Shop activities for the kids during the brutal cold of winter

[Shoester]

I'm closing in on wrapping up my 44x64x16 shop, which includes a 44x18 loft along one end. Shop is heated and cooled.

My shop is intended to be a work space for my hobbies, an entertainment space, and a family hangout space. I'm interested in maximizing the 'family hangout' aspect of that over the winters when we are forced to be occasionally cooped up inside. My wife is a SAHM to 3 kids; 1,4, and 15. When I'm away working, I'd like to have some way of keeping the kids entertained in the shop so that my wife doesn't need to be working so hard keeping them engaged and off the Ipad's all day on those brutally cold days when being outside just isn't feasible. I'm thinking about using part of the loft for an inside jungle gym, toy train table, hanging swings from the trusses, etc… Basically I'm looking for any and all ideas that you guys would have. Thanks!

 

[gmcgeo]

Use the vertical space effectively and add a sense of adventure.

Rope ladder, net ladder, or fireman’s pole from loft to shop floor.
Cargo net or climbing rope for added challenge.
Swings & Hammocks
Reading Nook or Fort Area


Art Station

Encourage their hobbies (drawing, model building, woodworking, painting) by giving them a small workbench and storage space.

Movie Nights – Projector and old couch or floor mattress setup.
Craft Nights – Simple craft kits or LEGO building sessions.
Themed Days – Indoor scavenger hunts, cardboard box building days, or “camp out” night with indoor s’mores.

Wall-mounted storage bins for toys.
Hooks and racks for jackets and boots.

 

[LOW1]

How To Build a Miniature Golf Course

Bring the family together by building and then playing the green with this DIY miniature golf course that both kids and adults can enjoy.

www.thisoldhouse.com

 

[Metallitubby]

Kids love degreasing small parts.

 

[nadogail]

Building Wooden Toys and Birdhouses.

 

[sgrammel]

Sweeping, sorting, washing, scrubbing....per T Sawyer...eveybody wants to do it..

 

[strength_and_power]

Zip line

 

[nadogail]

Cutting larger boards into smaller ones to feed the stove that warms the shop.

 

[Citation]

Kids love degreasing small parts.

To be honest... I didn't. I guess I was an odd kid.

 

[jayemm]

Paint daddy's car.

 

[pcmeiners]

Garage driveways need shoveling even in the bitter cold.....make the work for all those Christmas and birthday gifts

 

[Stuart in MN]

Building Wooden Toys and Birdhouses.

What I was going to say. If they're more interested in mechanical things, get an old bicycle or a lawnmower and show them how to rebuild it.

 

[niget2002]

I got my son in to plastic models. That's worked for him.

 

[dcg9381]

My wife is a SAHM to 3 kids; 1,4, and 15. When I'm away working, I'd like to have some way of keeping the kids entertained in the shop so that my wife doesn't need to be working so hard keeping them engaged and off the Ipad's all day on those brutally cold days when being outside just isn't feasible.

That's quite a spread. The only thing I can thing of that would keep all of them happy during the winter is a hot tub. But with 1 and 4, no matter what you do it's going to require some supervision.

Bubble machine?

Craft stations (per age) - not bad. "Indoor camping" - full tents, etc...

I let our kids make their own carbonated soda in the shop.

Rock polishing.. that's not a bad one.. Takes a while.

Shuffleboard maybe? You could get pickleball in there, but that's not going to help 1 and 4....

With 1, 4, and 15, I thinking a kegerator for the adults might be in order.

 

[gahrajmahal]

We had a sand box with wheels on it. It lived under a bench (it’s still there for garden shoe storage now). In the sand was a bucket of glass stones. There were sifters, old kitchen utensils and the typical sand toy assortment. We would sit on chairs and supervise, maybe listen to music or tell stories.

 

[no704]

Get a bucket of fasteners for them to sort!

 

[Mainiac Mat]

Buy a couple sets of Lincoln Logs to get the gables and custom bits. Then fab. a ton of the notched logs in the woodshop... and give the kids a designated area to build large forts, villages, etc...

Model train dioramas would also be cool.

 

[dave*99]

With 1, 4, and 15, I thinking a kegerator for the adults might be in order.

I certainly agree, but with one caveat:

 

[Chris_Hamilton]

Kids love degreasing small parts.

