In grooving, use the point of the knife, and work slowly and carefully. If the knife slips the wood is ruined.
Insist that nothing the child does is well done unless well sandpapered, and nothing is properly sandpapered until all roughness is done away with, and the grain appears.
In the making of designs, let the child first have a piece of paper the size of the wood he is to use, and have him work out a design to be applied to his wood. This design may be most crude, but with a suggestion here, and a correction there, from the teacher, it can be brought into shape. The child will be pleased, and will attack with more assurance of success each succeeding problem that he meets.
For coloring, use water color paints. Red, green, and yellow are most satisfactory, as their identity is retained when staining is applied.
Apply the stain with a brush, and with a soft cloth rub it in until it is dry. This develops or brings out the grain.
When sure that the stain is well rubbed in and dry, apply butcher's wax, and polish with a soft cloth. Some articles need two coats of stain, and an equal amount of polish.
In all work impress upon the child the fact that what is worth doing is worth doing well, or it should not be done at all.
Each model given works out a problem in handling the knife and cutting the wood, and each problem leads up to the one that follows.
We will begin with the simplest thing one can make—a puzzle.