Australia's original and largest children's Woodworking Centre.

History & Philosophy

The Learning By Doing Woodwork Room (LBD) is a highly successful and focused education centre that delivers creative and practical woodwork and development programs for children, schools and professional development programs for teachers. In addition, our Annual Special Events Calendar promotes several shared project opportunities for children, parents and families.

Established by Jonathan Levin in 1989, LBD has been teaching woodwork to children for over 14 years. During his Bachelor of Education [Melbourne] and his subsequent years as a teacher in both the private and public sectors, Jonathan developed an ‘Intuitive Learning’ educational philosophy – a style of learning whereby the teacher and the student are developed simultaneously within the same individual. This concept was based on his personal observation of life and how much courage it took to try something new, make mistakes and be willing to move into the unknown.

Learning By Doing - where children learn to 'build their dream'

Today, our creative woodworking and electronics workshops provide a unique opportunity to learn, grow, discover and experiment in a fully supervised and safe workshop environment. At LBD, you will discover the joy, excitement and satisfaction of expressing your own unique talents. It’s a journey of innovation and discovery that builds self confidence and fulfils potential, simply by doing.
This unique learning process has much to offer children, beyond the obvious outcomes of developing basic project building skills. Our programs build self-esteem, encourage experimentation, imagination and allow mistakes. Understanding mistakes heightens one’s awareness and learning.

We are committed to creating a practical and ‘hands-on’ education centre where participants are guided into being responsible for their actions. Through this process, individuals discover the joy of learning plus the excitement and challenge of life.

At Learning By Doing we strive to impart this knowledge by setting an example through our own behaviour and actions.

The Learning By Doing is an inquiry and a journey into excellence, not perfection. Our workshops and Annual Special Events provide the perfect environment to enable you to tap your imagination, unleash your creativity and satisfy your desire to experiment. Each year we teach around 40,000 children through the Victorian school sector and the broader community. We have 3 fully equipped mobile workshops that travel around Victoria taking our programs to wherever there is a demand, and we conduct regular weekly programs at our Elsternwick centre. The reputation of our programs has spread far and wide as evidenced by our regular bookings from international travellers when in Melbourne. We invite you to share the LBD Woodwork Experience.