Kids Trade Academy
Gilbert, Arizona
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The curriculum · 14 classes · 3 levels

From the toolbox to the whole house

Classes work standalone — take one, take all fourteen. Taken in order they build: you cannot patch drywall until you can measure, and you cannot hang a TV until you understand anchors.

Level 1

Foundations

The four classes everything else stands on.
01

Meet the Toolbox

Name every tool in the box, and learn which end to hold.

02

Measure Twice

Read a tape and mark a line someone else could cut to.

03

Fasteners 101

Nail, screw or bolt — pick the right one and know why the pilot hole matters.

04

Power Drill & Driver

Bits, clutch, both hands on the tool. Earn the drill license.

Ages 10+ · Drill license
Level 2

Real Repairs

The five things that actually break in a house.
05

Anchors & Hanging Things

Find the stud, pick the anchor, hang something that stays up.

06

Fixing a Hole in Drywall

Match the fix to the hole, fill a ding, feather it, set a mesh patch.

07

How to Hang a TV

Studs, brackets, and the weight rating nobody reads.

08

Toilet Troubleshooting

Open the tank, name every part, stop it running.

09

Sink Troubleshooting

Clear the trap, work the shut-off, fix the stopper that will not seal.

Level 3

Finish & Independence

Making it look right, then doing it without you.
10

Doors & Hardware

Stop the squeak, fix the sagging door, swap a handle, make it latch.

11

Caulk, Spackle & Paint Touch-Up

The finish work that decides whether a repair still looks like one.

12

Flat-Pack & Furniture Assembly

Read the diagram, build it square, then strap it to the wall.

13

Home Safety Basics

Breakers, GFCI and the water shut-off — what to do before the adult arrives.

14

Capstone Fix-It Day

Bring something broken. Diagnose it, fix it, explain how you knew.

Bring a broken thing

Three age bands · One curriculum

A six-year-old and a
sixteen-year-old, same hour

Every class is written in three bands. Same subject, different job, different tool in hand — so siblings can take the same class without one of them being bored or lost.

6–9

Helpers

Name it, hold it, hand it over correctly. Hand tools only. Success is vocabulary and grip.

10–13

Builders

Run the step start to finish with an adult watching. Earns the drill license.

14–16

Apprentices

Diagnose before they touch anything, then do the repair and explain why it worked.

Earned, not given

License · Ages 10+

Drill & Driver

Earned in Class 4 by demonstrating it, not by turning ten. Required before any drill touches a hand.

License · Ages 14+

Utility Knife

The highest bar in the course. In every class below it, the knife is instructor-only — no exceptions, no “just this once.”

Class 3

The shape on top tells you the driver

Kids learn to look at the head before they reach for anything — which is why Phillips and Pozidriv get taught side by side.

Flathead

also called slotted

One straight slot — the oldest shape, and the one that slips most.

In this class

Phillips

the cross

Most household screws here use it. A #2 fits nearly all of them.

In this class

Pozidriv

the Phillips lookalike

A cross PLUS four ticks at 45°. A Phillips driver will chew it.

Know the name

Robertson

the square

The screw stays put on the tip. Common in Canada and on decking.

Know the name

Hex

also called Allen

The little L-key in every flat-pack box. Back in Class 12.

Know the name

Torx

the six-lobed star

Cars, appliances, electronics. Hard to strip — that is the point.

Know the name

Tri-Wing

three blades

Where the maker would rather you did not look inside.

Know the name

Why so many?

Each shape solves one problem:

  • don’t let the driver slip,
  • don’t let the screw strip,
  • don’t let a stranger open it.

Ask which problem each shape is trying to solve. They will work most of it out themselves.

Take-home sheets

Drawn on purpose

Kids get the printed sheet to take home, so the explanation does not leave when the hour does.

One inch of a tape measure drawn up close, showing how line length maps to a half, quarter, eighth and sixteenth of an inch.
Class 2 · Measure TwiceThe shorter the line, the smaller the piece. Six-to-nines work in whole inches, ten-to-thirteens to the quarter, fourteen-plus to the sixteenth.
Cross-sections through wood comparing how a nail, a screw and a bolt each hold two pieces together.
Class 3 · Fasteners 101A nail is squeezed, a screw bites, a bolt clamps. Cut the wood open and the difference stops being a vocabulary lesson.
Cutaway of a bathroom sink showing the lift rod, clevis, spring clip, pivot rod and ball, and the pop-up stopper.
Class 9 · Sink TroubleshootingPull the rod up and the plug goes down, because the pivot rod is a lever and the ball is its fulcrum — the same idea as the hammer claw from Class 1. Nearly every pop-up complaint in a house comes down to one screw.
Labelled drawing of a plumb bob showing the string, eye, cap, body and point, with a note on each part.
Class 1 · Meet the ToolboxA weight on a string was the answer long before anything needed electricity. The fourteen-to-sixteens get the proof: W = mg, a string can only pull along its own length, so at rest it lies exactly along gravity.

Why this matters for a parent: the curriculum is written down — a run of show to the minute, a materials list, and the specific things that go wrong. You are not booking an hour of someone winging it.

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.

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