More fun with wood scraps...

.... though this time the scraps are way higher in quality. I was so incredibly fortunate a year or two ago to be given several boxes of wood scraps from Little Guitar Works. I've used these pieces of wood for all sorts of things and it's amazing wood... birds eye maple, mahogany, ebony... I just used up basically the last of it for this project I did with Jack's class (and also made a bunch more to use for my camps this summer). You definitely don't need fancy wood though to do these project... I can pretty much guarantee that your kid will be fainting with excitement (if they've never sanded before) even if it's just a chunk of yellow pine or a branch you picked up off the ground... I have done this project several times and it's always adorable how excited the kids get about making the wood smooth and the amount of sawdust they create... lucky for me these kids did not disappoint. Thank God because if there's one thing I can't stand it's non-adorable kids. JUST kidding, anyway...

As you can see you can just cut up some pieces of wood and drill a hole in it. Leave the children to their sanding ( I stapled pieces of sandpaper onto blocks of wood to create a kind of sanding block for them, but it's not necessary) and then, when they've deemed their wood sufficiently soft and smooth, I have them paint it with mineral oil using a Q-tip. Wipe away the excess oil, thread a piece of leather twine or ribbon or cord through the hole, and tie a double knot, and voila... key ring. Of course it could be anything... I've had lots of kids just call it jewelry and make themselves really cool bracelets and necklaces... but project I was doing with Jack's class was classified as a Father's Day project, so the key ring and the wood and the leather twine combined to make it all sufficiently masculine.

The best part of it all was how excited Jack was to have me in his classroom. He came over and hugged me about 12 times and I kept seeing him glancing at me in this shy excited way... so cute that it doesn't even occur to him yet to be cool or to try to hide the fact that he loves his mama. And what a lucky mama I am.

Dollhouses...

Here is my dollhouse that I've been working on on Tuesday nights with my friend Kiera. I'm doing a kind of bare bones, modern style, because it's the best my feeble carpentry skills can muster. If anyone wants to come build a dollhouse with us, the club is an open one! Kiera is doing a total remodel on a huge dollhouse she found at Blue Hanger. I think I'm going to do mine all with reused objects.... kind of set myself a challenge, and then it will fit in with this project, and then I can kind of justify to myself the time spent futzing around on this fun little project that, well, when you think about it, really should take a back seat to some other, more pressing tasks. But I'm staving off that logical brain, trying to just allow myself a little play time. I need it, I need it, indeed I really do.....

Making a flower press

For our last carpentry class, a really sweet summer project that will hopefully be pretty fun for them to work with, especially in these early days of summer when the flora of Central Texas is still pretty lush and blossom-y.

If you'd like to make a flower press, with or without your kid, instructions can be found here.

Making paddle boats

This involved sawing, hammering, using a hot glue gun, and even painting and decorating. It was a lot of fun, and as an added attraction The Montessori Center has this neat water table in which the students were able to try out their newly minted water vessels. This is a boat in which a little paddle is wound up in a rubber band at the back to create a little splash and a push of forward motion. It's pretty cool.

We can't believe the carpentry class is almost over... it has been such an interesting and absorbing and exciting class!

Woodshop

Today in woodshop... the magnet pole. This is a devilishly easy little project that nonetheless has an exciting and interesting end product and introduces a new skill: sawing. The kids were so excited when they completed their first cut, it was really adorable. What you see Finnon and Dorte using together is a mitre block, which guides the saw to make a straight cut and kinda just keeps the saw from waving all around...

Obviously this project is oh-so basic but it really is fascinating and magical and (dare I say) educational. You know how one side of the magnet attracts and the other repels... so when these doughnut shaped magnets are placed on the pole repelling each other one actually 'floats' above the other...just messing around with the magnets is pretty addictive, I must say...

Hammering work and a Mother's Day gift

Another fun carpentry class in which we introduced the magic of hammers and nails. Quite fun. We made the fun pegboard and also a gift for the mamas... 'MOM' spelled out in nails... just what y'all always wanted, am I right? Anyway, it was quite cute and they were all very proud.

