Kid carpentry

Saturday afternoon Andy came up with the perfect project for our boy. Since Owen is always after Andy's tools, Andy finally decided on some we could all feel good about Owen using. After a brief lesson, Owen started pounding, drilling, and screwing anything he could get his hands on with his new super cool tools.

The bandaid?? Well, that was another lesson in kid carpentry. Not only did he learn how to use some new tools, he also learned the importance of keeping his digits a safe distance away from any cousin who happens to be pounding nails too. Ahh, those lessons that hurt the most are often learned the quickest.

The smashed finger really didn't slow him down too much though. Sunday morning he headed back out to his tree stump to drive in a few more nails and to drill a few more holes for screws. It was hard to pull him away from this play. He felt so good about using real tools. He was beaming with pride after mutilating this tree stump with his small arsenal of tools. I've rarely seen him as pleased with his play and certainly never when he's just playing with his toy tools.

This was the finished piece. The other side of the stump is thoroughly covered, but I wasn't able to flip it over for a picture because our boy was hard at work on this side (and you know, who could interefere with that? Not this momma).

If anyone has plans for some kid carpentry we found that roofing nails, a nice solid tree stump and a real hammer is the easiest place to start, and likely the most rewarding for the aspiring carpenter (or carpentress, I suppose).