I too had an experience teaching youngsters yesterday. I made some simple bird houses as xmas presents for the kids in the extended family. When I gave them out I asked each child to put his or her's up and watch what went on this spring as the future occupants moved in and had young. They were asked to report their findings to me when we next visited. I am hoping they'll learn something interesting and drop those cell phones and computer games for at least a little bit. Which brings me to yesterday when the last two recipients came over. a brother and sister, she 13 and him 11.
I had it set up to present them with the boxes and then take them to the shop and show them how I made the bird boxes. The boy lasted about 15 minutes, didn't want to try sawing and basically stood around like a bump on a log. He eventually left the shop to go watch TV. The young lady was quite interested in the process, tried sawing, used a chisel and a hand planer. She asked questions giving me an opportunity to impart a bit of history about woodworking and tools. She also asked questions about rifle building and I showed her one in progress some of the metal fabrication I was doing. She did quite well for never having tried any of this stuff and seemed happy to have learned a little of the old craft of wood butchering. We completed the bird house and she decided she wanted it over the one I had made for her earlier in the week.
I invited her back if she wanted to learn more. I very much enjoyed our discussion and building session.
Fleener; Good on you, stick with that boy, sounds like he wants to learn! With you guiding him his project should come out well.
dave
