"Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties."

Day 99:

The plan for today was to go for good stomp around snail beach, we made pizza and wrapped it up for lunch but when we arrived the weather just didn't want to play ball so we drove a little further up to Stiperstones and dropped the backseats so that we could sit in the back of the car and paint. Before we could start painting though Opeie asked whether we could do a drawing activity he had created where we design products for a supermarket based around themes. I love things like this as you end up drawing things that you would never usually think of drawing. 

"To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it."

Day 83:

I don't know what we'd do if it wasn't for all the creativity in the house, it seems like we are always drawing and painting these days. Since becoming a single dad the evenings have always been the hardest for me and this whole lockdown thing has just magnified that. That feeling of being alone and disconnected is horrible. sketching has been a huge way of taking my attention off of that and has helped to keep me in a much more positive headspace. It's been great to look back on all the things we have created and I look forward to putting it all into a fun photo diary for Opeie to look back on. 

“Learning never exhausts the mind.”

Day 11:

When all this Coronavirus drama is over and we all go back to our usual routines I wonder how many of us will have acquired new hobbies and skills. It would be a waste to not be trying new things while we are all stuck in our homes and lets be honest if you are anything like me at the moment, anything that can get you back in to bed quicker is a bonus and time really does fly when you are doing something interesting. 

We've started watching some drawing classes and have lots of others to watch on various things. I've also been trying to master the Rubix cube. After a few days I can get this far, which I'm feeling pretty chuffed about. Ive just got to master that top layer now.

“Trade your expectation for appreciation and the world changes for you.”

Day 7:

I've been so thankful of the garden over the last few days as we've spent most of our time sat out on the trampoline listening to music, drawing and playing games. As rubbish as this situation is I hope that for many people it really makes them appreciate the space that they do have. People always seem to want more but when it comes to situations like this would 'more' actually mean anything?

I will (as always) be focusing on the important things in life. Like the people that really make this life worth living.

"Creativity doesn't wait for that perfect moment. It fashions its own perfect moments out of ordinary ones."

Day 6:

During these crazy confusing times its really important to keep busy, if we don't I think many of us (especially the creative folk) will start to wilt very quickly. We've been concentrating on the creative side of things the most while we've been shut away, as the satisfaction that you get from completing a project or producing a piece (no matter how small) can fill you with all those happy vibes.

We've recently started a couple of online drawing classes and todays character illustration was just what we needed for a self isolation pick-me-uk.

Keep creating people, I think we're going to see some amazing pieces of work off the back of this pandemic and its going to be amazing to see. 

Success for me is ABC - Ability, Believe in yourself and Creativity

If there is one thing that I always try and install into the boys, its that effort is everything. I like to think that I do a great job of letting my family and close friends know exactly how much they mean to me and this has always been something I have taught the boys, especially when it comes to Mrs M. Back at the end of November I asked the boys to think of a thoughtful gift that they could create for Mrs M, I didn't specify what but said if they wanted any advice or help all they had to do was ask.

A few days later Opeie came to me with his idea. He has always loved the book I made for Mrs M when I asked her to marry me and he reads it a lot. I think it is because it is about how we met and with each page an insight into how we got to that magical moment in Orlando. His idea was to create his own book all about his beautiful mom which I was super excited about (part of me was worrying about the amount of time we had to complete though).

The thoughtfulness of this gift really touched me as he knew it was going to take a lot of time and effort but he wanted to show Mrs M just how much he appreciates being home-schooled. This was another huge bonus for me as from an educational view it was the perfect way to wind down our year of home-ed, combining literacy and huge amounts of creativity. 

We got to work quickly. Opeie wanted to make a 'Mommy ABC' in the style of one of his favourite Dr. Seuss books. An A-Z of everything to do with Mrs M with rhyming couplets on every page. Firstly he wrote all the words down that made him think of her, for the letters he struggled with we looked online for lists of words for that letter and combed them looking for relevant words. Trying to combine the words in rhyme was going to be tricky but luckily the first page was a breeze and it was all the motivation Opeie needed "Big A, little a, what begins with A? Auntie Lottie's Autumn Aeroplane A A A". As soon as the words were down that creative flair kicked in and he was drawing an aeroplane with a beautiful autumn print.

This was pretty much how the following few days of daddy school went, we would sit down and try and work out a rhyme for the page and then Opeie would grab his crayons and start creating. Then a couple of days before we had reached December I received an email from the company that I was going to use to create the book with a discount code for 40% off, perfect I thought, until I saw that the off was only valid for 8 days!!! Feeling a little deflated I mentioned it to Opeie in passing and he said "we can finish it by then dad", I loved his enthusiasm but I genuinely thought it would be pushing it for a 6-year-old. This is when I realised that when it comes to an amazing mom that you want to make smile at Christmas, anything is possible.

As soon as breakfast was out of the way on the mornings, Opeie pushed himself to complete his 26 drawings that he knew he needed to create, along with the 26 pages of writing to cover each of the letters of the alphabet. This had gone from an amazing creative and literacy based activity to an awesome lesson in working to a deadline and time management, not something that I would have ever purposely added into our homeschooling schedule but it all happened so organically.

