"Be Excellent to each other, and Party on Dudes!"

Day 8:

It will no doubt be one of the weirdest birthdays that Opeie is going to experience with everything that's going on in the world at the moment but I wanted him to feel just as special when he woke up this morning. Its crazy that 9 years have flown by this quickly and although I clearly didn't envision us spending it in isolation, he's had a pretty lovely day. Despite the current situation the only thing that was missing was him being able to spend it with his friends. As I write this though I can hear him downstairs playing online with his besties, So I'm pretty thankful for technology today.

Also I'm looking forward to the cake.

"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.

"No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves."

The boys love playing spies and Seth is a huge James Bond fan, so gadgets always come into their play at some point. Spy net have released some amazing products over the last couple of years that I would have loved when I was a child, the RC Recon Video Bot especially. While we should have been playing spies with Spynets latest product we ended up playing a really interesting game which turned out to be a fun homeschooling exercise.

Opeie sat up stairs on the bunk bed armed with a SpyNet Vibrasonic Walkie Talkie, a clipboard with paper and a selection of coloured pens...

...and I sat down stairs with the other headset, paper and pens. We've had walkie talkies before but these are really interesting as they use vibrasonic technology. You can hear what your team mate is saying without the use of speakers or an ear piece but most importantly when wearing the headpiece you are the only person that can hear what the other person is saying. Great for more stealthy missions.

This time though was a less stealthy mission. As we sat at either end of the house (there is a 30m range) and gave each other commands and descriptions of what to draw for each other. Opeie asked for a Deathstar body and hockey stick legs with spikes on. This was a great home ed exercise for Opeie as it was great for communication, use of descriptive words and of course creative drawing.

The headsets are really clear, and although they were not a great fit on my big bold head they were definitely usable and I could hear perfectly. Size wise these were clearly made for children though. The Spynet Vibrasonic Walkie talkies have been a great addition to our arsenal of spyware and they will get some great use over the coming months. For more of Spynet's great products check out Spynet HQ.

 

"Technology is a way of organizing the universe so that man doesn't have to experience it."

In a world controlled by technology I spend a lot of time worrying about the amount of 'screen time' Opeie has and the effects it may be having on him. I try and limit my own usage during the day as i don't want it to seem the norm to him and i would rather him be playing outdoors or doing creative things. As i stood in the kitchen a few days back and listened to him talking to my phone though I realised as far as technology is concerned, he can take it or leave it...

I'm Stickman, I'm Stickman, I'M STICKMAN! Thats me.

While in Asda we did our usual rounds perusing the toy aisles but there was nothing to take our fancy so we headed over to the books. Since our friends bought the boys 'Zog' by Julia Donaldson for Christmas, everytime we read it and get to the pictures of her other books on the back page Opeie always points to 'super worm' and says 'I'd really like that'. Well today it was staring right at us from the shelves and as it was on offer we got to choose another book. I liked the look of 'stickman' so that found it's way in to the trolley too. 

Stickman is a great children's book and Opeie finds his adventures lots of fun, We've read it at least once every day since getting it. It made me think of when I was younger and how much fun i could have with a stick. A stick is the ultimate classic toy and it's up there with the rock, the cardboard box and the piece of string. Sadly with technology taking over this simple yet extremely versatile play thing probably doesn't get the attention it deserves these days.

Thankfully in our house 'Stickman' has awakened something in Opeie and his love of sticks is growing stronger by the day. Despite all the toys he has to play with over the last few days our garden role play has been stick heavy. His beloved stick (which now resides in the house and lounges about on the boys sofa like a lazy teenager) has been subject to many different games. The cliche but ever popular use as a sword or 'Lightsaber' if Opeie's feeling a little futuristic has been the weapon of choice for some up close and personal scrapping but it has also been transformed in to some form of gun/blaster to get him out of sticky situations (perfect for long distance battles and fending off up and coming attacks...

Are you a little bit bored while waiting for your Nemisis to attack? Why not make use of the phone setting (I'm not sure what the reception is like but I'm guessing its better that EE)...

The stick also comes in handy if your foe's nose resembles that of an elephant or prehistoric monster beak and you need to throw a little smack talk down. "hey big nose..."

Nature really is a wonderous thing and as I said before the classic, true vintage toys are really unbeatable in the world of play, so get outside while the suns out, grab yourself a free toy and let your imagination run wild. After all it's what being a child is all about and us parents need to be encouraging that.