Age appropriate Christmas toys for a 2 year old

[WV Sawmiller]

   Now make him an assortment of additional sizes and shapes to go along with them. All shapes are fair game. Square up pieces of 1X4, 2X4, 1" stickers of assorted lengths, then cut some triangles, etc. Maybe a few wedges. Anything that will fit his little hand works great.

   If I had a scroll saw I'd cut a bunch of 1X4s into zig zags and throw them in the pile for him to put together like puzzle pieces. I guess I could do it with a jig saw. 

   This looks like an excellent use for nearly all your cut offs and short or odd sized pieces. 

    The kids can use them to learn shapes, balance, colors, etc and they can create more things than we can ever think of.

[doc henderson]

My great nephew just turned 3, he loves farm animals and equipment.  My brother-in-law  
(his grandpa) calls him Buck as a nick name.  We got him some coral fence and made him a gate,  He loved it.

.  Note the engraved cattle guard at the gate.  I also engraved 66 one inch round pictures of a cowpie.  And a good time was had by all!

[WV Sawmiller]

Doc,

  That's neat and personal. Just shows how simple things can be so much fun. That's real pretty woodburning and routing.

   I keep thinking how simple it would be to make wooden puzzles with a scroll saw. Just paint or glue a scene on a bunch of thin soft boards and then cut then into small pieces using totally random cuts with waves, odd angles, etc. Throw them in a box let the kids figure it out.

   I read somewhere a group of scientists took about 25 laptop computers and dumped them into an African village where nobody spoke or read English. They said within 5 minutes someone had figured how to turn the laptop on. They left them with them and came back several months later and they were speaking rudimentary English from a program on the computer. I don't remember how they addressed the battery power issue so the computers could still work. They must have had some recharging system. I don't know if they showed the folks how or left them hooked up to a permanent power system. The bottom line is give a kid the tools and they can do anything.