Our 10 year old boy has taken up whittling..
It’s a hobby that involves wood and sharp tools
He wasn’t too keen on wearing the protective gloves at first
but a couple bloody nicks later he is very keen on them
It is too cold and wet to whittle outside and we don’t have any heated outbuildings he could make a mess in
Soooo he’s whittling at the small breakfast table in the kitchen ‘nook’
His first project is a canoe that fits in his palm
The piece of wood he started with was probably twice as much (or more) wood to begin with
So there are more shavings than finished pieces
He is beginning each day whittling, gets right to it after school, and barely pauses for dinner
He has to have the tools removed from his hands and be gently forced to retire at bedtime
That’s a lot of shavings
The other kids were very loud in there protests the first day
‘Mom! He needs to go do that somewhere else!’
‘He is getting shavings in my food!’
And a part of me is like of course we don’t whittle in the kitchen
BUT it smells amazing
And this typically rowdy- bored to the point of obnoxious- boy is occupied
He has not said ‘Can I play your phone’ or ‘Can I play your iPad’ since his whittling kit arrived from Amazon
So it’s a win
The shavings stay and we can eat at the other table
Or have shavings mixed in with Honey Nut Cheerios