Project Ideas for a 4 year old

[Jeff Sudmeier]

My daughter comes out in the shop with me nearly every night for a couple hours. Normally she rides her trike or bike around, plays with scraps (blocks) or helps me sand.

We made her a box of a plywood bottom and 4 butt jointed pine sides and spray painted it and man does she love it. She tells everyone she made it...

I need to take advantage of this now, how do you keep a 4 year old entertained in the shop, how can you get her involved and what semi useful projects could we do?

Disclaimer: There is a natural boundry in my shop and she does not cross it without asking, she has also learned not to ask daddy questions while a machine is running...

[Chris Tsutsui]

OK, I have this really small 4" long hand saw that looks like it was bought at a hobby shop for cutting balsa wood sticks.

My nephew is 4 years old causing trouble in my garage so I gave him the saw and a small piece of wood. He then took the saw and started cutting my work bench because he got bored very quickly.

So what I did was give him a small broom and a dust pan.

He loves to sweep sawdust into a pile and then scoop it up and throw it away. There's something about gathering things and tossing them into a container that kids like..

So now whenever he visits, he asks me if he can sweep.

I gladly let him.

It sort of reminds me of when I was a helper at a cabinet shop. At the end of the day I had to spend 30 minutes sweeping and picking up scraps while everyone else got to kick back. heh

[Prashun Patel]

My kids are just like your daughter. They're 5 and 6 now.

I really like WOOD magazine. Every issue or two, they have a 'kid's' project. This month, they have plans to build a toy excavator with a working boom and bucket and swiveling cab.

I usually cut out all the parts and drill all the holes for these plans, and then let my kids clean up the pieces with sandpaper and paint (they don't appreciate clear finishes yet, which is good bkz they don't know how to sand WITH the grain yet.) and then assemble.

I also tend to substitute as much gluing with screws as possible, since they get a huge kick out of driving screws. I let them line up and even drill the pilots with me at low speed. Advice: get a 10v liIon driver; better for smaller hands.

Also, definitely get her three things: 1) safety goggles, 2) workshop shoes, 3) dust mask.

I also suggest you get a dedicated hobby vice for her to hold pieces.

Last, I built a work platform for my kids (basically a deep long stepstool) so they can work at a comfortable height at my bench.

[Prashun Patel]

You should introduce him to the shopvac. A bench full of plane shavings + a shopvac can provide hours of fun.

[Lee Schierer]

I second the shop vac idea. My granddaughter loves sucking up saw dust in my shop. Whenever she and her brother (9 & 7) are around they follow me into the shop when I go out there and we usually come up with a project to make while they visit.

I also have a scrap bucket with odd shaped pieces of wood I keep for clamp pads when I'm gluing. The kids are allowed to rummage through that and they have a bottle of glue to use. They make all sorts of interesting art with those pieces of wood.

Kids love making bird houses and painting them.

[Walt Nicholson]

I have a couple of old hand crank drills with the original bits that are not sharp on the end. The kids have their own corner and access to the cutoff bin of scraps (rubber tub screwed to plywood with wheels under it). I cut up a good supply of dowels in various lengths that are the same size as the drill bits. They drill holes in the scraps then build all sorts of things using the dowels. It's like the "tinker toys" we used to have as kids (some of us here can remember them) except they make their own pieces. Keeps them going for hours with no glue, mess, etc.

[Joe Ciccio]

Jeff, take a look at WoodCrafts "My First Project" kits. My 6 year old and I put together a birdhouse. As all the pieces are cut and predrilled, it went together quickly. After you build it together, your daughter can decorate and paint it herself.

[Paul Atkins]

Give her a sledge and a #5 hand plane. Working together is pretty special. My nephew came over and wanted something to do. "Let's make a bench" I said. Four holes drilled and four legs turned was my job. He pounded and glued the wedges and sawed and planed the through pegs, in 40 minutes we had a bench. That was about his attention span for that day. I'm sure next time he'll want to use the lathe----

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Thanks for the ideas guys!! Last night she came with to get the new planer, she was so excited to see it roll on and off the trailer

I hope she keeps it up...

I think I am going to go with the bird house idea for the grandparent's for xmas and wood magazine had a "tounge drum" that I think we are going to try...

[Mitchell Andrus]

My dad and grandpa started me out on tongue depressors, cardboard, foam core, toothpicks, glue.....

Go for small, fast projects of course. Wheel barrow, car, dog house, favorite doll's chair.
.

[Doug Carpenter]

My son is seven. He has declared that half of my shop is his? His specilaty is duct tape. He builds all kinds of things with tape and scrap wood! We gave him a tool box for his birthday and some tools. He was really excited to get his own hansaw. He actually yelled at me for putting the scabbard on it and putting it away! He was like "Everytime I go to use my saw it's not where I left it!"

We made a birdhouse together a few weeks ago. It is hard to come up with projects because their attention spans are short. Acouple years ago I had him and my daughter help me build a really fancy dog house. My daughter helped me build a loft bed for her when she was four. We had alot of fun together. My mother in law freaked out when she found out that we used a brad gun.

I save a bucket of hardware items that he loves to go through. He often makes theses monsterous contraptions with as many peices as he can cram on! One of them he called the Bedmaker 2000! He spent acouple of days trying to figure out how to make it work. It was hillarious!

A while back after watching inspector gadget he make a copter hat with a motor on it. I didn't help him at all! he did the whole thing himself. He made it with a pair of handle bars, a coffee can, peices of wood,tape, a motor and some various hardware peices!

I like to let him use his imagination to create because it is always fun to see what he comes up with. I highly reccomend the hardware bucket. Kids love to dig through stuff.

[Dennis McGarry]

The first project kits are a great start, couple that with dougs idea of a hardware bucket and its endless for them.

One thing I do with my kids, is not to get hung up on the "design" side of any project. Let them take it where they want to. With project kits its to easy to get into "Shop Foreman" mode and worry about it looking like the kit is susposed to. This is the time to let them expand their thinking outside the box. They are the ones making it, and have a picture in their head of the finished product.

The orange store here has a once a month thing where you bring your kid(s) in and they build something, little wood projects they get to keep. Its great to have them build it then bring it back and figure out ways to "improve" on the design..

More so then teaching the right way a project should look, is to teach them now the right way to use a tool, anytool. The rest is cake!

[Gene Rogers]

I have two daughters and a son who is just a year old. The girls are 9 and 13 and the 9 year old has shown some interest in helping out in the garage/shop this past year. Unfortunately the summer passed us by without getting around to it but I did find this butterfly house project that we are going to tackle over the winter or early next spring... We have a pretty good sized vegetable garden the girls love picking stuff out of too and we thought it would be a nice addition...

http://www.gardengatemagazine.com/ma.../butterfly.pdf

[Eric Roberge]

Jeff,

I did the bird house 3 years ago (still proudly displayed in my backyard) with my son who was 5 at the time. Some of the project that we did were:

Shelves for his room. - loves to have the finished product that HE built displayed in his room.

Wooden toolbox - No plans, just came up with a size and got to work. Then we loaded it with "extra" hand tools. Now he has his own tools to use when he helps me fix something. Loves it!

He liked using the tape measure and laying out lines for cutting my larger projects, etc... There is always something safe that can keep them involved in every project.

I also take my two girls and my son to the BORG for the kids workshop. They all enjoy that and the projects are just their speed.

Enjoy it while it last.

[Zach England]

Somewhere I saw some bug "containers" that were essentially a small wood box with window screen on the top and sides.