Best post I've read here in a while.....

 

[Chris_Hamilton]

Garage driveways need shoveling even in the bitter cold.....make the work for all those Christmas and birthday gifts

A child's favorite wintertime activity will quickly become huddling around the Shop stove or space heater for warmth after shoveling the driveway and walkways of their home and Grandparents home on a Snow day from School. Lots of great memories await.

 

[pcmeiners]

Then fab. a ton of the notched logs in the woodshop... and give the kids a designated area to build large forts, villages, etc...

Forts and villages, how about a new addition to your garage.

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

I use the shop for entertainment of myself most of the time but often have young visitors. We now have nine grandkids under the age of 10 and they beg to come over to play in and out of the shop. I put all of my woodworking machines on locking casters so I can move them to one side of the room and with a couple of sheets of polyiso and roll down shades make a play area for kids. When they have a BD party or other family gathering It only takes me an hour or so to clear the area and set up. Soccer, Basketball, ping pong, and baseball, and bike riding fit in, sometimes all at once.

Sometimes one of their parents will help them with organized projects as well like making T shirts or light crafts. Both the boys and the girls love their "shop time". Some of the older boys are starting to learn basic skills like fixing bike tires, adjusting bars and seats, and other quick tasks. Eventually we will get around to more complex projects when they are ready. All too soon I'll have the shop to myself again.... Ed.

 

[Jayman17]

Pickle ball court.

 

[Squankum]

Indoor soccer!

I'm having outside ideas instead: I don't know what kind of snow you get there but outside, cross-country skiing is a good option on a field or trail, with a good snow or and if lucky, a minor neighborhood grassy slope. Also, wears their asses out so they sleep sooner at night. And skis and poles are often found in thrift shops. (OK, x-c type skis and bindings, not so much, but that might depend on your region.)

Doubt you get snow drifts big enough to dig snow caves in, but when I was a kid we made what I now know are called quinzhees -- stack the snow up with a snow shovel (or snow plow), let it settle and firm up, dig into it, take snow from inside and add it to the outside. (Obvious safety warning: not near where city snow plows patrol! Yes, that one made the news a few years ago.)

Or, nowadays you can make an igloo even though none of us live where the snow can be sawed like foam insulation, you can shovel it into this form and pack it into the right sized bricks and spiral it up to the top:

Other than that, teach them to polish intake manifolds as a mail order business. Or get a vibratory polisher with plastic polishing media and do a brisk business polishing old Snap On wrenches for GJ obssessives.

 

[Squankum]

And don't forget tool sets for kids!

Kakuri Woodworking Starter Set

Discover the art of Japanese woodworking with this Kakuri starter set. A thoughtful, enduring gift for craft enthusiasts and makers.

omakase-forest.com

"For those drawn to the quiet discipline of Japanese woodworking..."




Yep, just what every kid wants... quiet discipline and lessons in patience. And what parent doesn't want to give their child two sharp chisels?

 

[Squankum]

I thought about a climbing rope, then realized... concrete floor, boy that's going to be an unforgiving fall. Maybe better for outside, under a big tree.

I assume that there is no cheap way to get a high jump foam mat, but high jumping could be a fun thing for little kids to work on. But there's no way to make that damned foam thing disappear, other than drag it outside and cover it with a tarp.

Here's a winter indoor amusement I did as a young adult: indoor shot put. It was heavier, and it wasn't really round, and its shape changed after every impact. (If you remember Stretch Armstrong dolls, it felt like that, but probably with a lot of buckshot in there.)

I see they make them as small as 1 kilogram, which is kid-oriented (but not able to be thrown, except by teenaged males in crazed monkey mode,13-19)

Indoor rubber shot1 kg

Indoor shot of Natural rubber material.

nordicsport.com

I also threw indoor hammer but you.... don't want to know... not inside any shop, ever. No way.

OK, here's a kid-sized one, not bad at all. Not even heavy.

Hammer Indoor 350g

Soft hammer for indoor training.

nordicsport.com

How about some wrestling mat? Just good for play, in addition to wrestling and jiu jitsu. I hear wrestling is very popular in your part of the country, too, making this the only thing I've suggested that isn't weird and unpopular.

