I just finished a 4 day class with adults, making inlaid boxes. It should be noted that teaching adults and children is essentially the same thing, particularly if the children have an interest in learning, as do most adults who have joined me in the wood shop.
It is all a matter of play. We experimented. We asked questions of ourselves and others. We watched for the safe operation of tools. And we made inlaid boxes.
We maintained an atmosphere where mistakes we OK.
Adults or children, we start with our interest, as that is what we build upon. We proceed from what we know, toward what we want to find out. We move from the easy to the more difficult. We go from the simple to the complex and always from the concrete to the abstract, and back to simplify and make real.