REAL TOOLS! REAL MATERIALS! REAL BLUEPRINTS! REAL RESULTS!
"STEM" has been all the rage the past decade, but are many popular "STEM" kits actually teaching children engineering?
Read on to see how Hands4Building founders have used their background in teaching, engineering, and curriculum development to bring you a high-quality, American-made product your kids will love.
If there's an educational product home educating parents can get behind, it's this one. Not only are founders and owners Balia & Dennis both teachers and engineers by trade, they are also committed to bringing families high-quality, genuine engineering projects. Their family-owned business was one of the first to become an Arizona ESA vendor and they love working with and serving the homeschool community. See what they have to say about their product in the following Q&A interview we had with them!
Q #1: How did Hands4Building Start?
Hands4Building origin story began with summer engineering camps. Balia & Dennis Scott, both teachers by trade, ran a popular daytime summer camp that involved students participating in hands-on engineering projects. The camp got so popular that kids would beg to attend every year.
Eventually, after encouragement to make the summer camp engineering product into a kit, Balia & Dennis went to the drawing board, so to speak, to develop materials, blue-prints, and curriculum that children could build at home. They always wanted the students to have a part of actually building, measuring, and cutting the wood--part of the real engineering design process--and in the end, they developed a starter kit that included everything a student would need to construct a project from a miter box, saw, blueprints, wood, C-clamps, online step-by-step instruction and more!
Fun story: decades after teaching their science camps, the Scotts attended a wedding. Out of the blue they heard their names and it was a girl they had in camp years before. Turns out the summer camp had inspired her to go into engineering and she was now an engineer!
Q #2: How does Hands4Building Work?
Families should first purchase a Starter Kit--either Engineering 4 Kids & Teens OR Engineering 4 Little Hands (ages 4-8 years). The Starter Kits come with everything you need to complete a project plus materials to build a project.
Once you've mastered the Starter Kit you can move on to any of the Project Packs from Structural Engineering (Barn + Bridge + Windmill) Kit to Architecture & Design (house + furniture) Kit.
You never need to worry about running out of supplies because you can always order more Refill Packs!
Project length can vary but on average expect to spend anywhere from 15-20 hours per project. This includes framing the structure, adding interior and exterior finishes.
Parent involvement depends on child's ability. With younger children, parents can sit with kids at the beginning but once kids understand the process they can become quite independent. The videos that come with the kits are sequential and break down the instructions step -by-step. The videos are about 2 minutes each and great for auditory and visual learners!
Q #3: What makes Hands4Building different from other products on the market?
First off, Hands4Building uses almost entirely 100% American-made materials. The quality basswood used for the kits is from the northeast U.S. Packaging and shipping is a family affair and the owners work hard to get every package where it needs to go.
Hands4Building was the first vendor on ClassWallet and accepts all forms of ESA payment!
Hands4Building truly tries to get students involved in the building process where sometimes, mistakes can happen! The founders intentionally wanted students working with the raw materials, measuring, cutting, assembling, etc. because that is what happens in real life!
Our products are not toys, they're tools!
Students can get really creative with their final product by decorating the exterior and/or interior as they please. Fun fact: the building dimensions work great with Calico Critters-sized toys. Some students have even build entire "cities" and nativity scenes.
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