Homeschool Room: Woodworking Project
Homeschool Room Makeover.
Last year, right in the middle of winter, we felt the urge to give our school room a makeover. It all began with a need for some shelves which are simple, accessible and an open feel. I wanted to store our Montessori materials, nature study materials etc in a better way. We also wanted to implement a suggestion from a book to display our projects. We had moved into this home a year ago and we desired a functional yet aesthetically pleasing room. Initially, we considered the elfa storage system from ‘The Container Store’. We visited the store, looked at some designs but something was amiss. Though, we desired doing something ourselves, we were uncertain because of the time commitment.
After much thought, we decided that we are going to built these ourselves and we will work on this slowly and gradually. In the school room, we added three sets of floor shelves with three tiers/shelves each. We also added six wall shelves in that room. In the niche, by the hallway we added another 3 shelves. We spent every afternoon for almost a month to finish this project.
We learnt so much in the process, it is hard to list everything. We had so many discussions on strength of wood, sizing, planning etc. We learnt about price comparisons, room design, measurements, budgeting, handling tools, planning a project, working with diligence, everything related to woodworking.
Since, we were working on rustic, industrial type of look for these shelves, we first searched for tutorials on this. We found these two videos to be very helpful.
We used a lot of information from these videos. But I would warn against blindly following these videos especially the second one on wall shelves. I have recorded our entire experience with building these shelves with my then, 8 year old and 5 year old sons. I have included the mistakes we made which could have easily been avoided. But these videos are a great starting point. If you are considering building shelves with your children, I would recommend starting with the floor shelves, they are relatively simple and working on it is much easier for a little person. I hope this inspires you to take up a project like this and use your wall and floor space efficiently. These shelves would look great in any room.
My sons have always enjoyed woodworking and I have worked hard to create opportunities where they can learn life skills like this one since a very young age. Here are some of the things we did to help them grow in woodworking/building skills.
- We started taking them to woodworking workshops at hardware stores. Many of the hardware stores like Home Depot, Lowe’s conduct free workshops for children once a month. I remember attending Home Depot Workshops on the first Saturday of every month. I think we started attending these from age 3.
- When they were toddlers, we introduced toys, hands on activities which improve the fine motor skills. We bought for them sets where they had to drive nails into corkboard with a small hammer, small screwdriver sets where the child has to put the right sized screws into the wooden board using the screwdriver.
- Whenever we could, we involved them in small fixes around the house. Little children are very curious by nature and allowing them to watch can sometimes make all the difference. There were many instances where I had to put off our lessons just to let my son watch the handy man fix some of the things in our home.
- We started doing small projects at home so that the children can watch and learn. We did DIY projects at home and repurposed old furniture etc. We are not DIY’ers so this is something we were literally learning along with them. I have had to come outside of my comfort zone to try new things because it is a priority in our home to teach life skills and also to model the willingness to learn and make mistakes.
- Since, we were not naturally good at all this, I would often go to workshops for adults at the hardware stores along with the children. The children started to learn the more complex skills at these workshops.
- Allowing them to assemble furniture, tables, toys, shelves etc. Depending on their age, interest,willingness we started letting them assemble/put things together. This was almost by accident, but it really built that grit and patience in my eldest. He has assembled drawers, shelves, bookcases, even a foosball table with complex instructions over the years. My youngest has built stuff too. Last year, he built a rolling cart which I used every week to take my supplies to co op classes.
- I let them play a lot. I know that sounds simple but I honestly do believe that their open ended play which often involves putting something together has taught them how to delay the gratification and stay on task for longer periods of time. They seem to anticipate the pleasure of completing it and it seems to keep them going. If you have young children, please make time and space for them to play uninterrupted. It will go a long way.
Woodworking is a life skill and I am delighted to see how much my children have grown in this skill. Though this project was a challenging one but it was an immensely rewarding experience for them and they felt proud of their accomplishment. It has really built their confidence and In fact, my eldest has recently started taking orders for shelves. I am really glad we took it up, because it is serving as a daily reminder, that if we persist, we can do some really difficult things!
Woodworking/Building/Fixing does teach them a lot more than just some skills. The value of hard work, finding a way to use old things instead of constantly buying new ones, depending on our ownselves instead of outsourcing everything to others are just a few things to name here. I hope you find this post helpful and hopefully it inspires you to do some family projects where everyone learns something new.
