On Saturday, we attended the Build and Grow workshop at Lowes.   These are wooden craft workshops for children.  They are excellent introductions for children to learn about following blueprints, laying out materials, following steps in order, simple wood working, and skills such as using a hammer and nails.



In todays workshop, the children built wooden airplanes called Bi-planes.  We have really been looking forward to this workshop to tie into the Airplane Unit Study the children have been working on through out the school year.  You can read more about it here , here , and here.



Lowes provides the building kit for free, and lends each child a hammer. The building kit contains everything you need to make your project.  Lowes offers a workshop every other Saturday, two Saturdays a month.  Each workshop has a different project for the children to build.  You can register on-line for the workshops or you can register at the workshop.  It is a first come first serve basis and those who registered on-line have their spot reserved as long as they are not late for the class.

So far, this was our 4th workshop to attend.  We have also attended the workshop building a ping pong pin ball game, a basket ball game, and a window bird feeder.  Stories and pictures of those workshops coming soon.



It takes about 30 minutes or so to build the project.  After building your project, you return the hammer, and you are provided with a certificate and a merrit badge from the Build and Grow workshop.  If you want to continue the project at home, you can, and we plan to paint the things the children have made in these workshops soon.  We also like to tie the project to things we are learning at home too.



The older two children were able to work independantly, but the younger children definately needed assistance as you are working with hammer and nails, following directions in order, and reading.



After the children built their planes, they had two sheets of stickers to decorate the plane with.  This allowed for a lot of creativity, and no two planes in our family ended up the same.



ZOOM!  ZOOM!



We have also run into some other homeschool families we know.  Here are some pictures of homeschool friends who also regularly attend these wonderful free workshops for kids.



Putting on the finishing touch.



Our family has definately enjoyed the time we have spent at the Build and Grow workshops at Lowes.



The Lowes Build and Grow workshops are a good way for families to spend some quality time together.  I encourage all families to give this a try.  You just might find you enjoy it too.


Have you been to the Build and Grow workshop?  Did you enjoy the experience?  Does your community offer other free learning workshops for kids?  Leave us a comment below.  Thanks.


This post will be linked up with
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