My six year old is obsessed with horses. She loves to pour over her horse encyclopedias, to draw horses, gallop around like a horse, she shrieks with delight whenever the horses at a nearby ranch are out when we drive by!
So, she begged and pleaded her brother (age 5) to build a fence with and for her horses. I was amazed at what they came up with!
DIY Toy Fence
We have lots of scraps from previous projects. This was such a beautiful way to breath life into the scrap pile!
The kids told us what the fence needed to look like. We happened to have scraps of a 2×4 and some edging leftover from our Triple Bunk Bed project and my hubs obliged them and cut the 2×4 into roughly 1 inch wide segments.
Our kids got some callouses as they sanded the edges of the scraps “to make sure the horses wouldn’t catch themselves”. I just loved watching my kids come together for this project!
Things I never knew about kids
I learned some interesting things with this “construction project”:
- My kids are better innovators than I give them credit for – I should let them plan projects, take ownership of tasks, more often.
- My kids are able to work together without my intervention. Yes, we did give some suggestions, but it was great to watch my kids bounce ideas off of each other and then try what worked. And if it failed, come up with another solution.
- 5 & 6 might be too young for power tools, but they did a decent job with a hammer! They didn’t even complain about the bruised, splintered fingers!
- By stepping out of a project my kids became better friends. It was beautiful to see my son serve his sister and make her something she would enjoy.
My daughter now has a place for her horses to romp and roam – she is a very happy little girl!
About Rachel
Construction week is so much fun in preschool http://www.brennaphillips.com/construction-week-in-preschool