Free Family Homestead Activity at Home Depot

Building flower pots for free at Home Depot

One of the things you eventually struggle with when raising children is how to keep them busy (or not bored) while teaching them something fun at the same time. This post reminds some folks who already know of the little gem but also informs the unknowing of a great way to spend a Saturday morning together with you children while learning some skills and walking away with a prize.

As far as I know, most Home Depots have a Saturday morning "hands-on" workshop for kids. They provide simple pre-made projects that can be assembled in under an hour and all supplies (and clean up!) are provided completely free to the public.

This project's apron pin

We have taken advantage of this wonderful program in Arizona and Idaho. We've helped our little ones build bird houses, monster trucks, flower pots and many more fun projects that are ours to take home and use or display in all their amazing glory.

This past Saturday, we took our three little girls and built a flower pot from a kit. All materials: wood, screws, nails, hammer and paint were provided. Best of all, the girls were given miniature Home Depot orange aprons just like the ones that the employees wear.

Upon completion of each and every project, every child gets a lapel pin for their apron to show they've completed the project. As the years go by and the projects become completed, the kids earn quite a collection of neat little collectible pins.

With each project also comes just a little more earned skill at using tools, paint and the accompanying techniques needed to use them. On this little pot, my girls learned to choke up on the hammer just a little to gain better control of the fulcrum power. They learned how to hold an object from the inside while painting the outside and I taught them how to hammer a nail back out of the wood when driven in too far (among lots of other tricks).

Simple to follow instructions

Have a sick kid at home who can't make it with his or her siblings? Politely mention it to the HD attendant and they have never denied us from taking an extra kit home for the child who couldn't make it.

As far as I have seen, these are always held on Saturdays and typically run for at least two hours...usually three. You can show up as early or late as you want during that time frame and HD is happy to allow you the time you need to finish.

There aren't many FREE activities left these days so this event is certainly worth mentioning. It is a great skill building and family bonding activity that I hope stays around for a long time.

Do you know of another gem like this that you can share in the comments. Good clean fun like this is hard to find these days.

~OJD