: I should have asked about the loom section how thick is appropriate
: for little hands? Also overall length. Is it just scaled from
: the holst plans for his height? If it is scaled from those plans
: then how about the width of the blades? I just need help getting
: my head around this.

Dave,
I've made a bunch of kid's Greenland paddles and have a couple of observations on paddle sizing. The first is that the traditional paddle length anthropomentrics don't work well because kids have different body proportions than adults. Second is the same problem that exists with jeans and shoes -- what fit today isn't going to fit tomorrow. You are aiming at a moving target.
One important consideration is to be sure to make the paddle fit their hands. So, the loom diameter needs to be something they can get their hands comfortable around and the blade width needs to be something they can grab. Sticking with the Holst guidance should work for for that. The kayak beam is probably the major factor in determining loom width. And, I think that lightly shouldered paddles are beneficial because this serves as a good guide on just where/how to hold the paddle. These three dimensions are more important than the length.
For length, it needs to be rather longer than the reach-up-and-curl-your-fingers-over-it length. And, a little too long isn't really much of a problem. They'll grow into it, and you see in use that length is a problem, you can always shorten it a bit. As a reference point, I just went to my paddle stack and grabbed the one that I'd probably send out with a 5 year old -- it is 65.5" long, 2.75" wide blades, 14" loom (this could probably be better a little bit wider), and 1" x 1.25" loom.

-John