 

[Squankum]

Model railroad train: I have no pic but my dad built mine on a 4'x8' sheet of plywood that was hinged against the workshop wall, and folded up when not in use. It had chains to stop it when it was level. For terrain and tunnels he used some wall cork about 1.25" thick. (Uh, it was the 60's and he decorated much of the basement walls with some kind of cork product.) After that, the green grass and trees, etc.

This was N gauge, IIRC. Worked for me!

 

[Squankum]

And in addition to my ideas about hurling things and climbing and leaping and wrestling and shoveling and digging, maybe a small stage for those that want to perform music or theater?

 

[hampster]

Turn off the iPad and tell em to find something to do for the next hour. Boredom isn't a bad thing, as in my experience it often results in kids taking initiative to invent a project. Results may be surprising. I have 6 kids myself, all younger than your oldest.

 

[Jay H 237]

How about a 4x8 table with Lego's? Can do a town with road plates. The older one may want some of the advanced Techniques kits. I still play with my mix of Lego kits today and still will buy a Techniques kit or two a year to build, the cars with the working steering and suspension.

 

[Jazz1]

Grandchildren were using the manual bead roller to write their name on piece of tin…then they discovered if they turned knob on shop gum machine slowly there was a sweet spot where theyd get 10 gum balls for their penny,,,and it was a nickel machine..

 

[Model A Fan]

Can you make a mud table? Have warm water and dirt that the kids can play in and have a fun time in the mud. My daughter loves playing in mud. Depending on their age, they also like sorting and cleaning stuff. They're learning how to differentiate between different types of things and sorting out stuff can be fun for them.

 

[Codyboy]

Model railroad train: I have no pic but my dad built mine on a 4'x8' sheet of plywood that was hinged against the workshop wall, and folded up when not in use. It had chains to stop it when it was level. For terrain and tunnels he used some wall cork about 1.25" thick. (Uh, it was the 60's and he decorated much of the basement walls with some kind of cork product.) After that, the green grass and trees, etc.

This was N gauge, IIRC. Worked for me!

Did your dad keep any imitation crab meat in the refrigerator?

 

[Codyboy]

Hammers and nails.
When I was a kid I would go to grandma and grandpa's house a lot.
Grandpa was a trim carpenter and cabinet maker and had loads and loads of finish type nails.
Their hot water heater in the garage sat on top of a wood platform about 20 inches or so high.
I would spend hours and hours driving finish nails in the top of the platform.
I'll bet that wood platform had 20 lbs of nails in it. Lol

Here is a step stool i built. Grandma helped me pick out some boards from grandpa's scraps and I built it with grandma while he was at work. I was probably 4 or 5 y.o.

 

[jsaw]

Nephew likes My tools better than his toys. He always wants to try whatever I am doing.

 

[Dig Doug]

Basketball hoop

open area to ride bikes and scooters around - play area

Really depends on what your kids are into …

My brother has twin girls

one is into art & dance and likes to draw
one is into sports - volleyball, tennis & basketball

 

[Squankum]

Did your dad keep any imitation crab meat in the refrigerator?

I googled... why yes, I did see that many years ago! I had just, mercifully, forgotten about that. It's so weird you wonder if it's a prank... but weird people keep reminding us they're out there.

 

[Voi]

My boys rode their Stryders & Plasma Cars in the garage at our last house. I had ramps I built that they rode their Stryders down to build up speed.

When they got older I set up an indoor target range for air rifles. There are all sorts of targets that incorporate games that we enjoyed. Battleship is one I can remember.

I also remember our boys hitting tennis balls off of a concrete wall. I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff.

We had so much fun in our garage that my wife & I both commented we wished we had built a Bardominium back when we were building our business rather than the fixer upper we bought. Heck, we'd probably still have it.

 

[Fav Onefour]

My dad put a stick welder in my hand when I was about ten. After that lesson I had plenty to do each winter.

I think it was easier for my dad to find a project making stuff than doing any kind of hanging out. I enjoyed welding and making things so it worked out for me too. It's funny how that all works. Dad and my brothers preferred feeding a slow janky band saw and getting parts ready. That stuff bored me silly.

It's weird that I did all that stick welding as a kid. I probably used at least a case each day during winter. Never had a chance to do wire.