I have a 4 year old that always wants to be wrench'n in the garage with me. Any dads built any cool projects to keep there offspring occupied? Sumthin a little better than hammering wooden blocks into the right holes. Thanks.
Set him up on a portable table that will move around with you. Start him with the easiest model car kits you can buy. Try to find one like your building. That way he will definitely feel like he's helping you
It's ok to start with wood. Make little cars and trucks out of 2x4's and holesaw blanks. EDIT: Of course, you do the dangerous sawing and powertool stuff when he's somewhere else. Sometimes it's fun to take apart small motors, too. You can probably get an old Briggs from a lawnmower for free. Let him work the ratchet once you've broken the bolts loose. When he's older you can worry about putting things back together.
what i did is give her a rachet , extention , and socket. the socket was oversized for the lug nut. i would tell her to "work" on the wheel. she'd spend an hour spinning that socket around the lug nut and making the racheting sound. then she'd get bored and go back in the house to watch blues clues. that was good times.
I bought mine 4yr son a HD workbench. He loves it, he uses the tools for the houes and the car. He tells me to use his tools cause they work better. It's the only toy he plays with. Between that workbench w/ tools and a spiderman costume he's set sometimes he'll wear spiderman and help.I think of all the money I could of saved had I known that .
This is what a Hot Rodder built his kid in the early 50's, my Father built this for me when i was 4 years old. Its built on the look of a 27-T track roadster, and used the front axle, steering box from an anglia, that was narrowed to fit the size of the car, Also a real T grill shell cut down. This is a picture of me when i was about 5 years old, taking my little sister for a ride in our backyard. The best toy i had as a kid, was a stromburg carb, that my Father showed me how to take apart, and put it back together. Trust me, what ever you do with your kid now, he will never forget it.....Ed
When I am busy, I have my grand kids sort the buckets of bolts and nuts for me. I give them the mayonaise and peanut butter jars and let them go at it. It really is a help and I make sure they know it. When I have time to just be puttering I have them sand and clean parts with me. Gumpa
I built my boys a small workbench complete with a small vise , gave them an assortment of "plow wrenches " worn screwdrivers , hacksaw , almost a little of everything . They had old sparkplugs ( don't know why but kids really find them interesting I remember I did too ) bolts , nuts , wood , parts that were not heavy , but not usable for me and they had the best times od all with that bench. It had the pegboard and pegs too so they could hang up their "Stuff " they would spend as much time as Mom would let them before she came to rescue them from a "hot " shop .
My daughter is a bit older so I can give her chrome polish and a rag and have her start at one end of a bumper. She can really see some progress as she goes.
My boy is too young right now. But, when he gets a little older I have a old Y-block I'm going to tear down and teach him what each part is. I figure when He can name all the parts and tell me what they do we will be able to put it back together. He does like to get his plastic screw driver and touch every wheel on every car in the yard. I have no Idea where he got that from.
When my daughter was about 4 she wanted to help me work on my convertible. So I gave her the job of putting all the cotter pins in the front end. She LOVED it. To this day she will still wander into the garage to see if she can help me with something. Today she helped install the brake lines on the dragster. I showed her how to make "mock up" lines from welding rod, flare the line and use the tubing cutter. She asks good questions and I love every second of it! I've also given both kids a broom and had them work in separate sections - they LOVED it - in teh warm weather they'd come in and beg to sweep up!!!!! I also like to involve them in making projects just for them - a pirate plank was a real highlight - simple things mean the world to them - and me.
Coupla washers, coupla wrenches, coupla miscellaneous parts and she spent a good 20 minutes 'fixing' the fuel sender wire. Creepers are fun on many levels. She's two and a half in the picture. Car sitting on the ground - she doesn't need as much belly room as ol' Dad Rewiring was fun, with all the different colors of wire. Seems like there's always room for color ID, naming things, counting things on top of everything already mentioned. Lots of other good ideas already posted, too. Predrill some holes in a board and have the little nipper put some nails in and pull them out. Found a 7oz claw hammer at the local H Depot that's easier to handle than a full sized one. Beyond that, keep the shop chemicals out of reach, make sure the heavy stuff is well supported and debur that leftover steel scrap before you put it back on the shelf. You have to be safe for them.
