Norm's blockbuster project for the sixth season is a playhouse that boys and girls alike will love. In this show, the first of two, he begins work by building the floor platform and prefabricating the walls, then assembling the frame in the backyard. Perfect for tea parties and secret meetings, this playhouse is also a handsome addition to any yard. Norm continues work on his playhouse, concentrating on the wood shingle roof and the many details that he refers to as "goodies," from the window box to the Dutch door. This is the project that Norm's younger viewers are likely to be clamoring for loudest of all.

Norm considers a historic example of the classic marble roll, as well as a huge mechanical version located at Boston's Museum of Science. His own design emphasizes safety, proportioned for marbles too large for a child to swallow, while the entire unit is small enough to be portable. It is a relatively simple project, made primary on the table saw, that can often be constructed from workshop scraps.

Norm visits Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts for the inspiration behind this Early American hooded cradle, one of the most commonly requested projects on The New Yankee Workshop. The construction includes finger joints and a sliding dovetail for the rocker. Norm's choice of durable cherry is rendered particularly rich with a Danish oil finish. With its distinctive hood and graceful lines, this piece is destined to become an heirloom.

Combining functionality with simple fun, Norm's toy chest features a top with an inlaid checkerboard made of maple and mahogany, and even a compartment in which to store the checkers. Incorporating through dovetails cut on the dovetailing jig, the chest is as handsome as it is sturdy. Norm also demonstrates valuable marquetry techniques for the checkerboard. As always, safety is a primary concern, and Norm's toy chest includes an ingenious closing device that insures that the lid will never slam on a child's fingers.

Adult viewers may be as excited about this doll house as the children it is intended for when Norm creates a true-to-scale replica of his now-famous workshop. Norm gets some ideas from a late-Victorian example located in the Barrett House in New Hampshire, but his final design is less gender-specific, with the familiar great room that is the home of The New Yankee Workshop as well as two stories of smaller rooms and a garage - all features never before seen on camera. With some custom accessorizing, this doll house can easily be rendered appropriate for boys or girls or both. The project involves extensive work with the table saw and router.

Norm has thought of everything for this classic easel, combining his favorite elements from several commercial versions with a sturdy, timeless design that's all his own. The piece features a chalkboard on one side and paper-holding frame on the other, plus a drawer to keep the supplies together with the easel. Norm uses biscuit joinery - no screws, no nails - to join the parts of the leg assembly. The unique paper roll design allows children a continuous supply of new drawing surface.

Norm has a lot of fun researching his version of this classic child's toy at the Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum in Rochester, New York. The New Yankee version can be built from readily available materials: threaded rod axles, aluminum angles for axle braces, and non-toxic fire-engine red enamel paint. One of the biggest challenges was designing a handle that doesn't pinch little fingers, another was the wheels. Norm opted for sturdy steel wheels with their smoother riding rubber tires.

After a visit to a community playground to see what equipment kids are playing on today, Norm builds a project near and dear to his heart: a sandbox modeled after the one his father built for him and his sister when they were toddlers. Using hardy cedar, and pressure-treated lumber where it counts, Norm adds an awning of weather-resistant cloth that is guaranteed to outlast the simple cotton one on his old sandbox.

After a look at a collection of wooden toys at Old Sturbridge Village, a "living history" museum in central Massachusetts, Norm builds a child's rocking horse from ash, a durable hardwood. Norm cuts the horse's head, heart-shaped saddle and curved side pieces on the band saw, uses a router to make the dado joint that fastens the cross-braces to the sides, and demonstrates a trick with a bevel gauge, drill and electric jigsaw to create an angled mortise for the footrests.