A worthwhile contribution to local playschools can be that of a barrel full of odd pieces of wooden dowel, wood turnings, tenons, biscuits and more wooden dowel products.
A barrel full of wooden dowel products and turnings may not sound very exciting – but the projects that can be made out of a wooden off-cuts are nothing short of amazing.
In the eyes of children, a barrel full of leftover lengths of wooden dowel is a treasure chest, a bucket full of pieces from which they can assemble dreams.
A wooden dowel may be a functional thing in the hands of an adult, but it becomes a magic wand in the hands of a child.
Young children will spend hours patiently sorting out pieces of wooden dowel by length and diameter. They may have trouble sitting at a table without fighting – but they will pick through hundreds of wooden turnings and biscuits to find just the right one to finish someone else’s project.
Wooden dowels and rods and leftover wood turnings can be turned into many magical as well as practical items.
It’s not that there is magic in the wood. The magic was in the makers – the kids who never knew it was there. The magic is in the imaginations that could look at a plain wooden dowel and see a drumstick or a chairback, a castle wall or puppet stick. It was in eyes that can see beyond a thin wooden dowel to the potential it holds. It is in minds with the ingenuity to see a pencil sharpener as a tool to sharpen more than pencils. Wooden dowels are not magic, they don’t create the magic – it is that the very simplicity and versatility of the material is the key to unlock imagination and confidence in kids.
A wooden dowel can become a broomstick, a hat rack, a chair back. It can be used to hang a painting, support a collectible doll or separate books or plates as dividers in a piece of fine furniture.It is second only to 2×4 planks of wood and 4×8 sheets of plywood in do-it-yourself projects.
Wooden dowels are available in diameters from 1/16 of an inch to 2 inches, and any length that you can cut. They can be cut to make wood plugs for hiding screws and nail heads, turned on a lathe to create decorative wood turnings to make furniture backs, crib rails, chair legs and more.
You can purchase wooden dowels in bulk online and with a little careful shopping, you can give your kids a bucket full of magic wands.
Dowel Australia are happy to provide offcuts of dowel for use in schools and preschools. We do not deliver offcuts so you will need to have someone pick up supplies.