Teach your kids DIY
Letting your kids get involved with DIY projects in and around the home is a great way to develop motor skills and an interest in making things on their own.
21/06/2018
If your kids enjoy helping you (or getting in the way!) when you're doing projects around the house, let them get more involved in DIY. Starting out with DIY at a young age provides them with motor skills and the ability to work things out for themselves, not to mention the creative fun they'll have while they're making their own projects.
The first step when introducing young children to any type of DIY project is to cover the safety aspect and kit them out with all the safety gear they'll need. Kids will love being able to wear their own hard hat and noise-cancelling ear muffs, but also discuss why they also need to wear safety glasses and gloves. It's also important to talk to them about using power tools. They might not be using them just yet, but you want to make sure they are aware of the danger of using power tools, especially if you're involved in a lot of DIY at home and occasionally leave tools lying around.
It's so easy to kit out kids with a few tools and let them get on with it. A cordless screwdriver is probably one of the best tools to let your children use to assemble their first small projects. If you want one that you can also use for jobs around the house, take a look at the Bosch PSR Select that has an integral barrel containing a selection of useful screwdriver bits that will come in handy. A cordless screwdriver will allow kids to experiment with a wide variety of tasks, as well as assembling their own projects with ease.
Let your child start out with a scrap piece of pine and a few screws to get the hang of using a cordless screwdriver and pine is a softwood that is easy for them to work with. If they want to try their hand at small projects, show them how you do all the cutting and then let them assemble the projects on their own with adult supervision. You will find a selection of easy crafty DIY projects for kids in our Kids Craft section.
A nice project that will keep young DIY enthusiasts occupied and also provide them with a few basic skills is to set up a board with nuts and bolts. Painting them in primary colours teaches them association and will also fine tune their motor skills and tame their concentration for more advanced tasks that you set for them.
Slowly introduce new tools and materials for them to experiment with. A small hammer, a few wire nails and a piece of scrap board are all that are needed for eye-hand coordination. Let your child hammer the nails into the board until the nail heads are flush.
Janice Anderssen
Kids learn by discovery and giving them items you no longer need, or that are due to be thrown out, will give them a better insight into how things work. And who knows, they may turn out to be Engineers or DIY enthusiasts. However, do be cautious about what you hand over as many electronic devices hold voltage even if they no longer work. Items such as old toasters, a broken fan and even your old drill will amaze and inspire young minds.
Inquisitive minds should be nurtured, and letting young children help with tasks around the home might require a bit of patience on your part, especially when it's important to let children do most of the work by themselves, but it will instill a sense of pride of doing it themselves and slowly build up their skills and confidence.
