My kid has and loves the quercetti techno plastic tool set. It includes a pegboard several lengths of screws, bolts, nuts and flat pieces. He is now after a "real" hammer of his own after hubs let him have a few taps when hanging a picture. Ds is nearly five. Any suggestions on what I might get? Are there wood project kits at michaels I could get online? Are there kid sizes safety glasses? Hubs said he remembers beings given a hand crank drill and a few bits when he was 7 or so. I remember my brother banging heavy long nails with big heads with a small hammer into a workbench and dad prying them out every few days. Is an erector set the way to go? Thanks for your tips and suggestions.
F. B.
I went to the Dollar Store and got mine a small tool box.
Then filled with a flathead screwdriver, Philips screwdriver, small hammer, little wrench, mini flashlight etc.
Nothing "too much" or too dangerous.
Still uses it.
Best thing, real thing!
Lucky enough here to have real carpentry shop/classes for kids at our community center, starting at age 4. All my kids (two girls and a boy) took classes and camps when they were little. Real hand tools, focus on safety, my boy and girl scout troops did events/badges there as well.
If you don't have that option, I say look up the workshops for kids at your local Home Depot.
And if nothing else, get some wood, hammer, nails, safety goggles, etc.
Let him hammer away!
Get on Pinterest.
Simple DIY ideas are so much more satisfying than those awful kits from Michaels.
Ya know, it's a very small step from getting kits for the kids and getting them their own real tools at Home Depot.
My husband is like a kid in a candy shop in that place.
At about 7 our son had his very own tool belt, a measuring tape, safety goggles, hearing protector head phones, a flashlight, a simple wrench, some pliers and a few screw drivers and he helped Dad with everything.
They had a blast together!
Smart small. Home Depot has little workshops and small projects you can purchase. If you can find a nice, big piece of wood for him to pound nails into (some preschools use a stump), so much the better.
I did a little peeking around (I remember playing with my dad's hand drill, drilling holes into the butter container he stored the nails in)..... this set actually looks very good, has good ratings and is likely exactly what you want.
http://www.forsmallhands.com/tool-set-for-young-builders
Don't forget that additional things like wrenches can be borrowed from dad. My son uses my husband's set of jeweler's screwdrivers to take apart his electronics.He has to be responsible with them or he doesn't get to use them.
Wait on the screws and bolts until he has the ability to plan and execute those sorts of projects. I'd also say, instead of an erector set, maybe buy him skinny screws and give him lots of scrap wood. Check with your local woodcrafting supply shop to see if they have a resource for carpentry scrap. One of our friends who does restoration work gave us a nice laundry basket of wood ends and pieces. The stuff kids like to play with is out there, for cheap.
They do sell kids' toolsets with real, smaller scale tools at Lowe's and Home Depot. Just ask the customer service folks where to find them. On the same aisle you'll find projects like birdhouses, derby cars, and other things. Our boys have had their own real tools, regular sized, including a cordless power drill since age 8. They're constantly in the garage building messes.
We bought our kids real kid tool sets for xmas last year -amazon. We then bought some nails. I then bought a few books on projects for kids. We told them that once they could get the nails hammered in straight, then we'd build something.
They are both ready for a project. Starting next month, we will start working on building something.
http://www.amazon.com/Grip-96009-Childrens-Tool-Kit/dp/B0...
my boys had their own tools pretty much from the time they showed interest and had grown out of the plastic toddler ones. whenever their dad was working on something in his 'shop' down in our large-ish crawlspace they'd be down there banging nails into boards or screwing scrap wood together.
sometimes they'd bang a finger. and get sent up to me. it was all good.
:) khairete
S.
Forget the "toys".
You can get smaller tools and build him a proper tool kit. We bought one of the pre-packaged tool kits (for adults) at Walmart for our grandson (then age 7) and he has had lots of fun using the hammer and screwdriver under supervision. We took out the box cutter, of course.....
Add me to the "Get him some real tools" club.
Last year for Christmas, our five year old grandson wanted tools, so my husband (a mechanic by trade) cleaned up some of his older tools that would fit into little hands and wrapped them up in a brand new tool belt. Kiddo was tickled to not only get tools, but to get some of Pawpaw's very own tools.
http://www.amazon.com/Educational-Insights-Design-Activit...
my 5 yr old has this and loves copying the cards or creating his own picture. my 3 yr old loves it too.
my 5 yr old also has a snap circuits set that he loves to do (rec.age is 8 though so supervision is needed when doing it with a younger child)
