Woodworking with kids:  Its Process not the Product

I was looking at comments about Woodshop for Kids on my author central page and although there are many favorable comments a few weren’t impressed with some of the simpler projects, the lowly key fob comes to mind.

Granted, a key ring, to an adult is not wildly exciting, nor is a pencil holder, or a piece of sanded wood. But to a 4 or 5 year old these projects represent more, much more. As a builder who didn’t start working with kids until I was 40 it took my own kids to teach me,  “it’s the process not the product.”

Here are the steps required for a child to build a key ring:

• choose wood from the wood box
• Then the “vice lesson” which entails learning, and remembering,  which direction to turn the handle to make the vice open, or close.  And next, deciding where to cut by comparing with a model.
• Find the saw.
• Cut wood. This entails “the saw lesson” learning how to use a saw safely. It’s one thing to be told how to saw, another to do it, so for kids this is a big, and empowering, step, and it takes some work. Often I tell kids that many (most?) adults don’t know how to use a saw and this interests them.

• Put the saw away for safety and the next person.
• Sand wood. For sanding I show kids a piece of wood that has just been cut and another that’s been sanded and a third that has been sanded and oiled. Kids recognize the beauty of the sanded, oiled wood it motivates them.  Not being a obsessive sander myself, I leave it up to the individual kid how much they sand.

• Oil wood with mineral oil. They use a little paint brush for this.
• Drill a hole. The hand operated drill press, which isn’t easy to use, is the tool for this, but kindergarteners can use an egg beater drill with a little help, if they work at it.

• Choose key, I have leather shoe laces for tying the key to the fob.
• Tie the key to the fob. I show kids how to tie a square knot if they are interested, but by this time they are often tired and ready to be done, so I tie it for them.

As you can see the simple key fob is not so simple from a 4 or 5 year old perspective. 10 steps, and the vice, the saw, the drill press, and sanding require real work. The process by which children acquire skills is what makes the key fob important. the kids know it, and are proud of their hard won competence. Experience is the teacher and more effective than 10 “good jobs.”

Pencil holders are another project that have taken a little flack. The tools, building steps and sanding are simiiar to the key ring. Kids work hard to make them and they love giving them as presents to mom, dad, or their grandparents. I’ve talked to parents who, later when their kids went off to college, still had the little pencil holder on their desk.