Montessori Tools, Woodworking + More.

This week, woodworking has been popular! It’s been really fun to watch my children explore these materials and discover that they’re capable of building something familiar out of just pieces of wood!

Here are some woodworking trays for beginners:

The screwdriver board is a great place to start! It’s a self-contained material you can pick up from many different stores. It helps with coordination, fine motor skills and patience! This is particularly popular among my two younger children.

A simple sanding work is a perfect “phase two”! Though the goggles may not be too necessary (I guess you never know!), the kids really enjoy using them! Once paired with a small piece of sandpaper and small piece of wood; the tray is complete. It’s great to talk about safety, how to hold the sandpaper and the wood in your hands; to make observations about the wood’s texture, too. What happens as you sand? How does the wood feel? How do we clean up the wood shavings?

This is a great tray for a little hammering practice! Using thumbtacks is a good first step because they are easier to hold (compared to nails), and the surface on them is wider and easier to “hit on the head”. Paired with a child-sized hammer and a small cork board — this is complete.

And then of course, there’s jumping all in! Our woodworking kit was definitely a major inspiration! It came with everything in the photo and included a booklet of possible projects to build: train, plane, pencil case, frame, etc. After building his first plane, he very quickly wondered what else he could build and wanted to go “off book”. 

He chose to build a guitar so I picked up some loose pieces of wood from Hobby Lobby that will act as the body and neck of the guitar so he’s been busy sanding the wood with a sanding block. Next, we’ll gather the rest of the pieces needed to finish the guitar (tuning pegs, strings, etc.) and I’ll be sure to show it when it all comes together.

These are the two items I purchased (at Christmas time) to make all these activities come to life!

Took kit // Build it yourself woodworking kit