Ethical Question

Is his anywhere near usable? He'll cherish it long after you're gone. I still have things I whittled and carved as a child a long time ago and they still evoke memories. If it's not usable make a second and give him both.

I would say stick to the one he worked on.  First projects need not be perfect.  

If he continues with woodworking, he'll figure out what you did to gloss over the flaws and rather than looking back on a fine first effort it will be tinged with dishonesty.

Just my 2 cents.

I made my first attempt at dovetailing forty-eight years ago. I just did one joint with three tails and it had every flaw you could imagine, but I still have it stored away along with a few later joints that show significant progress. I wouldn't want to suggest to a beginner that their effort wasn't good enough. If a chess board works well enough to play chess on, it's good enough.

Steve Elliott wrote:

I made my first attempt at dovetailing forty-eight years ago. I just did one joint with three tails and it had every flaw you could imagine, but I still have it stored away along with a few later joints that show significant progress. I wouldn't want to suggest to a beginner that their effort wasn't good enough. If a chess board works well enough to play chess on, it's good enough.

I have mine (d-t) on the shop desk to remind me (and show my grandsons)  the learning curve.

If you trash the kid's first effort it will translate as "your best efforts have no value" and most likely to turn him off from further woodworking, depriving you both of some very valuable memories.
"If at first you don't succeed, F**K IT!"

Added later 09 min 05 s:

Mark Mandell wrote:

Steve Elliott wrote:

I made my first attempt at dovetailing forty-eight years ago. I just did one joint with three tails and it had every flaw you could imagine, but I still have it stored away along with a few later joints that show significant progress. I wouldn't want to suggest to a beginner that their effort wasn't good enough. If a chess board works well enough to play chess on, it's good enough.

I have mine (d-t) on the shop desk to remind me (and show my grandsons)  the learning curve.

If you trash the kid's first effort it will translate as "your best efforts have no value" and most likely to turn him off from further woodworking, depriving you both of some very valuable memories.
"If at first you don't succeed, F**K IT!"

"If it's worth doing, it's worth learning how to do it right."

I would suggest that you discuss the flaws and encourage him to learn from them and make a new piece being more careful to avoid what went wrong the first time.  You will be working against the youth tendency for instant gratification and urge him toward better quality work.  Maybe make work on making two checker boards one piece with him watching what and how you do it and then assisting him while he makes his matching piece.  You would end up with two checker boards as a bonus.