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.