My son is 4 I let him help whenever possible, I just disassembled a flathead and what I do is crack all the bolts loose and let him take them out the rest of the way. I also have an electric wood engraver that just vibrates the scribe into the wood that keeps him busy for a bit. The next step is to teach him how do to some good bondo work for me.....I hate bondo work. He also pretends to run the mig welder.....puts on the helmet and vise grips metal together, plays with the drill press.....unplugged of course.
My 4 yeard old niece likes to help me when ever I'm working on the car. I crack the bolts then let her use the rachent to get them off. She loves it. Then when were done I take her around the block for a test drive. I just have to make sure her mum doesn't see it. It's great, its our own little thing we do together, and she learns small simple things about cars that even her mother doesn't understand. Simply being around it and asking questions will teach them alot.
I second the lawnmower engine. Or these is always the broom and attempting to roll up your ext cords like my 3 year old does every time he gets in the shop
My son is 9 now. A couple months ago, I gave him the DA and turned him loose on a fender. Tols him to hang on tight. It was hilarious! Useful too, since I just needed to remove paint. He had the respirator on too, unlike ol dad.
Have a greasy motor/rear end/trans you don't feel like scraping grease off? My kids ALWAYS loved it. Sure it takes them forever, but it takes me forever to "jump in" on that crap anyway. Lots of stuff they can do.Nuts an bolts and screws when you tear down/assemble. Let them do it whil you move on to other things, you just have to come back and cinch up. Hell, BOTH my daughters discovered mig welders by 5 years old.
I kept my boys busy with that one for quite some time about a year ago... they're 5 and 6 now and tend to keep themselves busy on their bicycles. I need to start another project for them.
I'll give my son a bolt and have him find me some nuts that fit it and before you know it he's designing and playing with all the bolts/screws/washers etc.
Wow, I had no idea when I started this thread I'd get this many great responses! Thanks alot. These are really great... Ya gotta love kids.
Damn, I wish I had a scanner, I have some cool old prints of my son at about 5 working with me on stuff. One word of advise though, when they are that young they want to help and impress daddy, but you have to watch them very closely. Heard of a guy teaching his young son to sand the car, well the boy wanted to impress his dad so one day he decides to take a piece of 80 gritt to some freash paint on a car. He didn't know any better and just thought he was helping again like he was the first time . Mini bikes are great for kids too.
my dad had a piece of metal with a bunch of different bolts sticking through it so i could thread a nut on them each bolt had a paint color that nut went into a jar with the matching color lid he also had jar lids with a nut on them if a bolt screwed into the the nut it went in that jar .I also had my own mini bench where my work was done and my own lumber stash with a scroll saw made from an old treadle sewing machine.I could use anything in my area without asking but was tought NOT to touch anything else without his ok .He did lots of the things suggested here also like have me finish removing bolts etc. after he loosened them, and looking back I'm positive that he set me up because there was very few things i took apart that I could not do on my own once in a while there was a too tight nut or bolt that I would need his help with.You guys got me thinking about it and I bet he stipped my lawn mower motors and made sure I could handle it
my 15 year old gandson happened to be here this summer and he put quite a bit of time in on my car. The day before he left he got to set in it and start it for the first time, his expression was priceless. I only get to see him a little each summer, boy could I screw him up if he was around full time.
My earliest automotive memory is sorting nuts and bolts for my dad and "helping" remove pieces from a parts car. I must have been four or five at the time and remember how cool it was when my dad thanked me for a good day's work, tossed me a shop rag and directed me to the hand cleaner dispenser to clean up for supper. After that, mere soap and water would never suffice after a day of "wrenching" with my dad. Over the years we have built several cars together and now my son joins us in the garage to "help". Thus, I guess the old adage is true, "The more things change; the more they stay the same."
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