Hi, and thank you for visiting Built!, LLC. My name is Carl Robbins, and I'm the owner of BUILT!, LLC. Formerly Kids Learning Carpentry, BUILT! offers small group classes and camps primarily from mid May through mid August for kids ages 10 and up to learn the terminology, tools, possibilities, and the overall joy of carpentry, THE life skill of all life skills, while building a small project.

I work extremely well with homeschool associations. Parents, please reach out.

So... why carpentry?

If you're here and asking yourself questions such as "Would my kid enjoy learning carpentry?" or "Should my kid learn these skills?" let me assure you that your child will love learning the life-skill that is carpentry and benefit from doing so in more ways than one. So what does carpentry have to offer your child? How about the development of:

hand/eye coordination
perseverance
a boost to self confidence
responsibility
mathematical thinking
critical thinking
creativity
self-reliance

Also, carpentry, woodworking, or simply put the skills to be handy, is truly a life-skill that kids and parents alike should have and will want to have. Think about it. Have a project in mind, but don't even know where to start? Want to redo the cabinets in your kitchen, install hardwood floors, build a picket fence in the front yard and a pergola in the backyard?Want to build a picture frame or a table? If the answer to these questions is a yes, do you know what tools you need to even get started? If you were never taught this skillset when you were younger are you sitting here now wishing you had? Would you like your kids to gain this knowledge?

Now what about carpentry as a profession? First off, carpentry, trade school, and/ or any job in the trades should never be seen as a lesser alternative to college. With construction booming right now demand is high for skilled labor! However, companies are having a hard time filling many of their positions due to the younger generation no longer being taught the trades in grade school which has resulted in a massive skills gap that affects all of us. As the saying goes, "Skilled labor isn't cheap and cheap labor isn't skilled." Would you prefer your next project to be done with poor craftsmanship? Neither would I. You can say all you want to about all things technology, BUT people are always going to need things designed, built, repaired, demolished, and rebuilt again. Apps on your phone come and go, but the block plane, for one, is here to stay.

If there's one article to "hammer it home" for me it's this one from CBS's Sunday Morning with Jane Pauley. Reported by journalist Mark Strassman this news story is titled "Help Wanted" and aired in October, 2017.

"America's economy has a growing labor crisis. A shortage of skilled construction workers. These men and women put a roof over your head. Carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and masons. They're getting harder and harder to find."

-reporter Mark Strassman

Two young girls doing woodwork in a work

So...why Built!?

Before you move forward with anything, you need to develop a solid foundation first. This is exactly what any skilled tradesman/ tradeswoman did when they were younger.

This is what I offer here at Built!, LLC. A starting point. In my classes, my students don't just show up and build.... that comes later. First comes a crash course of learning about the basics (those all important building blocks) which we repeat at the start of each class.

These basics include:

learning the parts of an inch
how to read a tape measure
how to use a square
understanding the importance of "squareness"
knowing what a saws kerf is and why it is so important to get it in the right place with each and every cut you'll make
how to use basic hand and power tools
how to read a blueprint
AND MORE!!

Give your kid the opportunity to learn THE life-skill of all life skills, discover the overall joy of carpentry, and gain the confidence to say, "YEAH!! I built that!"