Why is Woodworking Important for Education?

With the advent of mobile phones and tablets, it’s important to remember off-screen time is just as important as tech learning for your child. In response to the increase in interest in woodworking, parents and teachers are dusting off the workbench and digging out those forgotten DIY tools. 

The benefits of woodworking for a child’s learning and development are monumental across all areas of the curriculum. Some teachers who offer woodwork regularly have noticed increased levels of engagement and continuous concentration for task-based assignments. It can also help to engage a child’s fine motor skills and expressive creativity for a better understanding of the world.

Woodworking provides such a profound learning experience, there’s no wonder why children want to spend hours on end at the workbench without even realising it. However, even with all the benefits there has still been a significant decline in both primary and secondary schools offering woodworking, with less than half of the students ever using tools for educational purposes. 

However, with the interest in crafting and up-cycling becoming more trendy – woodworking seems to be taking its rightful place back in the curriculum giving children the experience of repairing, building and repurposing. An added benefit is that they are simultaneously learning about the damage of human consumption, proper disposal of materials and eco-friendly living. And yes, woodworking could potentially get your child outside of the classroom for hands-on learning in a woodland environment.

Woodworking is at the heart of personal development for children – working with their hands, tinkering, moulding, constructing things and transforming them into something new. 

Doing this builds their self-esteem and confidence. It can add to a child’s sense of responsibility – as they may be working with real tools –  and a sense of accomplishment once a new skill is mastered and a task completed. Plus, the pride in showing off their creations is a reward in itself.

Woodworking is truly a special activity. Think about the smell of fresh cut wood, the textures, the grooves and natural material. Using tools to create something by hand. Hammering and sawing away at something to express imagination. There really is nothing like it, give it a try and enjoy the hours of endless creative possibility.

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The Importance of Sensory Play

Children are natural adventurers, always looking for something to discover, investigate, and experiment with things in their surroundings. Whether it be insects, rocks, sticks, or flowers, the desire for discovery is present in every child’s imagination. 

In this blog, we will discuss why it is so important to keep sensory play as an important aspect of your child’s growing up, what factors can help to develop their sensory play skills, and how it can add value to your child’s overall early years development.

Remember back to when you were a child, before screens and the internet. What about actually playing outside, getting dirt on your hands, and exploring the world around you? Activities like riding your bike, counting the insects in the garden, or playing hide-and-seek with your friends? These types of childhood experiences helped to develop our senses and actions, in preparation for our formal education. 

Today, most children are subject to the standard indoor activity mindset. Meaning television, mobile phones, tablets, and computer games are their main source of entertainment. Although these activities do provide visual and auditory stimulation, they may be considered too fast-paced and don’t allow your child self-control and may hinder them to use all their senses.

At the same time, the pressure on parents and teachers to “prepare” children for school is resulting in younger than expected children completing worksheets and other unsuitable assessments. Rather than exploring and just simply “being a kid.”

What is sensory play?

Sensory play includes any activity that inspires your child to explore and stimulate their core senses. Some examples of these include; dancing, yoga, arts and crafts, playing in the sandpit, and so much more. 

Some parents are put off by sensory play because it can be messy or too loud, or assuming it will result in disruptive behaviour. Some of these might be true… yet by implementing a couple of simple rules for your child to follow and preparing a space for the activity, the benefits of sensory play are irreplaceable for early development.

There is a strong physical desire for young children to see, hear, touch, smell, and taste things that are new and within reach. As your child grows, the need to stimulate their senses and explore will continue. Cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioural development are all enhanced by sensory play.

The different types of sensory play are visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, olfactory, and gustatory perceptions. We will explore each and give examples of how you as a parent can implement these into your child’s everyday routine. 

Visual

  • Paint with water on tissue paper and use an eyedropper to encourage fine motor skills stimulation. A fun activity we like to do is make “tissue paper worms”.
  • Mix baking soda and your favourite colour jelly powder, and slowly pour in vinegar to simulate a volcanic explosion. Add dinosaur miniatures for a prehistoric adventure. 

