The Guide to Woodworking with Kids

Age range 6 to 14.

Introduce children to the craft of woodworking and watch their executive function skills thrive…

The Guide to Woodworking with Kids is a culmination of craftsman Doug Stowe’s four-decade career in woodworking and twenty years of working with K-12 students in his Wisdom of the Hands woodworking class in his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas. 

This comprehensive guide offers step-by-step instruction for teachers, parents and grandparents to offer safe woodworking opportunities to their students and kids as a way of developing a wide range of valuable life-skills. Based in part on the philosophies of Froebel’s Kindergarten and Educational Sloyd, this book illustrates the importance of doing real, hands-on activities in school and at home that enable students to:

Think things through for themselves
Develop skill, originality and inventiveness 
Explore their own self-interests 
Plan, organize and execute meaningful work 
Prepare to profitably employ leisure time 
Be handy and resourceful 
Develop both character and intellect 
Create useful beauty to benefit family, community and self

Author Biography

Doug Stowe began his woodworking career in 1976 and was reminded of the importance of hands-on learning by teaching his own daughter in the wood shop. In 2001 he launched the Wisdom of the Hands Program at the Clear Spring School to prove the value of hands-on learning in a school wood shop. He is the author of 13 other woodworking books, over 100 articles in woodworking magazines and educational journals, and publishes a blog dedicated to promoting the value of hands-on learning, Wisdomofhands.blogspot.com. The son of a kindergarten teacher, Stowe has become a respected authority on learning for all ages. In addition to teaching at the Clear Spring School, Stowe teaches adults the fine art of woodworking at schools and clubs throughout the United States.