Happy Thanksgiving, and Woodwork with Grandkids Question

[Stew Denton]

Hi All,

Happy Thanksgiving day to you all!

One set of kids and grandkids are here, and we are enjoying it, it seems like we get to see them so seldom. This morning we built castles out of blocks, well the 3 older ones did (oldest is 8), but the youngest (not yet 2) mostly knocked castles down. It was noisy but great fun for all, Grandpa actually doing very little building but playing on the floor watching closely, doing a lot of laughing, and Grandma watching, encouraging the grandkids, and taking a few pictures. They just left a bit ago and are at another set of relatives today, but will be here this evening and until Sunday when they leave for the very long drive home.

Today I am working on preparation for woodworking projects for the older two. Hopefully we will be building a bird feeder and a bird house or two. I was at the lumber yard picking up redwood fence pickets yesterday. So.....I need have things ready for tomorrow. I will be hand planning the lumber, etc., but am not really sure how much to do beforehand.

I am thinking that I may leave some "real" woodworking, rather than just get things ready to assembly, not sure yet. Need to get kid sized tools ready. Have to sharpen a low angle block plane iron and make a small shooting board, etc.

Have any of you all done any woodworking with small Grandkids lately, and what projects worked well?

Stew

[Eric Brown]

Yes, Happy Thanksgiving to all. I always enjoyed Lincoln Logs when I was young.
Enjoy all the time you spend with the kids/grandkids.
Eric

[Jim Koepke]

You might leave an edge for the kids to plane. They will tire fast of something tedious.

Kids love cranking things so maybe have them use a brace to drill the holes for the bird house. If you put it together with any screws, like for a door to clean out the house once a year, the kids will likely enjoy using a brace to install the screws. That may be a bit much for some kids to hold all the parts together while cranking a brace. Maybe have them use an egg beater to drill the pilot holes.

Remember that kids do have a short attention span so you will need to be ready to have a diversion for them if they get bored of working on bird houses.

My grandkids were kept engaged while we made toy airplanes for them one time. One of the tricks is to have them draw out their planes on pieces of scrap wood. That kept them busy in the scrap pile while the parts were being cut out and put together. They were pretty simple toy planes, but they all wanted to play with them and keep them to take home when they left.

Another time some of them were transfixed watching me at the lathe while turning out wands for them in various woods.

If you have some thin scrap and eye hooks you can let them draw Christmas decorations for you to cut out with a coping saw or scroll saw. Most kids enjoy doing the sanding for a while. A little bit of paint to color them would be even more fun if you aren't worried about them getting paint on their fingers or clothes.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, it is always more enjoyable with a lot of family around.

jtk

[Patrick Chase]

Have any of you all done any woodworking with small Grandkids lately, and what projects worked well?

I've done woodworking with 6- and 2-year-olds lately, though the younger one mostly just sticks my gimlets in existing holes (under close supervision of course) and tells everybody who will listen that she's "drilling".

A couple thoughts:

If you're in a hurry then The Other Borg (the blue one) sells pre-made kids' "project kits" that they can nail together. They're cheap and poorly made, but the kids won't notice. They also sell a 4 oz (IIRC) hammer and child-sized safety glasses and apron.

In a similar vein, when my son was starting out and before he'd really learned to use any tools beyond a hammer I would pre-make stuff for him that he could nail together and maybe finish, like this triplane from when he was 4 or 5:

IMG_1178.jpgIMG_1179.jpg
IIRC he did some of the smooth planing on the fuselage and most of the chamfering (both with his #1). He also wiped on some BLO. He might also have helped saw the center-wing slots in the struts, but I can't remember any more (if he did then I would have had him cut well to the inside of the line so that I could clean up by paring to it). Obviously he captured my label-maker at some point as well. I pre-drilled the holes for the nails, and blunted the nails on a bench grinder before letting him have at it. The only things that aren't nailed together are the joints between the center wing and the struts (unglued half-laps) and the vertical stabilizer (which is glued into its mortise).

