Easy Carpentry Projects for Children

• The Kids' Building Workshop: 15 Woodworking Projects for Kids and Parents to Build Together
• The American Boy's Handy Book: What to Do and How to Do It, Centennial Edition
• The Dangerous Book for Boys
• The Boy Mechanic: 200 Classic Things to Build
• Carpentry for Children

I ordered this book to ahve some projects to work on with my kids. I have seen better productions that were easy for both adult and child to follow. Although the projects themselves are not so difficult, it shouldn't take so much work to figure out what the project is and how to do it.

and the bird feeder has worked wonderfully. It was one of his Christmas gifts he was excited about. He wanted to make some projects with his tools, and it was a great bonding experience working with his grandpa.

Your junior woodworker should know how to read and have some basic familiarity with the tools (or some scrap lumber handy to figure out how to use them). (Then they'll complain that everything these days is mass-produced plastic). This approach allows independence and encourages problem-solving, while still letting you keep a carefully peeled eye to head off disasters (ideally without the child noticing how closely you're watching). Persistence, patience and a decent attention span are necessary for the completion of projects. I like the Dover books, which generally re-print older books on decent-enough paper for a low price.

I generally like the older tools, although they're slower and require more actual skill to use. Ideally, s/he would also have some basic familiarity with some of the concepts of woodworking, like the fact that you spend more time with the sandpaper than with the saw. Here's the list of fifteen projects in this inexpensive book:sailboatbird feederhot dish coastersteamboattoy sledtie rackbook racktable lampclock shelfcandlestickstowel holdercartbirdhouse for a wrenshoeshine kitflower boxTo be honest, these projects may or may not interest your youngster, and unfortunately our media generation may not consider these projects exciting enough or impressive enough to justify all the time and energy they require. As with all craft-y projects, you should consider what you could do with it when you're done. This book is no exception; it's an old-fashioned book that was originally published in the 1950s.The projects all involve hand tools instead of power tools, although the modern equivalent (with appropriate supervision) could be substituted.

With a child old enough to figure out most of the directions on his/her own, I think this would work best for what the child development people call "parallel play:" your junior woodworker works independently on his (or her) project, and you work independently on your own unrelated project -- but in the same room or area. If the answer is "can't do anything with any of these," then perhaps you should look for a different book. The major downside for the younger kids is that the there's nothing about woodworking that lends itself to instant success (or commercially slick achievements on a first try).

I'm not a child (60) but I wanted some simple woodworking projects to get started with. This is a great resource

This little book looks good so far although we'll still have to saee how the kids cope on their own & if they'll be able to successfully plan each project - unfortunately it's all in inches & feet & I'm not keen to teach my kids all that stuff so we are going to have to do conversions.I feel this could have been highlighted prior to purchase.