Despite all the electronics, movies, games and other shit... my 14 and 12 year old have a collection of "Cool sticks" in the garden. Either from the garden or picked up along the way, fallen from trees.
The 14 year old has been doing things to modify these sticks to turn them into "swords" and "guns" so I started giving him some hand tools with some instructions and let him do what he can to craft stuff and play around with that.
I don't think many kids his age has a stick collection... lol
I think you've done a good job by the sound of it; so few do!
Thanks. I have succeeded in some ways and failed in others... I shall just continue to do the best I can.