Starting Them Young

[Keith Starosta]

My five year old daughter, Kaylin, is my shop buddy. She's the only one of the four kids that likes to spend time out there, and helps out with sweeping, playing in piles of plane shavings, and generally making me smile. Yesterday afternoon, I turned around and she was giving a good, long stare to my L-N block plane. I asked her if she wanted to hold it, and she jumped on that. I vised-up a small piece of maple, showed her how to hold the plane in her small hands, and away she went. She was making some nice little white curlies, smiling the entire time. It was an awesome time!!

She may have a knack for this!!!

Here she is, honing her skills. (...not too sure what's happening with her hair in this one... )



She loves playing with all of the "curlies" I leave on the floor!



- Keith

[Steve Pirrelli]

That's a cute kid, and she makes nice shavings.

[Jim Becker]

Very kewel. A woodworking star is born!

And my Alesya has the same hair, especially in the back. Kinda the way very fine hair can get. We call it "the rats nest"...

[Peter Quadarella]

That's great Keith. How old is she? I'm looking forward to getting my kids in there but they are still a bit young (just turned 3 and 2).

[Keith Starosta]

Very kewel. A woodworking star is born!

And my Alesya has the same hair, especially in the back. Kinda the way very fine hair can get. We call it "the rats nest"...

LOL!! Kaylin calls it her "crazy hair".

About ten minutes ago, she came into my office and asked when we were going to go out make more curlies...gotta love her!!

- Keith

[Dave Anderson NH]

Enjoy the time with your daughter Keith. All to soon they will grow up and have otehr interests. My son was only marginally interested, but I got to have a great time in the shop with my grandson Aaron starting when he was eight. By ten he could do hand cut M&T joints and his dovetails weren't too bad either. Unfortunately at about 12 the old testosterone kicked in and now his interests are playing baseball, football, and chasing after the girls. He's now 14 and I guess that about 20+ he might become interested in woodworking again. Such are the cycles of our life.

[Keith Starosta]

Enjoy the time with your daughter Keith. All to soon they will grow up and have otehr interests. My son was only marginally interested, but I got to have a great time in the shop with my grandson Aaron starting when he was eight. By ten he could do hand cut M&T joints and his dovetails weren't too bad either. Unfortunately at about 12 the old testosterone kicked in and now his interests are playing baseball, football, and chasing after the girls. He's now 14 and I guess that about 20+ he might become interested in woodworking again. Such are the cycles of our life.

I'm getting all to familiar with that right now, Dave. My 12 year old son has never really shown an interest at all, save for the afternoon he and I made boomerang from a set of plans he found. Kaylin's twin brother likes screwing screws into boards, but that's about it. The baby.....well, she just likes getting dirty. I'll savor the opportunities to work with and teach any of my kids whenever it comes along. Good times...

- Keith

[Bill Houghton]

and both fully shop-capable. The younger one works as a carpenter (and plumber and electrician and metalworker) and knows SO much more than I ever did.

You can never tell what they'll do with it when they grow up, but shop time always pays off. You do have to accept that your bench will get dings and scrapes - mine's still got glue on the surface from some sloppy glue-ups in their youth - but you're building kids, much more important than building stuff.