Carpentry class!

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Yay! My computer and printer are finally speaking again, after giving each other the cold shoulder for quite some time. I finally get to share with you some pictures from the carpentry class I am teaching with my friend Doerte, which is going quite swimmingly. Our first class we simply sanded a piece of wood, oiled it, drilled a hole, inserted a leather string, and created a key ring or a bracelet or whatever they wanted to use it for. It might sound a little boringly easy but I am so glad that we started with such a basic project, because the kids LOVED it, and were so excited, and just kept exclaiming about how beautiful and smooth their piece was.

Our second project was a spinning top, that was quite fun, too.

Fun and easy homemade toy

I got this idea from the fabulous Steven Caney's Toy Book, which I found at a thrift store a few years ago and on which I based almost my entire Toymaking Camp that I did last summer. I never did this project from the book, however. At the time, it seemed too hard, now I'm all about hammering and nailing and all that business. Anyway, we're going to be doing this in my carpentry class that starts this weekend. It's really simple and entertaining. This first one pictured is a fancied-up version that you can buy from Germany in a nice wooden toys catalogue. The second is obviously my more rough-and-tumble version, but it works. I had a big bag of those wierd little elastics that I once used many moons ago to weave potholders, when I was a kid (remember that?) but I actually think rubber bands would be better, they're stretchier. You could get some colored ones. This would be a great gift for a birthday party and your kid would love making it, I betcha. You could sand and oil the board and pretty it up a whole lot more than I did. You can also play a game where each person takes a turn stretching out a band to form a triangle. No band may overlap another triangle. The last person to successfully form a triangle without overlapping, wins. There's probably lots of different games you could think up with this thing. You could also make some cards with different designs on them, and challenge yourself or others to match the patterns.... the sky's the limit.
A board with nails pounded in it and some rubber bands, who'd a thunk it. Have fun! I'm kinda obsessed with it, myself.

Spinning top!

My pal Doerte came over today to work on some projects for our upcoming Woodshop for Children class. We did this project from Jack McKee's book and it was dazzlingly easy, once we had the proper tools. The project called for a hole saw, which is a drill attachment that you can buy at Harbor Freight on S. Lamar. I actually got a whole set of hole saws of different sizes for around 7 dollars, I was rather pleased. So once we had this, we discovered that not only would it quickly saw out a perfectly round circle of wood, but it would drill a hole in the center at the same time. From there, all you must do is cut a thinnish dowel to your preferred length, sharpen the end to a dull point with a pencil sharpener, push it or pound it through the hole, sand, oil, and/or decorate as you please, then spin spin away!!

A very satisfying and fun project that introduces some cool skills like sanding and drilling.
Oh and I must add that Doerte is drilling in the background of this video, the top is not making that sound!

Carpentry for Children

I'm so excited, ever since discovering this amazing guy Jack McKee and reading his book, Woodshop for Kids, and checking out his inspiring website, I've been wanting to teach a class based on it all. He teaches carpentry to 3-6 year olds! I just think that is so brilliant. I mean, I'm sure he teaches older kids as well, but I just love the idea of teaching younger kids this stuff. I think that if you present the material carefully and thoughtfully they won't endanger themselves AND it will just be so empowering for them. I never learned how to fix or build anything real when I was little, truth be told, I didn't really learn how to do any of that stuff until my late twenties! I think having this kind of knowledge and ability can help people feel more like an active participant in the world and it's workings rather than just standing idly by, letting the big people have all the fun.

I still couldn't figure out how I could set up the class though, but finally today my friend Dorte came over and we hashed it all out. She's going to co-teach with me and we're going to do it at Hyde Park Montessori, where she works. The projects we're going to be doing in the class are so perfect: simple, but the kids are going to be really excited about them. I'm not sure if this class is going to be offered to just the Montessori students or to everybody. The students at the school are definitely going to get first dibs, but I'll let you know if there ends up being availability.

These aren't the projects we're going to be doing, but these are some images from Jack McKee's website that will hopefully inspire you to visit it.