Comments on: My Young Apprentice: Day 1

By: kreegan

kreegan — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 02:48:06 +0000

Crumpets are like if pancakes and Twinkies had a child, without the filling.

By: GregMiller

GregMiller — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 23:37:08 +0000

Nice one, Chris. Kids are like sponges. They not only learn from what we actively teach them, but I am amazed how much they also learn by osmosis. I probably learnt more from my father while I was a kid by just watching him and being around him in his joinery shop than through him “teaching” me. The latter happenned more when I was in my 30′s!

I run woodworking activities with kids aged 4 upwards, and have benches and tooling specifically geared for them – all hand tool stuff. Everywhere from festivals to pre-schools to schools to birthday parties.

Lots of parents ask me about how to get their kids going in woodworking, when they see how much fun their kids are having. So I have started a second blog, specifically aimed at resourcing parents and other adults wanting to see their kids get woodworking:
http://www.thejoyofwoodforkids.blogspot.com
Some of your readers may find this helpful.

Anything to promote the wonders of hand tool woodworking!

By: stmfitr636

stmfitr636 — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:37:44 +0000

What a great opportunity to teach her about octagons, hexadecagons, triacontadigons and the such.

By: mtnjak

mtnjak — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:53:33 +0000

As a father of one (son) and soon to be father of two (a girl) in one month, I find this article very interesting. I wonder if I could take similar photos with my daughter 10 years from now? Oh, well. Got to work on the son’s skills first of course!

By: KC Kevin

KC Kevin — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 01:13:48 +0000

Great post, Chris. So tell me is she go to teach the teacher when she gets to wood shop in High school?

By: Marlon1

Marlon1 — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 00:56:01 +0000

10 year old, not one

By: Marlon1

Marlon1 — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 00:55:08 +0000

I have a 1 year old too. She likes to watch me work on the wood, but not as much as my 6 year old. You made a good decision to take on your new apprentice. Thanks for being my teacher also.

By: tsstahl

tsstahl — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:31:53 +0000

Ambidexterity is normal for those of us who grow up sinister (left handed).

I still haven’t decided the best hand to cut dovetails with.

By: LanceG

LanceG — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:27:48 +0000

Ugh. emoticon auto conversions.
I’ll have to remember that next time!

By: LanceG

LanceG — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:25:56 +0000

I would pre-order that book today, on faith, if you guys put it in the bookstore. The books on woodworking with kids that I’ve seen have been much more about projects than learning, it seems. Also, most of them seemed targeted for older kids (mine are 4 & 5).

/brainstorm on/
Perhaps you could plan a book as a series of articles, which could be pre-ordered or subscribed to, perhaps as a companion to Exercises in WW? I know at least in my family, my kids and I would be co-apprentices, not master/apprentice. My primary job would mostly be “safety engineer”.

Heck, perhaps there would be enough of us to pitch in to “fund” such a project from PWW or LAP, with the aim of it becoming a free resource for keeping woodworking alive? Possibly an idea worthy of development at the WIA session? (& I think Ajax was writing something about Pay-It-Forward?!
/brainstorm off/

OK, so it was more of a “brain shower” than a “brainstorm”.
Fine, “sprinkle”. Be that way.

-Lance