Conclusion day 5...

I finished my small cabinet making class this afternoon, but was so busy making certain my students' needs were met, I forgot to take pictures. Everyone learned a lot, and was pleased to have had the luxury of a week in the wood shop with like minds doing fine woodworking.

I got a nice book in the mail from the director of the Eliot School, and written by a  woodworking teacher with 41 years of teaching experience. It Wood Be Fun by Michael Bentinck-Smith offers a great deal of practical advice and interesting projects that would be fun for any child. He suggests his book is like a "toolbox for parents. It contains all the information you need to work successfully with young children including supportive advice culled from years of experience."

As I have told many folks, you don't have to be a professional level woodworker to get started woodworking with kids. As Michael suggests,

"learning to use tools, to measure carefully, to cut accurately, to smooth thoroughly, and to bring a woodworking project to completion can have implications for a child's well-being, concentration, self-confidence, work ethic and patience that will affect all other ares of life, including classroom learning. Not to mention the sheer joy involved in working together—parent and child."

Make, fix and create...