Kids Trade Academy
Gilbert, Arizona
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Ages 6–16 · One hour · Hands on the tools

Teach a kid
to fix it.

Real household tools, real household repairs, taught one hour at a time. Fourteen classes take a kid from this is a Phillips to patching drywall, swapping a toilet flapper and hanging a TV on the studs.

Book a class See all 14 classes
ESA families welcome Empowerment Scholarship Account · ask about reimbursement
Class length
60 minutes
Group size
Up to 10 kids
Parents
Stay in the room
Every kid
Touches the tool

Three ways in

Pick where to start

A square hole cut in drywall with its measurements written on the wall. 14 classes · 60 min · Ages 6–16

Tool classes

From “this is a Phillips” to patching drywall and hanging a TV on the studs. Take one, or all fourteen in order.

See the classes → 7 builds · 90 min · No class needed first

Build days

Planter box, bird house, tool tote, step stool and more. Pre-cut kits, no power saws, something to take home.

See the builds → A gloved hand pouring used motor oil from a drain pan through a red funnel into an empty oil jug. Elective · Ages 10–18

Car Basics

The five-point walkaround, wiper blades, and the top side of an oil change. Check first, fix second.

See Car Basics →

What the hour actually looks like

Same shape every time

Kids settle faster when the hour is predictable. Every class — drywall, toilets, doors — runs on the same five beats, so a kid who has been once already knows what happens next.

  1. Tool Rules

    Call-and-response, out loud, every single class. Nobody skips it and nobody is too old for it.

  2. The tool, up close

    What it is, what it is actually for, and the one way people get hurt with it.

  3. Stations

    Small groups rotate through hands-on stations. No demo-only hour — everybody drives a screw, patches a hole, turns a valve.

  4. Stop and Ask

    Scenario cards. “The drill is smoking.” “Water is coming up, not down.” Knowing when to go get an adult is a taught skill, not a personality trait.

  5. Count them back

    Every tool counted back into the box out loud before anyone leaves. It is how the shop stays safe and how kids learn that cleanup is part of the job.

Look inside a class

A real repair, start to finish

Every class is built around photos of the actual job and figures drawn from scratch for this course — not clip art and not a manufacturer’s catalogue page. These six photos are one drywall repair, shot for the Class 6 handout.

  1. A ragged hole in drywall beside a staircase, two stud bays open.
    1The damage
  2. Pencil lines drawn in a rectangle around the damaged area.
    2Mark it square
  3. The hole cut into a clean rectangle with its width and height written on the wall in pencil.
    3Cut it, measure it: 31¼ × 12¼ in
  4. A new piece of drywall fitted into the opening and held with screws.
    4New drywall, screwed in
  5. Mesh tape over the seams of the patch with the first coat of joint compound going on.
    5Mesh tape, first coat
  6. The patch covered with a wide, feathered coat of joint compound.
    6Feathered, ready to sand
Class 6 · Fixing a Hole in Drywall. Match the fix to the hole, fill a ding, feather it, set a mesh patch.Times are from the camera.
See all 14 classes →

Who is teaching

Built by an engineer who is also a dad

I spend my working life on systems where a person’s safety depends on a procedure being written clearly enough that someone can follow it under pressure. Then I come home to four kids who cannot hang a picture. That gap is what this is.

About us →

Next step

Come build something

Tell me your kids’ ages and what you want them to be able to do, and I will tell you which class to start with.

Book a class See prices