wood week...

Happy wood week! If you are like me, every week is wood week, but for some it comes as a special celebration. Today, my apprentice and I went to the Clear Spring Pre-School and Kindergarten for their "Wood Week". It was so much fun for all of us that this celebration of wood needs to become an annual event. I had originally planned to take my middle school class to help, and that would have been great fun, but their class schedule conflicted with nap time.

So Greg and I took work benches, planes, saws and hammers and each child got to saw, hammer and plane to their heart's delight. It was amazing to see how much attention they were able to apply, and even the youngest ones did well and worked safely. For some, this was their first time to use a hammer. For most, it was the first time to use a saw. For all, it was the first time to use a plane.

When I first thought of the project, I assumed that I would need to plan something for them to make. In case you are wondering, I can assure you that merely putting tools in kids hands for sawing, hammering and planing wood, is planning enough. Give them safety glasses for sawing and hammering. Use a vise to hold the wood so that their hands can be kept safe. After over an hour of work, our pre-school students wanted to begin gluing pieces they had sawn together to make sculpture, a thing they had learned earlier in wood week using various scraps saved from the CSS wood shop.

In my own shop, I continue to make small boxes.

It is such a delight to have a diversion from our community's attempt to stop the new power line from cutting through on its way, to unrevealed destinations. NOTHING is more refreshing than to work with budding wood workers. In an hour or less, you can build memories that will last more than a lifetime, when you consider yours and theirs. They and we will remember wood week for many years to come.

Make, fix and create...