Unboxing creative joy…

We are super grateful of The Lego Foundation supporting the opening of new Dads Kids Clubs with the donation of a Play Box. Unboxing around 10kg of Lego is chaos and the creative tsunami that follows is a rush. Creativity connects young and old, strangers and friends, and of course dads and kids. To be creative is to try new things, to not know the answers, to fail and figure out another way. Reveling in the unpredictable can be uncomfortable at the beginning, but as you lean in, you slowly get comfortable without known outcomes or logic, and slide into the joy of the unknown.

The more we unbox creativity in our lives the easier it becomes to get out of our box, to stride on the other side of something. That something could be challenging, or difficult or seemingly impossible, but the more creative we are at looking at things - the more possibilities we can see. Dare I say it, that even sounds logical. 'If you are not playful you are not alive.' David HockneyAt Dads Kids Club, we're determined to stay very much alive. We encourage creativity in all its glorious shapes, expressions and guises. Art and Lego competitions are a standard activity, making things through problem solving. At one recent session a dad taught creative bread making and it tasted delicious. Another brought a 3D printing along an asked if he could helps the kids design and print, we’ve done lots of animation, badge making, rock painting, origami t-shirts, creative electronics, comet crafting, Saduko, African drumming and jamming sessions. I almost forgot clay sculpting, mask making, fanzine creation, and perhaps the most entertaining storytelling.

"Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak."John BergerWays of Seeing, by John Berger, I read this book in the early nineties, 20+ years since it was  and regardless of technological advances it still stands true today. One of the most interesting threads in Ways of Seeing is Berger's idea that children engage with images and art more directly and honestly than adults do, long before they've been taught the "correct" way to interpret things. He suggests we can recover a better way of seeing by turning to children as a model and embracing the wrong way of looking at something to potentially make it right. Or at least right to us, or those around us, at that moment in time.

When was the last time you let yourself make something just for the fun of it, with no plan, no right answer, just you and maybe your kid/s in your own play box?

Scott

I'm Scott. Founder of Dads Kids Club. We're a dad-led Community Interest Company that invites men to get more involved in their kids' education - improving children's educational engagement, men's mental health and life opportunities for both. 

We invite, train and mobilise dads, step-dads, grandads, uncles and male carers to co-run screen-free, hands-on Saturday clubs at their children's primary schools. Men share skills, connect and bond. Children enjoy beyond-the-curriculum activities - building confidence, new skills and memories that last. We celebrate all masculinities, backgrounds, identities and beliefs.

If you work in education, family services, philanthropy or simply believe in what happens when dads show up - I'd love to connect.

📧 info@dadskids.club 🌐@DadsKidsClub (on Instagram)