How To Make A Bird Box – A Wooden Nesting Box

Our little lady came to us one sunny morning, having decided she would like to build a bird box for our garden.  I have always been an advocate of letting children use tools such as saws, drills, and hammers (under adult supervision), so I thought this was a great little project for her to do….but not so great for me.  It involved measuring and being precise, so over to Dadda went the project!

So before I go into the nitty gritty about the actual bird box build, I want to explain a little why I feel it is important for children to be able to handle these adult tools.  Mine have handled them previously doing crafts at forest school, under the supervision of forest school leaders, and also at home to build simple things under my supervision.  In fact they have a box in the garden, full of wooden, a box of nails, and three short handled hammers, just for their use.  Using such tools will require co-ordination, and having a project to build requires the use of creativity and imagination, not to mention using skills such as measuring.  Using the tools gives the children responsibility and they learn to behave accordingly, and it heightens their sense of awareness as consequences for lack of it are more serious.  Plus they lead to a real meaningful experience, it’s tangible, memorable, and the learning that comes from such an experience is immense.  They are learning to manage risk.  With all that in mind, I sent her off with her Dadda to construct their bird box.

Supplies Needed To Build A Bird Box:

  1. A saw
  2. A drill
  3. Old wood
  4. Nails/screws
  5. Hammer
  6. A responsible adult to “assist”

Building The Bird Box:

First of all they drew up some basic plans for their bird box.  The little lady explained the shape she wanted to have, and Dadda helped her measure, and showed her how to draw a plan to work from.

Then they set off into the garage for two days.  It is a good time of year to be building this as the birds around us have just started nesting.  We are really hoping for some visitors.  In our previous garden in the UK, the only garden birds we had were oversized pigeons and starlings, but here we have such a vast variety.  Plus the wildlife surrounding us is so rich and diverse.  We have woodpeckers 100m away in the wood, herons 200m another way, and I’ve come home to see a sea eagle looking very out of place in our garden tree!!  They found some old wood in the garage and set sawing the component parts they required.  Once they had all of those, they needed to drill a front door for the home owners, and then hammer the lot together.  We have placed it in a tree near our very successful bird feeder, hoping to draw attention to it!

Both the little lady and Dadda were very proud of their “scandi” bird box!!!  I hope we have spurred you on with our post to let you children wield a “grown up” tool or two to complete a little project 🙂

How to make a bird box - A wooden nesting box, nature craft, risk, children using tools, nature, www.mammasschool.co.uk

 

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  4. Love this. What a clever lg you have 🙂 I am definitely with you…it’s a daddy job alright 😉

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  8. I agree with you. I grew up using nails, hammers, saws you name it as my grandad was into all that stuff and had a seperate house which is like a massive shed with an upstairs. It was all I did as a child. Build stuff.

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  9. This is a great idea for a blog. I’d be curious to know from what age it would be ok to use different tools and although I’ll have a search around after I write this comment it would be great to see starter projects. Although I do some DIY I’m not that confident with tools it would be great to pass on some knowledge to my son eventually whilst building up my own confidence in this area.

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      It depends on the child really…..they used small hand tools in forest school in the UK and as I got more confident with them using them I then branched out on my own. My 5 year old twins have used a drill and a saw (under very close supervision and guidance) to make a flower press. Just making things like wooden pendants for teddies drilling one hole through, or sawing a large stick is just as much fun as a larger project

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  10. I remember making one of these when I was a child! Was really proud of it but naff all birds came to visit it though lol

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  12. I really love this! I am so glad to see other parents who have the same approach to parenting as me and are willing to post about it and, ridiculously, sort of “normalise” it! I love letting Luke use real tools – afterall that’s how to world works and one day he will be needing to know how they all work too. It’s also so good for children to have a hands on project where they can actually see the finished product. Love her little bird box and she has done an amazing job (so has dadda!)

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  15. My son made a similar box at scouts using all adult tools etc … he’s been excitedly watching as a coal tit has been checking it out. Hope your daughter has some visitors too.

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  16. I made a bird box once when I was in elementary school. I remember it being a lot of fun and I got to hang it outside in the big tree in my front yard. The birds really seemed to like it. bird houses are really nice.

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