Woodworking in the Preschool Years

[boigrrrlwonder]

My soon to be three year old daughter is very interested in woodworking. Her father, thankfully, is a plumber - I don't have a mechanical bone in my body. I know some of the Montessori schools introduce woodworking at three. I was wondering if anyone could share what kind of activities, tools, etc... would be appropriate for this age. Thanks!

[JL83]

What I've seen, in pre-k classrooms, is a bench with a piece of wood secured to it that kids can practice sawing one end of with a hacksaw. The other end has LARGE nails (spikes) started that they can continue to pound away at with a small hammer.

I think at this age the idea is to practice skills and work on hand/eye coordination rather than actually making anything.

I think the making would be more with glue.

[Lillian J]

For that age, I think I'd try to get away with sanding and gluing together pieces of wood and other wooden things like spools, knobs, popsickle sticks, beads, acorns or eucalyptus pods, pine cones, dowels - and sometimes you can find bags of nice, smooth, kindling pieces. You can do some pretty impressive things with glue. - Lillian

[craft_media_hero]

Sanding is a good activity, too. You can staple sandpaper around a board and let them rub smaller blocks or sticks against it.

Lowe's (the giant lumber superstore) has free woodworking session two Saturdays a month. If you google "lowe's build and grow" it should come up. The projects are very easy and everything is pre-cut and drilled. Some parental assistance is required, but the kids get to put together and take home a wooden toy.

[maybemom05]

I bought my little one (almost 4) a small tack hammer and a box of long roofing nails with really big heads on them. He loves banging the nails into pieces of scrap lumber. He has some trouble getting the nails started, but he's getting there.

In montessori classrooms that I've seen, the teacher has a collection of wooden golf tees that the kids can hammer into a tub filled with Play-doh. It's easier to get the tees started than an actual nail in wood, and it's not very loud. (which my kiddo does not see as a plus, but you might :-) )

[WhaleinGaloshes]

At 3, my daughter could work a little handcrank drill and loved to drill holes in soft wood. We made some projects with drilling like a sailboat with a mast. She can now hammer and saw once the cut gets really started well.

And sanding and gluing of course.

Invest in a vise to hold the work, it's worth it.

[Hibou]

It's not exactly woodworking, but we've found that carving soap is a great way to get started if the kids are interested in doing some whittling. We've just used plastic or butter knives for this, with great success.

[craft_media_hero]

Originally Posted by Hibou

It's not exactly woodworking, but we've found that carving soap is a great way to get started if the kids are interested in doing some whittling. We've just used plastic or butter knives for this, with great success.

Oooh, my kid likes this too. I make her sit in the bathtub to do it, lol. She just uses a metal spoon or toothpicks coz I'm not really comfortable letting her use my real modeling tools yet.

[LoMaH]

Originally Posted by craft_media_hero

Lowe's (the giant lumber superstore) has free woodworking session two Saturdays a month. If you google "lowe's build and grow" it should come up. The projects are very easy and everything is pre-cut and drilled. Some parental assistance is required, but the kids get to put together and take home a wooden toy.

craft_media_hero
Have you (or anyone else here) ever attended a clinic at Lowe's?
My dh looked at it and he says they make you sign a waiver that allows them to take photographs (??).... do you know anything about that?
Thanks