Woodworking project kit for 6 year old Grandson

[Bob Michaels]

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction to purchase a woodworking project kit for my 6 year old Grandson. Not looking for a tool kit, just a project for me to help him build. Thanks.

[Tad Capar]

Last year my niece along with her family visitted us here NJ. Her dauther (6-7 I think) decided to hang around the shop. As she was poking through the pile of offcuts, she decided on her own to build a bird house. Of course I assisted her, but it was her total design and motivatioon that amazed me the most. No kit project recomendation here, but perhaps a free spiritted bird house out of offcuts.
Have fun and let him be at the control of the design aspect of your project.

[Jim Matthews]

+1 on the bird house.

I did a Cub Scout intro to hand tools with bird houses.
I used the same board width (front and back) with a rabbet along each outside edge.

The side boards were located in place with dowels, set into the rabbet for alignment.
The board is crosscut, to extract a front and back piece from one and the two sides from the other.

Pre-drill one large hole on your drill press in what will become the front.
Immediately beneath the opening, drill a stopped hole for a dowel perch.

All this can be done in advance, as it's just to aid in eventual assembly.

The roof was a couple of cedar shingles. The bottom was just a piece
of masonite tacked on. The kids were proud of the projects

Everything gets tacked together to hold the glue joints tight.

If your Grandson is like my 6 year old son - he'll like the hammer.
If your Grandson is like my 6 year old - anything more than 20 minutes will be frustration for both of you.

Build it in stages.

Prep the following:

Two boards - one with rabbets the width of the side boards.
(Each board will be crosscut)

Locating dowel holes to be cut in advance, to ease assembly (like the Ron Hock laminated plane kits)
Through hole for the bird's doorway cut on your drill press.


For the project, by your Grandson

Two crosscuts (handsaw recommended).

Two slope cuts on the side pieces with the side pieces ganged for consistency.
(This might be more difficult, but it's really just another crosscut)

Glue and dowel the sides together. While clamped, tack in some nails to hold the edges while the glue dries.
You might even sneak in a little block plane finishing work, if the child has hands strong enough to manage.

Tack on the roof and bottom.
Drill a stopped hole for the dowel perch, below the opening.

Add racing stripes, painted flames, robots etc to the child's design sensibility.
(Painting an opening that looks like a crocodile mouth might be counter-productive.)

Pictures of your eventual project would be good for all to see.


Go Grampa!

[Carl Beckett]

We recently did tool boxes with the cub scout den.

Prepped the pieces before hand, so they only needed to cut a couple items and then nail it together (which they predrilled all the nails for). Now they all have a toolbox to carry tools and projects in.

Construction:

A square bottom.

A piece of 3" molding along each side (could just be a board)

A piece on each end - nailed to the bottom and also to the sides at the corners

A dowel that nailed between the end panels, which also provides the handle


Otherwise my kids LOVE to take scraps, draw pictures and lines on them, clamp them down and saw them off, and then just nail everything to each other randomly (the nailing is especially fun it seems). I dont care what they make, as long as they are having fun with it.

[Bud Millis]

For my 4 yr old grandson we spent about an hour in the shop. Started telling him in advance that we we going to work out there and he was going to use some power tools to build a surprise. Even on the day he came over, I restated what we were doing and that if he didn't listen, he could get hurt. With that in mind we went to the shop. He never new what the finial project was other than a picture of it and a list of sizes. There was a half dozen parts with 3 or 4 to cut on the bandsaw.

Jayson.jpg

After we cut the pipe on the band saw, he cleaned up the edges with sandpaper. We got the glue out and started assembling within minutes we assembled 2 marshmallow shooters. Out came the mini marshmallows followed by a full out marshmallow war.

The pictures and video are priceless. His laughing after every marshmallow he fired was funny. He played with that for the rest of the weekend. We made another one so he could take that one home. That was last fall and still today when ever he comes over he wants to have a marshmallow war.

[Larry Browning]

About a week ago 3yo grandson came home from daycare with a wooden helicopter he had made from a Home Depot kit. 6yo grandson wanted one too! We took the original apart and used the parts as templates. He drew the outline of the parts while I held the part. I then cut out the parts on the band saw while he sat on a stool a few feet away with instructions to not get off the stool until the saw had stopped and I said it was ok to get off. I let him drill a few pilot holes for some nails. He then hammered the nails in place while I held the nail with needle nose pliers. We did a little sanding and he found some stickers to decorate it with. The whole thing took us about 30 minutes. I'm not sure who had the most fun, but he was grinning from ear to ear with his new helicopter. We both thought it looked better than brother's. (But he agreed to not say that to little brother when he got home.)

[Lee Schierer]

Home Depot does a kids workshop the first Saturday of each month and they have kits that the kids build. They are also for sale in the store.

[Larry Whitlow]

Hoping someone can point me in the right direction to purchase a woodworking project kit for my 6 year old Grandson. Not looking for a tool kit, just a project for me to help him build. Thanks.

I think he is too young for that. Get him a BB gun instead
. The Home Depot kits that Lee mentions are pretty cool.

[Don Jarvie]

Does he like baseball cards or other collector cards? I made 2 cases for mine with my grandfather when I was a kid. One had dividers for each MLB team. On the inside cover we added 3 slots with a flip top lid for the Blue Jays and Mariners and extras.

[Bob Michaels]

Thanks to all who replied. Great ideas to choose from.

[Bernie LeBlanc]

I've been involved with the scouting program for over 25 years - all positions - now a commissioner. A month ago I had 6 Webelos down in the shop to build bird houses (ages 9 & 10). Whatever design you choose will be fine, but make it simple. We always use simple butt joints they can cut with hand saws and coping saws. Simply use a plywood sacrificial board to clamp or screw the pieces down and provide fence or guide boards. Once all the pieces are cut, pre drill screw holes. Just keep the project simple - something they can accomplish.

[Dave Aronson]

I've been involved with the scouting program for over 25 years - all positions - now a commissioner. A month ago I had 6 Webelos down in the shop to build bird houses (ages 9 & 10). Whatever design you choose will be fine, but make it simple. We always use simple butt joints they can cut with hand saws and coping saws. Simply use a plywood sacrificial board to clamp or screw the pieces down and provide fence or guide boards. Once all the pieces are cut, pre drill screw holes. Just keep the project simple - something they can accomplish.

Thanks for the dedication to the kids!