Making Furniture & Dollhouses for American Girl Dolls is a book that teaches you to make dollhouses and furniture for the popular American Girl Dolls or other 18″ dolls.  This can be a great way to build a girl’s interest in woodworking.  The scale is not too delicate for small hands.

A Treehouse is really the ultimate woodworking project for a kid.  It literally involves constructing a space that is THEIRS.  This book makes a great start to the build:  Build Your Own Fantasy Treehouse. Summer is half over, time to get to it.

Zany Wooden Toys That Whiz, Spin, Pop and Fly is a book that has a whole collection of fun action related wooden toys.  The plans are pretty simple and yet there is nothing simple about the cleverness of them.  A lot of fun to read, and even more fun to build.  I find they also inspire creative thinking as kids contemplate merging one design with another.

A common project to build with kids in a woodshop is a bird house or feeder.   Designs can be simple or complex.  Many adults tend to underestimate the project and just wing it.  What I have found is that trying to think and design a project while building it with a child in the shop is harder than it sounds.  There are enough distractions with a child in the shop that it makes it difficult to think about all the subtle nuances of a design.

My suggestion is to either plan and design it before setting foot in the shop, or better yet, let your child shape the design by choosing a pattern from many tried and true birdhouse designs from the book Easy to Build Birdhouses, A Natural Approach.

This book not only does a great job with presenting plans and designs, it also addresses wood and finish choices that are bird safe.  It really is a great book for teaching kids how to take multiple aspects into consideration of a plan.

These old entertainment centers seem to appear on curbs pretty regularly.  Here are some examples of creative parents who turned them from landfill-bound to cute kitchen play centers with a little clever woodworking.

from Kellie and Her Kiddie Kaliope

from Sutton Grace

Sooner or later if you are doing some woodworking with your young children, they will need a workbench.  Sometimes to do actual work, and sometimes just to pretend.  Here are some great ideas

Kid’s Workbench strong enough for Adults – This design is great because it is kid-sized, strong and can be used as a sawbench or work surface long after the child is grown.  This one is so simple to make that kids can help make it.

Kid's workbench to adult sawbench.

Classic Woodworking Bench in Kid Sizes – article and plans from American Woodworker.  This is a nice looking bench.  Wood look great in a shop or in the child’s bedroom.

Light Duty Kids Bench plans – this bench is pretty simple and includes a pegboard backer for hanging tools. Here is a similar bench with plans that can be purchased

Here is a set of workbench directions designed so kids can make the workbench, but the finished project is never shown, so it is hard to tell where the directions are leading you.

If you build your own, it is very important to have a clamp of some kind built in.  Kids can only be safe using tools if they are not using their hands to secure the work.  Unsecured wood leads to unsafe practices.  Unsafe practices lead to injuries and bad lifelong habits.  By all means, put at least one vice on it.

A simple clamp-on vise like the one on the left can be easy to put on and move around, or a more permanent one like the one on the right can make for a very solid vise without spending a lot of money.

Of course a workbench can always be purchased if you don’t have time to make one.  The wooden ones are preferred as they most resemble actual workbenches in form and function.  I avoid the plastic ones, no real work can ever take place on those.

• Sears Craftsman Kids Wooden Workbench
  
• Melissa & Doug Workbench
  
• Wooden Workbench by HaPe
  
• OTHER children’s workbenches for sale on Amazon.

When getting kids into woodworking, one of the common projects is to build a tool tote (toolbox) with them.  The toolbox is nice because they can then fill it up over time with tools that you give them.

One of the great things about tool totes is that you can adjust them to whatever skill level the child is ready for.  For beginners you can start with simple butt joints and nails, screws or  dowels and a bit of glue.  If the child is a little more skilled you could add rabbets, or progress to hand cut box joints or dovetails.  The basic design remains the same, but the joinery can be varied.

Here a few plans for tool totes or toolboxes that make the process a bit easier

stilesdesigns.com/toolbox.html This one has rectangular handle and is shaped so it can even serve as a little saw horse for kids.

woodworking.about.com/od/woodworkingplansdesigns/ss/woodenToolbox.htm – This one contains a step by step approach, but in my opinion relies too heavily on power tools.  A child can’t safely help with that many electric tools.

Tools: A simple toolbox saw, possibly a coping saw, and a hand drill, a combination square and a pencil are really all that are needed plus a screwdriver or hammer or clamps depending on the joinery method you choose.

This is  a great example of doing something different at a birthday party by having each child make their own wooden tool tote or brain box.

from LumberJocks >> Build a  Toolbox Birthday Party

The Village Carpenter Blog has a great post about having two young kids work in the shop for a day.  Also has a set of plans for a better than average wooden tool tote

from The Village Carpenter >> Apprentice Day