"Creativity is contagious, pass it on”

As part of Daddy school, a lot of our time is taken up by creative activities. It's so important to let your little ones explore their creative side, especially in the early years. Opeie loves drawing, if he sees pen and paper lying around then he'll start doodling and if there's one thing I'll take from studying art at university is that mark making, in all its amazing forms is an important start to any creative endeavour. The boys have access to a huge range of artistic media and although I'm partial to pencil, paper and hands-on craft, it's really important to be open minded to art via technology. I'm useless when it comes to using a computer this way and sadly always turn to Mrs M when it comes to creating the things I need. 

Technology plays s huge part in our day to day lives now and the last thing I want is the boys to fall behind just because it is out of my comfort zone. Seth is starting to show interest in coding and photoshop and Opeie is desperate to get involved. I'm a firm believer in gaming in education and I use lots of different games for various aspects of his learning, the obvious being reading, writing and mathematics, but also for learning strategy. There are great gaming titles out there that cover learning technology. Pokemon typing adventure has been one of my favourite for teaching Opeie keyboard skills early on and the art academy range has been great for what is almost a very basic style of Photoshop, learning to use various icons to create a masterpiece.

We reviewed Pokémon Art Academy last year and being huge Pokemon fans, the game gave Opeie a great introduction in how to create his favourite characters using shapes and techniques. Whatever we draw together I try and break down what he is looking at into a selection of simple shapes to work from. The art academy games back up my approach to teaching but digitally.

With the release of Disney Art Academy, Opeie's inner digital artist has yet again been awakened and he has been in his element recreating has favourite Disney characters. It's frustrating when you are young and struggle to draw the characters that you love. For me it was Basil the great mouse detective, I'd spend days trying to draw my favourite characters from the movie and it's where my love of drawing stemmed from. Disney art academy breaks these well-loved characters down to their most simple form making them accessible to anyone that wants to know how to draw them and this is what makes the game so special. By Taking the budding artist through each step of creating a character, their form, colour scheme and expressions, the game is building creative confidence. It's a great way of teaching that in life if you want to achieve anything you first need the confidence to attempt it.

With over 80 character drawings to attempt and a huge amount of techniques to learn along the way this game is as educational as it is playful, the perfect game for the younger generation of future artists.

"I've got a job for you. Keep on the dodge and saddle up the law dolly past them horned hens."

So.... We've seen the film and as parents we all know, that if they like a film they want to see the great products that accompany it. The Disney store understandably have a great selection and Opeie has been taking full advantage of all the fun things available. Firstly after watching the movie there was a lot of questions about the characters and what was going on so DK Books The Good Dinosaur: The Essential Guide has been perfect for answering all those dino related questions. You can find out about all of the characters and the impact they have on the movie.

Opeie loves role playing with his toys and this six piece figurine playset has been awesome for stomping around the house, fighting with the Raptor and the Pterodactyl while finding places to camouflage Forrest woodbush.

Opeie loves a a good soft toy and has been loving carrying the two main characters around with him.  Arlo and Spot are a great addition to Opeie's play time and have attended many tea parties and lots of car trips.

My favourite product was The Good Dinosaur Tin Art Case Set as it gave Opeie the chance to make the most of his artistic side and get creative. With literally everything an artistic child could need included in this cute carry case it has been perfect for taking about with us on all of our home schooling adventures. As soon as the case arrived we sat down together for some drawing and painting fun and Opeie drew an awesome dinosaur from his imagination.

The finished piece turned out to be amazing...

There are lots of other great products at the Disney store that tie in with the movie, my favourite being the Butch hoodie and the Pyjamas.

Its nice to see that the Disney store has thought about us adult fans too, so now its time for me to have a big cup of coffee in my Dinosaur Mug.

"With a mini series you can give the story a proper sense of pacing, aproper sense of closure."

It's that time of year again when I can be found sitting in a toy isle feeling up small plastic bags. People expect it more at the toy stores but when I'm in the supermarket sitting on the floor surrounded by packets i get some pretty funny looks. Yes you've guessed it, the latest series of LEGO minifigures (Series 12) have hit the shelves and I've had my eyes on some of them for months, since I first saw  images online and in the LEGO club magazine.

My friend Steve is a big collector of these sought after little chaps and I've helped him with his collection along the way. I'm not a collector myself and the boys are like me, with each new series it's more about new parts, hairstyles, accessories and body parts. I love them, you can spend ages creating an epic building and it can come out looking amazing but sometimes it's the minifigures you use on the build that really make it stand out.

After seeing the images a while ago it was all about the pig for me. The animal ones are always the first to grab my attention, I'm still after the bumble bee from a few series back. What surprised me though is that when I opened up the wizard it was instantly my favourite in the series.

The Goth was also a figure of interest for us, mainly for the hair. Me and the boys like to make minifigures of our friends and the parts on the goth (or Gother as Opeie calls her) will come in very useful. Opeie and Seth were really interested in getting hold of the rockstar too as my friend had given them the girl rock star a few weeks back.

I've written about this over many posts but one of the great things about the minifigure series which I don't think it's written about enough is the educational value of Lego. It's great for honing your children's fine motor skills but the release of historical figures and characters from literature over the minifigure series means that the boys know who these famous characters are long before covering them from an academic point.

Last weekend at Madam Tussauds Opeie ran over to a waxwork and said "daddy I want my picture taken with Shakespeare". I wouldn't have had a clue who that was at 3 and that's all because of LEGO.

The boys got a brief lesson about the three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and their moto 'one for all, all for one'. Again this was because of LEGO's character choice from series 12.

Today's trip to the shops got me the two other characters we needed for our LEGO collection the Princess for me (I think it's about time our very own princess's minifigure got some royal attire) and for Opeie the lifeguard. Next On my bag feeling mission is to go searching for the gamer for Seth.

I was excited to talk more about the tech side of the Series 12 minifigures but sadly...

With each minifigure purchased there is a code inside for you to redeem online so that you can take your new character into the online LEGO minifigure game. I'm really looking forward to this to be available on either Mac or Tablet as i think it is something that Seth will really be interested in. Each character has special stats and abilities to be used in game. The game can be played for free but you can also pay for extras for your characters to up your game and give you the advantage. You can also pay to become a member giving you access to other extras. It all sounds awesome, hurry up and make it for Mac LEGO.

Its going to be a busy week or so of bag feeling, i love the excitement. Now to start thinking about all the things were going to use these guys on.