Auditory

  • Using pots, pans, stainless steel, and wooden utensils make your own kitchen band.
  • While reading your child’s favourite book, purposefully leave out the last word of the sentence and ask your children to complete the phrase.

Kinaesthetic

  • Practice yoga poses with your child. Some of our favourites include the tree, dolphin, door, and dancer poses. Here’s a great tutorial yoga video for your child.
  • Build a fun interactive obstacle course using sofa cushions, blankets, stuffed animals, pretty much anything you’ve got around the house.

Olfactory

  • Construct your own smell laboratory using common spices from the kitchen.
  • Play the game we like to call “guess that scent” using a variety of ointments. Some we recommend are lotion, sunscreen, toothpaste, body, hand and dish soaps.

Gustatory

  • Compare the difference between sweet and salty foods, such as mini marshmallows and pretzel sticks.
  • Take a bite from a variety of apples or grapes and talk with your child about the difference in flavours and textures.

All exploration takes time.

If a child is to become familiarised and engaged with their environment, they will need proper time to connect, discover, and explore all their senses. This may help your child to learn more self-control, how to communicate ideas more clearly and absorb new information. Most importantly, your child may discover a passion and eagerness for learning which will continue throughout their entire education and lives.

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Plant, Water, Grow!

Learning the concept of gardening for toddlers can help build a variety of valuable motor skills that you, as a parent, might not even have considered. Gardening can help teach your children to feel different textures of soil, seeds, flower and petals. More importantly, for improving their future academic skills in writing, cutting and typing.

One of our favourite activities that demonstrates this is grass growing! In this blog, we will be discussing how to set up a little gardening project that will keep your children entertained (with little adult support) for months to come!

Even as an adult, it amazes me that a handful of seeds can turn into an entire back garden on wonderfully green grass. Start by explaining the type of seed you plan to grow, how they feel, and look. Allow your toddler to explain what they think will happen when you add them to soil and water them over time. 

It is time to create our nature monster! What is needed…

Most of these items can either be found at your local garden centre, online or by recycling!

  • Potting soil… we recommend using soil or dirt from your back garden, as every child enjoys the art of digging! Go for the top, looser bits of soil if using this alternative.
  • Grass seed
  • Plastic containers (6–12 cm deep)… recycled food packaging works perfectly.
  • Watering can… the one with a rose sprinkler is best.
  • Spray bottle

How it’s done…

  1. Fill your recycled containers with potting soil or back garden dirt.
  2. For the first watering, use your watering can and make sure the soil is completely wet, but not drowning.
  3. Sprinkle a handful of grass seed over the entire surface of the soil.
  4. Gently spray the seeds using your spray bottle.
  5. Place your recycled containers on a window sill with plenty of sunlight. If your window sill isn’t wide enough, place your containers on a table near the window to catch the sun. To promote growth throughout the process, don’t forget to rotate your containers for even sun exposure.
  6. Make sure you are spraying your grass seeds daily and that the soil is thoroughly dampened.
  7. At this stage of the process, you should start to see the first bit of growth coming in as reddish-brown grass shoots, which will turn green within 1-2 days.

Congratulations, the “grass growing” is complete. However… as plants are organisms that can continue to grow, we recommend starting a growth calendar. Your child can track daily watering, when the seeds were planted and started to see grass shoots, and how often they gave the grass a “hair cut”.

Download our printable growth calendar here.

Circling back to fine motor skills, when the grass has grown nice and tall, your child can, with parent supervision, practice cutting the grass to tend their garden using safety scissors. Let them know the importance of cutting the grass, as it will help the grass grow big & strong, just like when we eat our vegetables!

Although we are currently in Summer and gardening season might be best suited for a Springtime activity, there truly is no better time to educate your child on gardening. Key factors being various plants, how they give us oxygen, and being outside and away from screens in general. Connecting with nature is a vital skill for all ages and should be practised daily by recycling, not littering, and walking when possible.

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