes and Automobiles 
• Bird Houses and Feeders 

Your kids woodworking projects do not have to always be about them doing and you watching. Maybe handing them a piece of sandpaper and giving a small lesson on smoothing and finishing isn’t such a bad thing. Just make sure you avoid the perception of slave labor by joining in on the sanding and helping finish! That was a joke, but no really, join in.

In the age of the video game and personal movie and music players it is harder to get through to your child.  The trick might be to start younger. Younger children will still want to spend some time with their parents.

Establish a good block of quality time with your little builder by doing some fun kids woodworking projects.  This will forge a bond that even the greatest video graphics could ever overshadow. They will learn some great skills they can carry with them throughout their lives.