Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
For those with small children/grandchildren
Bill Tindall, E.Tn.
Some years ago I began saving cut-offs. I put them in a box and when grandchildren come I give them bench space to build. The random shapes stimulates creativity. This latest layout is an amusement park with teeter totters, TV viewing, roller coaster, etc. These creations have elaborate stories that go with them. Better than $500 spent at a toy store and a hell of lot better than hours spent in front of a TV or phone screen.
Re: For those with small children/grandchildren
Hank Knight
Excellent! All the scraps and cutoffs I save should entertain my grandkid for months!
Re: For those with small children/grandchildren
Barry Irby
Excellent. My granddaughters are entertained for hours with scraps. Last time we built each of them a bird house. Then they spent hours painting the them with tempera Paint.
The best part was last time one of them upon opening the door to the shop stopped and in amazement said "Why is it so messy in here?" I told her "Work Happens in here." (but not a lot of cleanup)
Re: For those with small children/grandchildren
CharlieL
Ever consider being creative yourself and making something like Lincoln Logs for them ?
Re: For those with small children/grandchildren
William Duffield
The regimentation of Lincoln Logs stifles creativity. They and their ilk are designed to be sold to adults with a serious lack of imagination. 
Re: For those with small children/grandchildren
JohnV
From scraps of cherry and walnut I made my youngest grandson a set of about 120 blocks true 1" thick. All started with combinations of blocks assemble into 2" x 4" rectangles. Blocks were 2" x 2", 2" x4", triangles two of which made up a 2" square, parallelograms which combined with the above triangles made a 2" x4" rectangle. endless combinations in 2 and 3 deminsions. Great tools for imagining quilting patterns. He is now 17 and still keeps these as a treasured item. Imagination can be found everywhere.
Re: For those with small children/grandchildren
William Duffield
How are you going to get him to transitiion to metric after he learns that such precision can be had with imperial measures?
Re: For those with small children/grandchildren
JohnV
Hey, at 17 he can understand some Catonese and is now studying French. Metrics should be a no brainer.
Re: For those with small children/grandchildren
CharlieL
( The regimentation of Lincoln Logs stifles creativity. They and their ilk are designed to be sold to adults with a serious lack of imagination. ) Yep, thats me, I also liked Lego's when I was young. Call me stupid
Re: For those with small children/grandchildren
William Duffield
I like Legos too. Sometimes we need more structure in our play. But to be creative, we should try to get beyond that structure.
Re: For those with small children/grandchildren
CharlieL
Actually William I think that I am fairly creative. Mechanical drafting and simple math were my favorite subjects in high school. For being fairly new at sheet metal work, I've designed and built dust collection hoods for several machines, and several different sizes of dust separators. But when it comes to woodworking projects I preferred old school style, our home was built in 1917.
Lego My Legos
Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey
If you view them as a kit to make the item pictured on the box, there's little or no creativity involved. That's been supplied by the company designer who first made the item.
If, however, you view them as a "material," the plastic bricks become a fluid medium with which serious creativity can be expressed. Yes, there are some limitations on how they are handled, but that's true of wood, clay, paint & canvass, stone, metal, ice & water, fabric, and any other material that artists have explored or adopted over the millennia.
Creativity is not in the material but rather in the mind of the person using it.
Lincoln Logs are "limiting" because of their lack of basic design flexibility.
That was my point in the post
Bill Tindall, E.Tn.
The random shapes and sizes generated as cut-offs demands creativity to turn them into something. In the case at hand sticks became teeter tatters, a section of door frame with a groove got a thin strip stuck in it and became a TV, cut-out from fret work became bird houses...etc. Both granddaughters played with a collection of random shapes this way so I concluded it was universal to add imagination to a collection of shapes and create something.
So to repeat, instead of, or in addition to Legos and Lincoln Logs start a box of cut-offs. When you are working at the bench, reserve a section for the child, dump out the box, and let them play. Over time it may transition into an interest in woodworking.