We love free family-friendly activities. One free activity we have enjoyed regularly for the past 4 years is the monthly Home Depot Kids Workshop.
Every 1st Saturday of the month, Home Depots across the nation hold a workshop just for kids. In these workshops, your child will build and paint a wooden project.
Upon arrival, you sign in and you are given your free project kit. You can then go find an available seat at a workshop station where there will be items such as hammers, screwdrivers, wood glue, paint, and even safety goggles. The available items and tools depend on what is needed for that project.
At our local Home Depot, the workshop begins at 9 am and lasts until noon. Your local store will have the specifics for you. The great thing is you can drop in at any time during the given window. We have been there at the 9 am start time and as late as 30 minutes from noon, I really love the flexibility on my Saturday morning. You just need to make sure you arrive in time to finish the craft.
The other potential challenge for arriving near the end time is that they distribute the craft, aprons, and pins while supplies last. I have seen families turned away because there were no more kits. It is a very rare occurrence, but it does happen. That is why it is so important to register online prior to the workshop. You can find available workshops and register at Home Depot’s site by clicking here.
Home Depot does a wonderful job theming the projects. From back to school, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, you name it, they always have something themed related to the month. We have built everything from pencil boxes, banks, fire trucks, toolboxes, butterfly houses, planters, gingerbread houses and much more. The list is really long for us, remember we have been going for 4 years.
The Home Depot Kids Workshops are for children, both boys and girls, ages 5-12, however, I have seen children a bit younger participate in the projects at our Home Depot. Just remember they are going to be using tools like hammers. My fingers have been hit with a hammer a few times by my kids and they are 9!
There are two really big reasons why I appreciate these workshops so much and they don’t involve the fact that they are free. I really like that too by the way.
Child development and skill-building. When we started attending the monthly Home Depot kids workshops, it was truly a struggle for my son. He was a twin preemie and had some developmental delays with speech, hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. In the beginning, the monthly workshops often proved frustrating for him, however, they were incredible for both his hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills development.
I remember the frustration he felt picking up those tiny nails and trying to hammer them into the wood. Today, when he said “Mom, I did this all by myself” I was overwhelmed with emotion, thinking back to those first workshops.
Family Engagement. Of course, as the kids have gotten older they don’t need as much assistance to build their projects. I no longer have to finish hammering in a nail or screwing a screw until tightened. They are so proud of the fact they really can do it themselves. We as parents are however still engaged in the process of reading the directions given and guiding them through the process of building their project. I am a raving fan of any activities that get everyone involved.
So if you are looking for a great way to entertain the family, be sure to check out one of the free Home Depot Kid Workshops in your area. Maybe it will become a tradition for your family like it has for ours.