One afternoon Opeie had written 9 pages for the book and drawn some of the pictures an he said his hand was really hurting. I had been telling him for about an hour to stop and we would do something else but he was so focused on getting the book finished, it was adorable to watch. With all the pages written and all the drawing complete Opeie started looking for backgrounds to mount all of his drawings on around the house to make his creations more colourful. He then used his pictures to create a cover and we sat together uploading it all online, he was so excited when he saw it all coming together.

On the day it arrived the excitement was too much for him, we still had 2 weeks until Christmas and he was desperate to give it to Mrs M. I couldn't get enough of that look of pride on his face when he took it out of the box. I saw that same look again as he handed it to his special lady on Christmas day.

It's lovely to buy nice gifts at Christmas but for me (and hopefully the boys now too) its all about the effort that we go to for the people we care about the most.

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?”

At least once a year I write about one of our favourite hidden adventure spots in Shropshire. It's not very often that I find a place that I want to keep going back to, but Shropshire has some really interesting places to hang out and has been perfect for Opeie's homeschooling. A friend of ours introduced us to Cosford Grange a few years ago and as soon as we turned into the secret looking drive that leads up to the B&B I was completely hooked by its curious sculptures and interesting looking trees.

The woodland walk sign doesn't really prepare you for what you are about to find as you walk down the steps. The over hanging rock face (if you know the area) doesn't seem like it belongs there, which makes the place really interesting. Add that with the interesting statues, hidden play house and various paganesque and other religious trinkets and you've got yourself a pretty amazing place to visit.

What I love most about the place though is how peaceful it is. In all the times we've been there we've never seen another person, apart from the chap who runs the b&b and because it is so quiet the woodland area is rich in interesting wild and plant life, making it the perfect place for a spot of drawing/painting which we had planned for that afternoon.

After walking along balance beams to get across the pond the boys found a quiet spot under some huge leaves and let their artistic flair run wild. I love those quiet afternoons when hardly anything is said because we're all busy doing something fun and are content in our surroundings.

I'm not sure if Cosford Grange woodland is extremely well thought out or completely random. The trees with all the shoes nailed to it does make me think the latter. Which ever it is though, it really works. Our arty afternoon was so relaxing and again not another person to be seen at all. Just us our canvas' and paint. It is local places like this that really make me feel lucky for being in Shropshire now. Since the day I moved here this place has felt like home and this very special place is the perfect place for adventuring with my two special boys.

"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.

"A work of art is above all an adventure of the mind."

I can't believe it's taken me this long to get round to writing about the second day of our London trip two weeks ago. Our visit to the Roald Dahl museum mixed with the long drive and followed by a late night had a huge effect on the following day we had planned scooting around London. It didn't however, stop us from getting the Micro Scooters out and heading out to try and make the most of the day we had there. It took a tired Opeie a little longer to fully kick into gear but by the time we had reached the train station to head to our first destination he was back on scooting form.

A friend of ours who we stay with when visiting London works at the Tate and on the evening we arrived she was telling us all about The Tanks, the latest addition to the Tate Modern. I love taking Opeie to art galleries as I find it really interesting to hear what he sees in what he is looking at. Because of its size, The Tate Modern has always been one of our favourite galleries to visit so because our train stopped at Blackfriars we made it our first stop.

The thing that had really stuck out for me when our friend was telling us about the gallery was the viewing level. 10 floors up and with a beautiful view over London, it was the perfect spot for Opeie to sit down and sketch the London Skyline high above the Thames. At first, he was adamant that 'I can't draw that' but as we broke what we could see down into various shapes and concentrated on that, his drawing soon started to come together and he really got into the activity.

Inside the gallery was all kinds of weird and wonderful things which really got Opeie thinking and us both talking about what we could see. I love how a child's mind works, In one piece he spotted what he thought was a potato which then had him seeing all sorts of food in each piece that we saw.

This side of the gallery is definitely more interactive than the original part of the Tate and although Opeie loves that one there was more here for Opeie and he clearly felt a lot more connected to what he was seeing when he was able to walk through and over some of the pieces and even lie down inside one of them too. With homeschooling (especially at this age) anything that gets you thinking, starts conversation and encourages questions is doing your job for you. We chatted the whole way round and it was lovely to hear his excited little voice explaining what was going on around him.

We were walking around for 2 1/2 hours before the inevitable 'Dad I'm hungry'. Opeie knew exactly where he wanted to eat his lunch so we jumped back on the scooters and headed over to the south bank as he wanted to watch the skateboarders. It's handy to know that if you are Scooting around London and are planning on visiting the Tate, they have a free cloakroom where you can leave your scooters while you take in the art.

Sadly that previous late night and long journey had finally caught up with Opeie and that was it for our scooting around London (until next time). We spent the rest of the afternoon reading and playing before heading home to our own beds. I do love visiting London but as Opeie always says "I love going home more".