When my son started 1st grade, he joined Cub Scouts, following his sister who was in Girl Scouts. A few years after he started, I found myself his leader in scouting, which wasn't something new to me; I had been a part of scouting my whole life and was my daughter's Girl Scout Leader. As a teacher, I enjoy teaching children new skills. I feel that the more skills you allow children to try out, help them to build character and lifelong skills. For this project, the scouts needed to build something made of wood. Well, me being me, I took that as an opportunity to allow them to learn the correct way to use power tools with their father's help.
We started the lesson with a safety lesson so they understood the importance of the tools they were using, and how to protect themself while using them. Then, one at a time, the child and the parent would come up and use the tool. If the parent didn't feel comfortable using the tool, my husband would teach their student how to use the tool.
My son was always ready to jump in and do it himself (he is an engineer now, should have known), but it is times like these that help him to learn new skills and to not be afraid of them.
The best part of this project was that there were a lot of steps that the boys could do on their own without an adult helping them, which gave them confidence in what they were doing and pride in the finished project.
Everyone had a great time that day and learned so many new skills that they use as young adults today. As a parent, it is your number one job to teach your children how to be successful adults, and by exposing them to a lot of different activities as a young person, you are helping to shape who they will become as adults. Never pass up an opportunity to teach your child something, and even the littlest thing can make an impact. If you would like to make one of your own, here is a link to the project.
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