Training kids to build

[Bryan Cotton]

My younger son has not been interested in the Waiex yet. We have been working on a project of his own design. It is a chance to put tools in his hands - saws, files, drills, and so on. Today he used the hand nibbler to make wheelpant mounts and had his first experience keeping the drill from walking while drilling sheetmetal. The bit will never be the same, but that is a small investment.

[Bryan Cotton]

Man you guys are a tough audience. The 120/140 association used to eat this stuff up:
http://www.cessna120-140.org/forum/view ... hp?t=10659
More angle sanding below:
Photo deleted for quota

[dcstrng]

Looks like he's pretty handy -- ya wannah loan him out... :D

[Bryan Cotton]

Funny - I got a loan request yesterday from the 140 contingent after they saw the pics of Adam polishing!

[GhostRider32]

Hi Bryan,

My son is 11 and he works with me on my Sonex. It looks like your son is going to be a great help too. Even though sometimes it would be faster to do certain things alone when building my Sonex, I get much joy in teaching my son how to do all of these things. Sometimes when I'm trying to think I have to tell him to hold on a minute but as soon as I get it into my head what I'm doing, I start showing him how.

I've told him several times, "son, you'll be the only kid in your school that can say, today I'm going flying in a plane my dad and I built." :)

[Bryan Cotton]

Soon it will change from slowing down for instruction, to speeding up from the extra manpower. I am over the hump, though my son is far from autonomous at building (at the moment anyway). We are building faster together than I could build solo. It is very satisfying as a father.

It was also good where we worked on a bunch of stuff before the Waiex - model airplanes, Star Wars models built out of flashing, pop rivets & PVC, plus a loft bed. It is important to let them do the work early on, even if it is not your personal standard, because confidence is everything in building. The standards go higher for everybody, kid or adult, as the hours rack up.

I am glad you are building with your son. It is a good thing.

[Bryan Cotton]

I was thinking we should talk on how to interest and involve our sons.

Scott,
I thought I would resurrect this thread as it really has most of my answers. It may not have the answer on how to get your 11 year old interested, but I think it is the story of how I got Adam interested. I started them off early, anything with tools in their hands. Kids like saws, drills, and stuff like that. Mostly I strove to keep any of the hands on stuff fun, and kept my own need for high workmanship out of it. Here is some fun stuff we did with flashing and pop rivets - this was a Star Wars super tank. First the drilling and clecoes:

Adam with clecoes.jpg (60.43 KiB) Viewed 6192 times

Then the pops:

Adam with pop rivet gun.jpg (60.2 KiB) Viewed 6192 times

It was a hard thing for us all when Sikorsky closed the facility in Horseheads, NY. Everybody needed something to look forward to. For Adam the loft bed was a huge deal. We found plans on the internet, bought a bunch of oak, and had at it. Most of the work was his, and he had the motivation that it was the bed he wanted. It took us a couple months. I also let him make some of his own mistakes. None of them were really that bad and you look at the bed now, it is awesome. Totally unrelated to airplanes - but gave him that confidence of building and tackling a big project.

Starting out on the Waiex, there was no way he could match my workmanship. I've been doing this for decades and he was a kid just starting. We took the time to get his workmanship good enough, and let him start making some accomplishments. Didn't matter how long it took. It was time well spent. I know someday his workmanship will leave me in the dust. The key thing is he knows we will both make mistakes, we will recover from them and it is not a big deal.

Sometimes he is not interested in going to the hangar. That is OK. Hot and cold spells are part of the game. I would never force him and made sure he knows that if he is not into it that we don't have to go.

Back when I started taking the kids flying, there was a rule that when they were done, we were done no questions asked. Mostly I took them in the gliders. Some days they never wanted to come down. Some days 10 minutes after getting off tow they were done - down we came.

So far, with Adam I got lucky with respect to the Waiex. He likes it. He is good at the building. My 11 year old, Matthew, has not been interested in the Waiex. He has his other things he wants to work on, and that is what we do. Maybe someday he will get into aviation and building, and maybe not. I am ok either way. All I really want is for my kids to find out what it is they like so they can pursue it.

I started Matthew early too. Here he is squashing some rivets.

MKC squeezing rivet.jpg (66.71 KiB) Viewed 6192 times

My formula: Give them the opportunity and the choice. Whatever they choose, make it fun.

I don't have the loft bed pictures handy, but I will post them here sometime.

[ScottM-Sonex1629]

Thanks Bryan! I'd like to see my son Liam find an interest in anything outside of Minecraft right now!

[Sonex1517]

Scott

Oh man can I agree with that! MineCraft has taken over here also and it drives me nuts. It seems most sentences start with "Hey Dad...in MineCraft..."

My 9 year old Joshua has almost no interest in my Sonex project and I am careful not to push...good luck and keep us posted!!


Robbie Culver
Sonex 1517
Chicagoland
Tails and Wings complete - finishing fuselage.
N1517S reserved

[Bryan Cotton]

I got Matthew building a loft bed for his room. More motivating for him than the Waiex, and he has tools in his hands.