Amaze your kids with Do-It-Yourself activities – Reviews & Advices

GlobalKids cover reviews of products and services related to DIY (Do-IT-Yourself). We are parents and want out kids to have fun in the garden, develop their creativity and amaze themselves by they small things.

If you never tried to play DIY games with your kids, we suggest you to try, parents and kids usually fall in love !

DIY – Make a Finnish wooden bowling game

You have already seen this game of Finnish keel coming from the north, here is how to make it yourself from wooden poles …

  • DIY category: outdoor toys
  • Difficulty: easy enough
  • Recommended tools: radial miter saw
  • Cost: less than 5 €
  • Duration: about 30 minutes
  • A bowling game that comes from the North …

For some years now, this bowling has been found in supermarkets, toy stores and even at Décathlon. But do you know that it’s a Finnish game called Mölkky.

You will see, it will be perfect to play in a garden, a park, on the beach or even in the snow …

Tools and materials needed:

To realize this game of bowling, I advise you the following tools and materials:

  • A pole / guardian 4cm in diameter and 2m long
  • A good hand saw and a miter box or the top, a radial miter saw
  • Sandpaper
  • A measuring tape
  • A big black marker or a little white paint …

The stages of this realization:

The biggest job in this DIY is cutting, but here are all the steps:

  1. Measure + cut, you will understand why I do not separate these 2 tasks
  2. Sanding
  3. Marking

Measure and cut:

For a complete game, we need 12 pins of the same size + a piece in the shape of a cylinder. Each keel is 15cm long, with a 45 ° bevel.

So you have 2 options:

We start with the cutting of 12 cylinders of 15cm to then realize the bevel, it is more efficient, but it will take more wood and therefore a second pole. We directly cut a bevel in the post, which gives us a first keel and then a straight cut for the second keel and so on. So less waste, but it requires to pay more attention to the measures.

Personally I opted for the second method, slower, but I do not like the mess too much …

For cutting, I preferred the radial miter saw for more accuracy and speed, but with a miter box and a saw, it also happens without problems.

Here you have 12 pins, you only have the last piece left with the rest of the wood, you should have enough left, otherwise you can certainly find a fall somewhere …

Even if these pins are intended for the outside, we have to manipulate them a lot, so if we could avoid splinters … For sanding I recommend a large grain paper medium. If you have a sander, it’s good, but as the surface is very rounded, you can go faster by hand …

Marking

Nothing could be simpler, I chose a black felt marking, I lacked time for pyrography or painting, even if the felt does not hold very well over time …

Mark each keel with a number from 1 to 12 on the bevelled part.

Here is the result, it only remains to play, you will not mind I let my daughter mark the pins herself …

Make a goal of wooden pallets

Why buy a goal when you can do it yourself? Here are all the steps to make a mini football goal in pallets …

  • DIY category: outdoor toys
  • Difficulty: easy enough
  • Duration: I would say 2 hours, with the net
  • Recommended tools: radial miter saw + drill / driver
  • Cost: about 10 €, for wire and screws
  • Duration: about 1h30 minutes (excluding painting)

Why make a football goal?

I bought a metal goal some time ago, not good quality in the end, so after having patched it several times and rather than buying another, I decided to make some a, much cheaper …
More pallet wood?

And yes I do not get tired and in addition it is not expensive at all and for the outside, it’s top …

Tools and materials needed:

To achieve this beautiful goal, I recommend the following tools and materials:

  • Pallet wood, the largest possible
  • A good hand saw and a miter box or the top, a radial miter saw
  • Sandpaper
  • A measuring tape
  • Drill / driver
  • An 8mm wood wick
  • Wood screws
  • Thread, at least 50m

The stages of this realization:

The biggest job in this DIY is the net, the rest is fast enough and easy to do …

  • Measured
  • Cutouts
  • Mounting
  • drilling
  • sanding
  • Realization of the net
  • Painting (optional)

Measure and cut:

To make the frame of the football goal, I used:

  1. Two pallet boards of 120cm for transversals
  2. 2 60cm boards for the side bars
  3. Finally 2 others of 80cm for the low parts

I added 2 cubes of pallets and 2 other planks in diagonal for the solidity of all …

For cutting, nothing very complicated, just use a miter saw (90 ° cut) or another type of saw, such as a jigsaw …

Mounting

For assembly, start by assembling the crossbar with the sides.

Place the 120cm cross on the 2 boards of 80cm, corner on corner while checking the right angle.

Secure everything with a screw (4x35mm) in the center.

Assemble the base, with a large palette board and the 2 small pieces, as the transverse. Check the right angles and fix everything with a screw at each corner.

Cut back the cubes if they are not straight enough

Fix the cubes at the corner of the 2 planks of the base, align the 2 (cube and plank) to offer the maximum contact area between the base and the side bars.

Assemble the base and the bars of the football goal by simply fixing the bottom of the bars on the wooden cubes.

Now that everything is assembled, make the last corner adjustments and add screws at each point of attachment so that everything fits, I personally put three screws diagonally on each corner.

To reinforce the structure, I added diagonal bars, cut at 45 °

Handyman Tip: To avoid any risk of tearing the wood, drill a 2mm hole in the top board before screwing everything.

