Introducing a youngster to woodwork

[dedee]

My 8 year old has made 3 bird boxes to date. I cut the ply to size while see watched from a distance, but all the planing, to neaten the edges, sanding, hole drilling, screwing and painting she did herself. The twins helpd with this Little owl box too!

Good luck


Andy

 

[jlawrence]

He is 7 so a little young in my opinion to hold any bladed tools. For now he can sit on my Honda monkey bike and watch if he wants to

I'd have to disagree with that.
7 is about the right age to start teaching them about safety when using bladed stuff. They're old enough to appreciate that sharp things can hurt. I wouldn't let them use power tools at that age but things like planes shouldn't be a problem.
At 7 they can listen and understand reasons as to why you don't touch this, that or the other. So it's a good age to start teaching them about shop safety. Get him his own set of ear defenders, his own safety glasses etc and you'll find that he'll happily sit there and watch you machine up pieces, then he could start helping glue them up etc.

 

[Froggy]

My Daughter Beth is 9 and comes into the workshop with me a lot lately. She wants to learn woodworking but I have the same dilemma - what can she do safely (and by herself, so that I can crack on!). We decided to build a tool box together for her. I did most of the work but now she has a tool box and knows she can only use the tools in her box unless she has my permission to use others. I gave her small planes, spanners, screwdrivers etc. She watches me a lot and as she hasn't got bored yet we moved on to sanding with a sander and drilling with a power drill - all supervised.
She also watches me on the forum and reads a lot of the threads!! She often asks if I've spoken to Wizer or Smugger - it's quite amusing.

 

[Froggy]

Sorry Smudger, just realised I put Smugger

 

[Smudger]

Oook!