Hands-On Space Little Craftsmen Experience Camp - DIY Your Own Speedy Diving Car

Wei Ma

I remember back in middle school home economics class, whether we were learning embroidery or knitting sweaters, it was always the most healing and eagerly anticipated hands-on time for the girls. When I signed up my brother for a hands-on experience class, it also brought back memories of Mr. Huang’s favorite craft classes from his school days.

Nowadaysparents all hope to spend more time with their children, but what really matters is not how much time you spend, but what you do together.Whether it’s playing games together, baking cookies, telling stories, doing some decorating, or completing a hands-on project together, these are all great ways to strengthen parent-child relationships and nurture bonds.

Wei Ma has always been very enthusiastic about taking her kids to try and challenge various hands-on experiences. She selects age-appropriate courses based on the children's interests, allowing them to enjoy the fun of making things with their own hands—making it easy and enjoyable for both adults and children to create more fun-filled family moments.

If you’ve ever visited “Tokyu Hands,”you’ll easily notice the super popular “Hands-On Space” hands-on experience courses that have been trending in recent years.There are so many courses to choose from, and they even offer an “on-demand booking” service.

It turns out customers can book a class anytime based on their schedule, as long as there’s an available slot. Wei Ma finds this very considerate. The summer holidays are the hardest time to find things to do, so this is really important.

Wei Ma spotted the “Diving Car Painting DIY” course and thought it would allow kids to freely create their own racing cars—little boys are sure to love it.

A few years ago, when she saw “Tokyu Hands” introduce and host the American-style diving car races that have been popular for over half a century, she thought, once her brother is a bit older, she must take him to experience hands-on crafting.

Starting with an ordinary piece of wood, watching the father and son’s focused and dedicated expressions as they built their uniquely styled racing car together—it was incredibly meaningful. Experiencing the journey from nothing to something, they hope to make one every year as a growing-up gift for their little boy.

This year is her brother’s first summer vacation, and before it officially began,Wei Ma had already signed him up for the “Tokyu Hands Taoyuan South Store – Diving Car DIY Hands-On Course.” This summer, all Tokyu Hands stores across Taiwan (except for Fengyuan, Caotun, and Sanxia) are offering this experience.However, each store has different space capacities and limits on the number of participants per session, so it’s first come, first served.

Besides choosing the “Diving Car DIY” course, which is perfect for her brother’s first try, the store also showcases other hands-on project items like giant pinball machines, mini basketball hoops, folding tables, lockers, wooden stools... there’s a huge variety.

If you’ve ever loved DIY crafting and enjoy the fun of creating things yourself, this is highly recommended for both adults and kids—even courses for adult kids.

Her brother couldn’t help but be drawn to the ball-throwing basketball machine outside and ended up not wanting to leave.

The “Hands-On Space” at the “Tokyu Hands South Store” is located on the B1 floor, with a very spacious and bright indoor area.In addition to displaying various works, it’s fully equipped with very professional tools.

After putting on the “Tokyu Hands” kid-sized aprons, the instructor first explains the diving car making process to everyone.

They also provide several sample cars for reference, and you can even stick your favorite figurines onto the car when you get home.

Materials:One wooden block / Four wheels / Four metal axles.

Diving cars are judged not just on appearance, but also on understanding and utilizing the natural diving characteristics of gravitational acceleration, incorporating quite a bit of scientific calculation—very experimental indeed. But for us amateurs—just bringing kids here to spark creativity and increase the fun of DIY is good enough.

First, the little designer must use a pencil to sketch the shape of the diving car on the wooden block. The teacher lets everyone draw a draft on blank paper first.

Then they draw directly on the wooden block. Actually, her brother’s car shape ended up completely different from the draft—he went with a totally random design.

The eldest son was also very serious, and even drew a bone in the upper right corner. So is it shrimp ash?

Since sawdust is produced during the cutting process, the teacher kindly provided masks and goggles to prevent discomfort from flying sawdust, then gave individual guidance on how to use the table saw for cutting.

Be careful with the cutting tools. The teacher first took a piece of wood to demonstrate straight and curved cutting techniques. Once everyone had a general idea of how it worked, they moved on to cutting their own cars, with the teacher assisting nearby.

Dad Huang was just quietly... doing his own thing.

After the dune buggy was roughly cut, coarse and fine sandpaper were used to smooth the car body surface step by step.

I thought that was it. But when the teacher asked the boy if he wanted to add any accessories, his eyes lit up immediately, and he quickly sketched out a spoiler. However, the part was too delicate, so in the end, he had the teacher help with the cutting. Even an impromptu request didn’t stump the teacher.

There were paints in various colors available on-site for free creative expression—(this step is always a kid favorite!) The paint used is certified and safe for children.

The color “wood wax oil” that the boy initially chose had to be poured onto a tissue first and then evenly applied to the car body by rubbing.

The teacher explained to us that “wood wax oil” is different from “paint.”“Wood wax oil” enhances the visibility of the wood grain, while “paint” gives a more saturated color.

Both father and son were super focused, constantly discussing spoiler designs. Mom couldn’t join the boy talk at all—I was basically just a bodyguard and background presence that day.

Once the paint was completely dry, the metal axles were hammered into the pre-drilled holes in the wood block, completing the dune buggy creation.

I feel that little boys just go crazy for anything with wheels. The warm wooden texture, built from scratch, is not only fun to play with but can also be displayed as a home ornament. The boy said he wants to stick LEGO figures on it when he gets home... We almost asked the teacher to cut out a steering wheel for us too. (But that might’ve been too hard—don’t want to put the teacher through too much, haha.)

It was the first time bringing the boy to the “IKEA (Tchibo in original text, localized to IKEA for natural English context) hands-on workshop experience.” From his shy initial steps into the classroom to finally completing his first-ever handcrafted dune buggy with full coloring.

Watching the boy so immersed in the slow, meticulous work, even though I didn’t join in the making, I could still feel his sense of achievement. He’s a bit slow to warm up, but the teacher stayed with him throughout, guiding him patiently, helping him interact more and quickly get into the joy of crafting.

During the hands-on process, we let the boy freely decide everything—like keeping the action figure in the driver’s seat, adding a spoiler, and even choosing the final color scheme. Creativity without limits.

Letting every child be the little master of their own car and create a one-of-a-kind dune buggy.

Looking at the various craft works displayed on-site, each one is so tempting—they’re perfect for parent-child DIY projects. The boy said he had so much fun being a little carpenter for the day, though his photos still show him looking super cool.

Throughout the crafting process, I think the boy must have imagined all sorts of wild race car scenes. Both father and son were extremely satisfied with their creation. The boy even asked, “Can we make another one?” But how do you make it go faster? Seems like they’ll really need to build a few more and test modifications to improve—haha (totally brainwashed by car-mod enthusiast Dad Huang!).

And honestly, the two of them were just wild, playing from the classroom to the store corridor. The “IKEA Summer Workshop Courses” are super diverse—whether it’s Little Gardeners, Little Carpenters, or a Day as Store Manager… Sign up with your kids and create unforgettable summer memories.

Address: B1, No. 1 Zhongzheng Road, Luzhu District, Taoyuan City
Business Hours: Monday to Sunday, 10:00–22:00
For more event details, visit IKEA Handicraft Space https://goo.gl/fGGcJo

Authorized repost from [Wei Ma's Parenting Life]