EDIT: I have a vague recollection that I used a carriage-maker's rabbet to clean up the wing mortises (see? they *are* useful :-). The bottom one is cut too deep, but I didn't bother to fix it (by planing the fuselage flush) because it's part of a toy that sees fairly rough treatment anyway.

EDIT again: Added Lowes link.

[Stew Denton]

Hi All,

Thank you all for the comments.

Patrick, my wife picked up a couple kits from Wallyworld, I am not sure how they are, and I was going to have the kids put them together, but when my wife found out I had picked up lumber at the lumber yard, she said just to do the things with the kids that I had already planned, IE: bird feeder and bird houses. I am guessing that the kits she picked up are about the same speed as the ones you described. I have already planed a couple of the redwood pickets smooth and flat, so they are ready for the next steps, probably with the kids tomorrow. Right now it is pretty cool outside, but it is supposed to be nicer tomorrow. My wife used to teach kindergarten and also other lower grade level classes, so I have learned to pay attention when she advises about how to entertain the grandkids.

Jim, thanks for the ideas on what the steps and projects the kids will like doing, the ideas are much appreciated. I will have to dig out my expansion bit, because I don't have an auger bit that is large enough. I do have a 14" brace, so that will make it a little easier for the kids to turn, but will probably have to stop and use a chisel fairly often, or the brace will get too hard for them to turn. I am planning a dowel for a perch, so they can use the brace for that. I hope the time you are spending healing up is not too boring, and also hope and pray that you are rapidly on the mend. In the mean time, your comments and suggestions on the various topics on this forum are much appreciated.

An egg beater drill is something I don't have.....yet, but the idea that the kids will like using one is all the inspiration I need to get one. Will check on the auction site. My dad had a nice small one, and I regret I did not take it from the estate, I could have passed it down eventually, and used it for the grandkids in the meantime.

Again, thanks to all for the comments and good advise, it is much appreciated.

Thanks and regards,

Stew

[Jim Koepke]

My wife used to teach kindergarten and also other lower grade level classes, so I have learned to pay attention when she advises about how to entertain the grandkids.

One of my daughters teaches school children and something she always liked was to get my shavings and any of the hole cutouts from my forestner bits. She would then use paper bags so the kids could glue on the shavings for hair and the hole cutouts for eyes. The kids could also use various colors of craft paper to make mouths, ears, noses and eyes if they wanted. Lots of fun for a rainy day.

I used to call them Fandango puppets because the Fandango ads in the theaters used to have paper bag puppets:

Paper Bag Puppets.jpg

These do not use wood shavings, but hopefully you get the idea.

Show the kids how skewing the plane makes for different shavings so they can get some long curls or just straight 'stringy' hair. Of course, different woods will make for different colors of hair.

jtk

[Stew Denton]

Jim,

I had hoped for one bird feeder and a couple of bird houses. Totally unrealistic goal. Call one bird feeder a pretty good day.

Oh well, they will be here tomorrow. I tried to have them help with some of the more complex things. Didn't work out real well, they were too small to use even a small back saw very well. I told my wife, maybe I should cut everything out, and just have the kids nail them together. She told me that's what she thought I was going to do. That is what I will try tomorrow.

Well see how it goes.

Stew

[Patrick Chase]

Oh well, they will be here tomorrow. I tried to have them help with some of the more complex things. Didn't work out real well, they were too small to use even a small back saw very well.

You might want to try a small Japanese-style saw, like maybe the Shark 10-2204. My son seems to do better pulling than pushing, and the thin blade translates to less effort than with a Western backsaw. Even so it's going to take some practice before a young kid can do anything useful with a handsaw.

I told my wife, maybe I should cut everything out, and just have the kids nail them together. She told me that's what she thought I was going to do. That is what I will try tomorrow.

That's basically what I did with the triplane in post 4.

As Jim says they can also have a lot of fun planing and drilling scrapwood.