Whittling Wonders

When my kids were younger, I had a philosophy that I would expose them to many different topics, hobbies, sports, and teachers when they had the time to explore. Every person I met was a workshop opportunity! The end result was great and they tried their hands at many different activities and skills. It seemed like we had exhausted them all. We apparently missed one...whittling!

A friend of mine set up a 3-hour whittling workshop for today. She found the instructor at the local metropark sledding hill. He was the park ranger in charge of watching the hill for the afternoon...and he was whittling. That led 10 kids learning how to whittle today, my two included.

They started by stripping the bark and smoothing the surface of the stick.
Once they had the stick stripped and a stopper on the end, the instructor, Whit'lin Willie, showed the class how to carve a face into the side.
For the next two hours, the kids worked on their design and sanded their walking sticks smooth.
There were several sliced fingers, but luckily none that required stitches and none on the hands of my children! Both of my kids were very proud of their finished product and showed Dad as soon as he came home.