Piercing

Now that everything is assembled, the goal of football takes shape, it is still to add a net. To make the net, several techniques exist, including that of the diagonal (I think that’s his name) and is used for the real purpose. For my part, I decided to make a knot at each crossing son, it’s longer, but easier for a bad designer like me …

So, to hold these son, it is necessary to drill the bars with holes of 8mm, spaced of 10cm and at least 2cm of the edge. A 12V drill can suffice, but a 18V will do it faster, in both cases use an 8mm wood drill …

Sanding

Even if the goal of football will stay outdoors, I advise you to sand all, the wood pallet is still pretty crude, it would be better to prevent children from getting hurt …

To do this, a small eccentric sander will do the trick, have a grit abrasive, so do not go through the back of the spoon ?

The net

To make the net, I spoke a little about it, all the techniques are good, it is necessary as far as possible to use a thread thick enough and can easily withstand to stay outside.

Painting (optional)

Just to give this football goal a look a little more fun, I chose to paint the front parts in white, with a rest of exterior paint, applied with a flat brush, nothing more simple …

The result…

Here is the goal of football in the garden, children love …

DIY tutorial: make a step wooden foot …

I needed a step walk for my daughter, so instead of buying a plastic one at Ikea, I decided to make it. Here is my tutorial to make a wooden step

  • DIY category: children’s accessory
  • Difficulty: easy to do
  • Cost: less than 10 €

Introduction

In terms of design, everything is possible or almost … I chose a simple construction for a quick and efficient realization.

Materials and tools needed:

To realize this step wooden foot (pine in my case), you will need:

  • A circular saw
  • Two wooden boards 25cm long and 15cm wide, for the sides
  • A long board of 30cm long and 25cm wide, for the top
  • A fourth board for the solidity of 30cm long and 5cm
  • A drill
  • Screws
  • A pretty big greenhouse
  • A bracket
  • One sanding block and 120 grit abrasive

The manufacturing steps:

Here are the main stages of realization of this step wooden foot:

  1. cutouts
  2. Assembly
  3. finishes

The cuts:

I will not go into details, but for this achievement, I bought a pine board 30cm wide, 2m long, with a thickness of 18mm.
I realized the cutting of the 4 pieces of wood with a circular saw, for more precision.

Assembly:

I suggest you start by assembling the board with the crossbar, the long and narrow piece.

  • Mark the middle of the width of the largest board
  • Mark also the middle of the slice of the cross
  • Place the long board flat on a flat surface
  • Place the cross on the top, in the center of the board, it must not exceed
  • Tighten them together with clamps
  • Drill two 2mm holes in the cross
  • Fix them together with rather long screws

Now let’s tackle the assembly of the sides:

  • Place one of the boards that will act as a foot, on the side of the previous assembly
  • Mark the outline
  • Marking hole locations
  • Drill three holes in the foot
  • Put it back in place and tighten it
  • Fix it to the rest with 30mm screws
  • Do the same with the other foot

Finishes :

To begin, sand all surfaces

With the sanding block, blunt all the edges for more comfort. I could also use a ripper for more rounded edges, or even pattern.

Do it yourself with your children: make a children’s wooden sword

Since your visit to Asterix Park your child is claiming a sword, here is how to make a sword wooden children

  • DIY category: DIY
  • Level of difficulty: 3/5 (1/5 being very easy to achieve)
  • Tools: Jigsaw and belt sander
  • Duration: 60 minutes
  • Cost: less than 10 €
  • Choose the right piece of wood:

To make this wooden sword, in the Roman soldier style, you will need a piece of soft wood, to be able to work it more easily, in my case, I used a piece of pallets

The tools needed:

The main tools we need to make this sword are wood chisels, but you will also need:

  • A piece of wood
  • Jigsaw or hand saw
  • A jigsaw blade for wood
  • A ruler or a square
  • A measuring tape
  • Wood chisels
  • 80 grit abrasive belt
  • Abrasive finishing tape 120

The steps to make this wooden sword:

Here are the few steps of realization:

  1. Cutting the piece of wood
  2. Traces
  3. Cutting the shape of the sword
  4. shaping
  5. finishes

Cutting the piece of wood:

Before starting the realization of the sword, it will be necessary to recover or to cut a piece of soft wood (I used a piece of pallet), with the following dimensions:

  • 60 cm long
  • 8 cm to 10 cm wide
  • 2 cm thick

Make the drawings:

Your piece of wood is ready, now it is necessary to prepare the step of cutting by making some plots with a rule and a good pencil:

  • The tip of the blade with a rounded outline
  • The handle
  • The end of the handle
  • The guard

Here is my template for the handle and the tip of the blade.

Cutting the shape of the sword:

For these cuts, you can use a jigsaw.

Following the lines, cut the end of the blade to give it its sharp shape
Do the same with the handle and the guard, for the roundings, use a blade finer to be able to turn

The Shaping:

Before starting this step, you must draw the center of the blade and its edge, with a ruler or a square.
This is probably the most delicate step and requires good wood chisels, sharp and a little attention to give the blade a beautiful shape.
The principle of this step is to cut the soft wood, in the direction of the veins of the wood to model it more easily.

With your wood chisels, prune the wood starting with one quarter of the blade. By cutting wood, while remaining in the lines, the blade will take shape.
Do the same on the handle and the knob to round the corners and make them more comfortable.

Finishes:

To smooth the surface of the wood, sand the sword all over again with this time finer grit paper, 120 for example. Result of sanding: Finally, if the raw side does not suit you, you can paint the handle in brown for a leather effect and the blade in metal gray.