Woodworking with Kids: Carving a Mouse Pt 1
This coming Saturday I am going to teach a remote whittling class for children, hosted by Peters Valley School of Crafts. Unlike in-person teaching, where the teacher is present in the class/shop [...]
A Butter Knife Made by Needle Rasps – a Fun Project for Kids
With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, I was obligated to change my curriculum and put our traditional shop work on hiatus. Since I wasn’t able to use our benches, vises, and clamps I [...]
The Clear Spring School Workbench
A perfect platform for teaching woodworking to kids. Woodworking safely with children requires a bench vise to hold stock securely. While stools can raise a child to the height of your workbench, [...]
Branch-Hooks as a Gateway Into Woodworking Part 1.
I was first introduced to branch hooks and their organic beauty while reading Peter Follansbee’s excellent article on the subject in Popular Woodworking magazine. Peter showed how to turn a [...]
Woodworking With Kids: Make A Pumpkin
My son Oliver has been fascinated by my woodworking projects for years now, but has always been resistant to the idea of building anything of his own. I decided to take advantage of his love of [...]
Sowing the Seeds of Woodworking, Part 2: How to Create Fast and Efficient Multiples.
Read part 1 here. While thinking about ways to manufacture the butter knives fast and efficiently, and also to maximize the use of wood and avoid waste as much as possible, I came up with a [...]
Sowing the Seeds of Woodworking
My first time teaching woodworking to a group of toddlers took place almost two years ago. This opportunity to introduce the craft of wood to what is by far the youngest crowd I have ever taught [...]
A Bench for Kids
Build a small workbench with full-sized features for a budding woodworker. “The bench is probably the most important item in the workshop.” Those are Charles H. Hayward’s first words in his [...]
Baby Steps Into the 2020 Pandemic
These are difficult times for so many people. As residents of the state of New York, we are at the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak. Until almost three weeks ago I was still teaching in our [...]
Linker Logs Project
Although Linker Logs are made with the aid of a computer— once complete, they’re a great way to get kids (and parents) off the computer for an afternoon of old fashioned fort building and [...]