How to Build a Safe Woodshop or Workshop for Your Kids

Creating a workshop for your children offers them a perfect outlet for expressing their creative side. What parent does not love receiving presents that their child built with his or her own two hands? And it does not stop at creativity. A child who has their own workshop learns important skills that will help them in their adult years.

The first rule of building a workshop for your children is to make it safe for them to use. A child needs a space that is free of hazards that could jeopardize their health and safety. It also needs to be in a place where you can keep an eye on their activities.

Creating a Workspace

Finding the right location for your child’s workshop matters. You want to put it in a place where there is enough space to store all the tools and supplies they need and enough room for them to move around. The basement or garage are good options for a workshop location because they meet this criteria better than virtually any other area in a typical house.

Good ventilation is important in creating a workshop. If your child is going to be working to create a birdhouse, footstool or some other object, dust and fumes from glue or paint will accumulate in the workshop. Ventilation is not as much of an issue if you put it in the garage, but it can be a problem in a basement if it is in an area with no windows or fans. Install a working fan and window in the workshop area so that your child will have a way of getting rid of dust and fumes before they reach dangerous levels.

Put the workshop in an area where there will be plenty of natural light and indoor lighting. A well-lit workshop will help your child avoid injuring themselves with a tool. Good lighting will also help them make fewer mistakes on whatever object they are building.

Tools and Supplies

For a workshop devoted to wood working, you should have plenty of building materials and the right tools so your child can spend time working on a variety of projects.

Stock the workshop with wood that is soft, lightweight and easy for a child to cut. Balsa wood is a good choice for many smaller projects your child might want to create. It comes in an assortment of shapes and sizes. The best part of using balsa wood is that it is easy to cut with a craft knife or small hand saw. You can find it online or buy it in person at a local craft store or hardware store.

Storing tools and supplies is easy. All you need is a sturdy pegboard. Fasten it to the wall and place it where all of the tools and supplies are within your child’s reach. Having a pegboard makes it a simpler task to keep their workshop organized and clean after they are finished with a project. Add in some bins where they can store unused wood, fabric, glue, paint and other materials. This will help keep their workstation free of clutter at the end of the day.

Some tools you can stock in your child’s workshop include: a hammer, brads, a carpenter’s square, a tape measure, a small saw, a craft knife, sandpaper, glue and acrylic paint.

Keeping Your Child Safe

Nothing is more important than making your child’s safety a priority. A workshop needs to be scaled to their size. Tools, supplies and materials need to be stored properly and safe for them to use.

If anything they build does require the use of a power tool, it is important that you are present to operate it and prevent them from incurring a serious injury. Any other tools or supplies you let them use should be age appropriate. Always take time to teach them how to properly use each tool and supervise them when they use it for the first time so you make sure they develop safe work habits.

Give your child safety gear such as goggles and gloves to use while they work. It will protect their eyes and hands.

When you buy glue or paint for them to use in building projects, always check the label to see if it is non-toxic. Prolonged exposure to glue or paint that emit toxic fumes can be dangerous or fatal to a child— even if they are working in an area with good ventilation.

Building Fun

With their own workshop, a child can spend several hours a day channeling their energy into a creative pursuit. It will furnish them with many fun memories and help them fine tune skills that will benefit them for the rest of their life.

Author Bio: Elli is a guest author who writes about home and family safety tips. When she’s not writing for YourLocalSecurity.com, a top reseller of home security systems, she can be found playing in the outdoors of Salt Lake City, UT.