Beating the Winter Blues – With Woodworking!

Frank Posted on Oct 31, 2016 1:37 PM

Winter can be such a challenge when it comes to keeping the kids busy and engaged. Why not make them a new toy or game? If you don’t have children or grandchildren, or nieces and nephews of your own, you can make something to donate to a shelter or even to sell at an online auction site. Here are some great plans to get you started:

How about the timeless, ever popular, every-kid toy, wooden building blocks? The Playtime Building Blocks Woodworking Plan will walk you through it. A good set of Norton Sanding Sponges will help you finish it off and save little fingers from dreaded splinters.

You could also put together a Rocking Dinosaur for a rockin’ toddler or preschooler. The Festool Carvex PSB 420 EBQ Plus D-Handle Jigsaw is just the thing to make sure that tail is perfectly poised and those rockers are ready for miles of smooth moving.

If your youngster needs a place for homework or art projects or just to feel big, the Desk and Storage, Plan No. 763 is a great project to take on. Don’t forget to make the all important pencil catcher at the bottom of the desk with your Porter-Cable 1.25HP Compact Router Fixed & Plunge Base Kit.

Then, of course, there is the universally popular dollhouse. The Castle Doll House, Plan No. 794 uses leftover plywood and ready-made moldings, so you can build it and clean up your shop at the same time.

Involving the young ones in making wooden toys is a great solution for keeping the kids (and you!) busy and happy until the arrival of springtime weather!

So be their woodshop teacher and get them started young with some fun results they can relate too.

auf Wiedersehen!…Frank