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Kiddos in the shop...

R

Roy25101

Active Member
We have recently started homeschooling our 8 and 9 year old children. They have both showed great interest in both building and flying so I thought it would be a great idea to start an RV-12 with them. I ordered the empennage and am now in the process of setting up the shop.

I am looking for any ideas folks may have about creating an environment where kids could be more effective in this process. I just ordered a speed control for the bench grinder to slow down the scotchbrite wheel and built a bench more suited to their size. Thanks in advance for any advice......
 
Safety rules

Roy:

Good on you!

You know your kiddos, and homeschooling, much better than I do; my suggestions are based on shop time with grandkids at the same age:

Rule 1: no shop visits without parents.
This starts good habits, and reduces unsafe practices ("what would happen if I did this...?")
Harder, not impossible to enforce with adults.

Rule 2: no shop time without eye and ear protection.
See above.

Rule 3: plan your build, and build your plan.
-gives you a lesson plan to start from, keeps them focused, has lots of built-in references.
-gives you a building plan, schedule keeps you focused, and an opportunit to build teachable moments ("now we measure the inside diameter...")

Tips:
safety locks for power tools.
My bandsaw and sander came with removable safety keys, which are a "controlled item" in my shop.
This reinforces rule 1.

quit when student or teacher is visibly tired.
My drilled-out rivet count shows I'm still working on this...
 
I would suggest that in addition to the good advice above you have them wear gloves. The aluminum edges are sharp when they come from the factory.
 
I had all 3 of my kids help with the building of my 9. It required supervision but the pictures that I have of the kids when they were little holding bucking bars or clecos are some of our favorite pictures. I did have one incident when my son mixed all of my an3 rivets together! It took hours to sort them all out.
The kids also loved to tell friends and schoolmates that they were building a plane with their dad.
Now that the plane is flying they also have a real interest in flying and being involved with the plane.
 
Red Tools & Yellow Tools

My wife teaches in an innovation lab for middle school kids. They have tools that have handles painted red, yellow, or no paint.

Red: This tool can only be used when supervised by an adult. Think #11 X-acto knives, Dremel tools, etc.

Yellow: You need to be checked out in proper use of that tool, and then can use it without additional supervision. Cordless drills, etc.

Also proper eye and ear protection is a good habit to be in for the rest of your life.
 
krwalsh said:
Red: This tool can only be used when supervised by an adult. Think #11 X-acto knives, Dremel tools, etc.

Yellow: You need to be checked out in proper use of that tool, and then can use it without additional supervision. Cordless drills, etc.
Click to expand...

I'd just make it easy and paint them ALL red :)
 
You are awesome!

I don't really have anything to add except that this is really cool. We are also homeschooling our boys, though they are a little younger and haven't had much experience in the shop. When we started the homeschooling journey what you are doing is exactly what I had had in mind. Keep it up!
 
I did it..

25 years ago when my son Dillon was born and my -4 was just a dream, all the nay-sayers told me "well I guess you will have to wait til he is 18 to get started"..so,by the time he was 18 mos old, I had him by my side when I worked on the plane in the evenings.By the time he was 3, he could effectively move clecos around for me. I gave him trays full of miscellaneous hardware and he would sort them for hours into cups of same type. It gave me moments of joy I will cherish forever. On his 3rd birthday, he got the RV-4 pedal plane of his own. By age 6 he was bucking rivets on the wing skins. My plane took me 16 years to build, but those teaching, learning father-son days were the best. My build log photo album is somewhat of a Wheres Waldo book with his photo bombs. Most importantly, he was by my side on the first flight day 10 years ago.He was taught early the shop rules..No horseplay,No yelling, No running, and after his first cut from running into the stabilizer, I made him write the rules in sharpie on the benchtop..they are still there. By the way, he is now an aircraft mechanic with 5 years of experience and working at the same MRO I do...I guess the lessons stuck.
 
fixnflyguy said:
25 years ago when my son Dillon was born and my -4 was just a dream, all the nay-sayers told me "well I guess you will have to wait til he is 18 to get started"..so,by the time he was 18 mos old, I had him by my side when I worked on the plane in the evenings.By the time he was 3, he could effectively move clecos around for me. I gave him trays full of miscellaneous hardware and he would sort them for hours into cups of same type. It gave me moments of joy I will cherish forever. On his 3rd birthday, he got the RV-4 pedal plane of his own. By age 6 he was bucking rivets on the wing skins. My plane took me 16 years to build, but those teaching, learning father-son days were the best. My build log photo album is somewhat of a Wheres Waldo book with his photo bombs. Most importantly, he was by my side on the first flight day 10 years ago.He was taught early the shop rules..No horseplay,No yelling, No running, and after his first cut from running into the stabilizer, I made him write the rules in sharpie on the benchtop..they are still there. By the way, he is now an aircraft mechanic with 5 years of experience and working at the same MRO I do...I guess the lessons stuck.
Click to expand...

Thats an awesome story!
 
Thanks y?all.

Those are some fantastic ideas and I can?t help but get montivated by the enthusiasm. Thanks to all for taking the time to write. I hope there will be more to come.
 
Sources for kid size protective equipment.

We may have a group of inbound foster kids soon. I honestly don't know if any of them will take interest in the build. That said, if they do, I would like to have an idea of places I can go to get protective equipment for them. Thanks.
 
More than Just Building...

Great opportunities abound in this endeavor. Building and shop skills, indeed, are there for the teaching.
But, there's also a lot of math, physics, etc. that can be taught along with the building process.
Just think about teaching what a part of the airplane does as its being built, the aerodynamics involved, etc.

A fantastic opportunity to "create" an aeronautical engineer...
 
anywhere...

Basic recommended safety equipment:

Safety glasses.

Hearing protection when riveting.

Possibly a respirator if they will be helping with primer:D

Beyond that, basic shop safety like no loose hanging clothing or jewelry around machines, no flip flops, etc...
 
I grew up with a Dad that taught High School Auto Shop. Our shop at home was setup for cars, I was doing brake jobs at 12, had go carts and mini bikes prior to that, restored my 1st car with him at 13, 2nd car at 16. The shop was available to us anytime, not just when he was there. (unless we left a mess and then he would lock us out, even though we had a key he didn't know about for that lock also.)

My suggestion is to get a feel for how safe the kids are, provide guidance and stress the importance of being safe, and the fact the shop environment is not a playground. Once the kids have shown maturity give them more and more freedom. There was many times I would work in garage late with my teenage energy, while dad was tired or busy with other life tasks. I value that now greatly, and in the end helped me pick a career and have skills most people in life don't.

Mistakes will happen. There are still grease stains on the ceiling when we figured out you could "Spray" it via the air gun and hit the 12' high ceiling. Of course I had to get on ladder and clean it best I could later also.
 
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