Sometimes it is hard to get children to do anything more than sitting around watching TV or playing video games. 
I like to see my kids go outside and play or use their minds for something creative. Derek’s post about wood working projects is great, a fabulous way to inspire a child’s creativity. In his post Derek said kids love to make things. That is so true and definitely something that can be encouraged easily, even with the little ones.
Making small and simple wood projects is a great way to introduce kids to woodworking and DIY projects. If you have a Home Depot or Lowes in your area, you can introduce your kids to many simple projects for free. Once a month on the first Saturday, Home Depot has a kid’s workshop for ages 5 -12, where they make things like birdhouses, tool boxes, planter boxes, cars, boats, etc. The kids get an apron and are taught the basics of tool safety and get great do-it-yourself skills. The next two kids workshop projects are a Paper Football Game on Saturday September 6th and a Whistle Fire Truck on Saturday October 4th.
Lowes has their Build and Grow Clinics twice a month, usually the second and fourth Saturdays. My husband always takes our 9-year-old daughter to these (we sometimes forget about the Home Depot ones, they sneak up on the first Saturday).
She absolutely loves the workshops. She is a big time “make it” girl. She has a whole shelf where her proudly made projects are displayed in her room. She loves to show everyone her projects that she made, and she loves to give some of them away as gifts. Many times they make seasonal projects that are great for presents; like in May at Home Depot she made a box full of wooden flowers that she gave to me for Mother’s Day. In June, she made a memory box for dad at Lowes. Last October she made a creepy spider, in November a turkey recipe holder, and in December a snowman Christmas card holder.
Soon she’ll be ready to move on from the basics to really building things. She always helps dad in his workshop all the time, unlike me she’s not spooked by the power tools.
The workshops are a great way for her and my husband to bond; that’s their thing that they do. And the greatest thing is that it is free. You can’t beat free.
September’s Lowes Build and Grow workshops are a pirate ship on Saturday September 13th and a fire truck on Saturday September 27th.
Check your local stores for times and sign up sheets. Or you can sign up online for the Lowes’ workshops.
[This post was written by Wenona Napolitano.]
Image credits: fire truck -HomeDepot.com, pirate ship- LowesBuildandGrow.com
Wenona – thanks for spreading the word! glad to hear your daughter enjoys the workshops. We have a full schedule at http://homedepotclinics.com.
Great idea! I had no idea these workshops were available. I’m going to check out the schedule for my area.
Oh my gosh, these are SO MUCH FUN!! I take my 3 oldest kiddos to our Home Depot at least once a month. We’ve done birdhouses and peg boards and stepping stones. They are great for the entire family and the kids are learning really practical skills.
Wenona, my daughter LOVED these at Home Depot at age nine, and learned skill sets for life building bird houses and now ‘carving her unusual name’ with laser tools and woodcuts, so that she’ll never, ever feel ‘intimidated’ by power tools and hardware stores. She must take after her grandma, who would rather be in a hardware store or the great outdoors than any fashionista offering. 😉 Thanks for the reminder.
btw, do they still offer ‘shop and home economics’ in some public schools? And if so, are there open gender/role reversals in play? Curious. Would make a great post! 😉
I wish they would leave the Home Depot logo off of the projects.
You don’t have to put the Home Depot logo on the projects, it’s just a little thing the kids can attach or not. My daughter usually leaves them off.