5 Quick and easy woodworking projects to make with kids | FREE TEMPLATE
During a vacation, weekend, or lockdown, you want your kids to have a good time and be active instead of gaming or watching TV all day.
That’s why it’s a great idea to take your kids to your woodworking workshop and make something fun together.
With these 5 quick and easy woodworking projects to make with kids, you have plenty of ideas to give your kids a fun afternoon that they will remember for a long time.
Under the supervision of an adult, the children can be creative and practice their skills.
Who knows, this introduction to woodworking is their future passion where you can pass on all your knowledge and create more of these fun moments with them.
Table of Contents
Watch the video here
Before we start building
To prepare you for building this project, I have made a few handy lists.
In addition to a few personal protective equipment that I use*, I also list the materials as well as the (power) tools you will need to build this jig.
* Safety is always your own responsibility!
Safety first! protect yourself!
Materials I used for these woodworking projects to make with kids
- Birch plywood 18mm (0.70 inches)
- Douglas pine wood 35*180mm (1.38*7.08 inches)
- Screws 2.5*30mm
- Sanding paper 120 grit roll
- Dowel 8mm
- Wood glue
(power)Tools I used for these woodworking projects to make with kids
- Drill press
- Hilti cordless drill SF144-A
- Kreg KMA multi mark and measuring tool
- Pica pencil to mark all the pieces.
5 woodworking projects to make with kids
Project 1 | Walking blocks
I will start this list of woodworking projects to make with kids with the simplest project, walking blocks.
This requires little preparation and the kids can do most of it themselves.
I took 2 blocks that I recovered from dismantling old pallets.
About 2 cm below the top I drilled a hole where the rope can go through with a brad point drill bit.
After placing that rope through this hole, I just had to tie the two ends together and the walking blocks were ready. It is that simple.
Note: be sure to sand the blocks first, so the kids can not hurt themselves on splinters.
Tip:
If you want to know more about how to determine the right sandpaper for your project, be sure to check out my blog: The perfect sandpaper grit guide for woodworking.
Everything you need to know about sandpaper can be found in this article. It will no doubt give you a better understanding of the proper use of sandpaper.
There is also a FREE downloadable guide available to help you determine the right sandpaper grit.
Highly recommended.
Project 2 | Candy dispenser
For this candy dispenser, you can download free plans at the bottom of this blog with all dimensions.
To make this candy dispenser you must have a block in which the middle part can slide and catch the candy when it falls out of the jar.
I started this project by gluing the 2 narrow outer strips to the bottom plate.
Tip:
Don’t just use any wood glue for your projects!
To find out which different types exist and for which applications they serve, check out my blog Understanding Wood Glue + 8 awesome tricks you should know. Here you will discover everything you need to know about wood glue.
In the cover plate that will be placed on top of this candy dispenser I drilled a hole. That hole is slightly larger than the size of the candies for which I made the candy dispenser for.
The longer strip that removes the candy from the candy dispenser must be provided with a notch.
Make this notch based on the size of the candy.
You can make the notch as I did with a Forstner drill bit, but you can also remove the part with a table saw or hammer and chisel.
Now take the jar and drill a hole in the lid. To do this I have used a 25 mm hole saw.
Touch up sharp edges with a file so nobody gets hurt.
You can now glue the lid to the cover plate with the hole. I used my hot glue gun for this.
I chose to screw the cover plate onto the dispenser.
If candies ever get stuck in the candy dispenser, I can easily and quickly remove the top plate.
After placing the middle movable part, you can fill the jar with candy and the fun can begin.
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Project 3 | Bird feeder
The bird feeder is another simple project.
What you need is a piece of log in which to drill holes.
I drilled these holes about 30 mm deep with a 20 mm diameter spade drill bit.
I drilled the holes spread over the trunk.
At the top of the trunk, I drilled a hole all the way through the log. This allows me to put a rope through with which I can hang the log.
To fill these holes we mixed peanut butter with birdseed.
The mixture was placed in the holes and pressed down firmly.
Project 4 | Bookends
To make these bookends I took a piece of scrap wood that I cut to the desired lengths.
You will find the dimensions to make these bookends on the free plans that you can download on this blog.
The connection between the horizontal and vertical parts was made with dowels.
For this, I used my doweling jig. Watch the video here to see how you can easily make a doweling jig yourself.
To make the connection stronger I added wood glue.
I put glue in the joint as well as on the dowels.
The wooden triangle that was applied in the inner corner of the bookends does not only serve as extra reinforcement, but the pencils will be glued on this later.
You can also fix this reinforcement with wood glue, but to be able to work faster and to save time I used hot glue here.
To finish the bookends, old pencils that my children no longer use were placed in the right order and glued against the reinforcement with hot glue.
Project 5 | Yoyo
The yo-yo is the last, but not the least of these 5 woodworking projects you can make with kids.
With a hole saw I drilled 2 circles from a piece of hardwood.
The diameter of the hole saw I used was 40 mm.
To smooth out the circles and round the edges, I clamped a bolt through the center hole.
This gave me the opportunity to clamp this circle in my drill press. If you don’t have a drill press, you might as well use a regular drill.
By holding sandpaper to the workpiece while the drill is running, the edges and surface could be sanded easily to achieve the desired finish.
To connect the two circles I used a dowel that I glued in the center holes with wood glue.
Then you only have to attach a string, and the Yoyo is ready
Be careful when placing the rope. Make a loose loop and allow the rope to spin freely around the axis of the Yoyo.
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