|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Cautionary Tales For Children
Wonderful witty poems great for reading to your children. The stories and rhymes will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Research has shown how important YOU are to your children and how as a dad the things you do, and keep on doing, really count, whether you live with them, or you are a single dad and are only able see them once a month, once a week or more, what you do really matters. This site is dedicated to all dads but will be of special relevance to the single dad. Remember, you are half the reason your children exist and they need you whether you live with them or not. As their dad, you have what it takes to make their lives successful and fulfilling no matter how often you see them. This site is about all the positive things that we as parents have to offer our children.
|
|
|
|
Permanent markers
|
 147
|
A very quick way to let your kids personalise your models giving them detail and character
Surface decoration really makes a difference to the look of your models. You can paint them with emulsion or spray, but a very quick way to finish them off is by drawing on them with a permanent marker.
. . .
Permanent markers write on anything, permanently, so be careful with your clothes.  The best one to have for most uses is the bullet point type, like the medium one shown here, although it is useful to have a thinner one, the type of marker that is used to write on CDs or overhead projector film is ideal. And of course, because you want things to be fun, why not get a huge jumbo marker, they're not expensive and the kids are always have fun colouring in using such a big pen and such a lot of black ink! They come in a very basic range of colours, and are perfect for adding names and little details to models that you have sprayed or painted over all one colour. Always write something on your models, it is an important finishing step. Let your kids name the model and or think up and design imaginary organisations and logos. If the model needs a number, then why not use a number special to them, their age or their favourite number. Play is all about buying in to the fantasy and these finishing touches and little personalisations, add a huge amount of playability to any homemade model. Don't forget that permanent markers now come in gold and sliver and that they can be used to colour over a whole range of cardboards and plastics to give a good, bright, metallic finish, instantly.
. . .
Before you actually put pen to model, first type what you want to write on your model, on your computer at about the right size, in a type font that you like or is particularly suitable, i.e. the NASA font for spaceships, or a stencil font for hardware, for example. Then using it as reference, copy the text onto the model using the marker. Or look for reference images of real versions of your model and copy their sponsorship and logos on to your model, you’ll be surprised at the difference a few carefully placed graphics will make to your model.
. . .
This floating canoe only took about 30 minutes to make. It’s not painted, but it is completely transformed by the name drawn on to it.
All the time we were making this, my son was itching to put the name on it. He came up with name, Waterdart 2006, even before we started making the model.
|
|
|
OR |
|
 147
|
|
|
|
|
Making stuff is fun!
|
|
I have yet to meet a child (or in fact an adult) who didn't enjoy some form of creativity. Everyone is born with an innate desire to invent, create and make things, that's why humans have been so successful. Children are the most creative individuals you can ever hope to meet, with wonderfully flexible minds and amazing powers of imagination.
Children make stories and invent games and play for hours from the most basic starting points. If a piece of paper can be an areoplane, then a scrumpled piece of paper can be a crash-landed airplane. As their dad, you are in a unique position to help develop your children's creativity and problem solving abilities using the ever resourceful child in you.
Powerful stuff
when combined with the practical
skills you have learned and mastered as an adult. Dadcando.com has loads of exciting making and doing projects. For some you’ll only need five minutes, with others, whole afternoons will dissolve away. Some of the projects need only a piece of paper, while for others you will need some old packaging junk and some basic making equipment. Some projects are easy whereas others will help you and your children develop more advanced scratch building skills.
The Project instructions on dadcando are high quality, and whichever projects you download, you’ll find that all the Project Instructions have been carefully designed to be very clear, and for the most part very cheap to make because the bits you need to make the model cost nothing or are free bits of rubbish that you would normally throw away!
You’ll find that not only are all our projects completely original, but they are all designed to be fun and relevant to kids.
The projects have been designed with you in mind. Quick easy with really satifying results, so that even if time is short you can get the most out of the time you have together.
Making and doing with your kids is about giving your children the most valuable thing you can give them, your time. Our Making projects are about solving problems together and having something at the end to keep and play with. Anything you make with your children will be very special to them because you spent the time together making it and they have something to keep that they can be proud of.
Most of the instructions come with printer patterns to make sure that all the things you make look as good as possible. Print them out at A4 or US Letter size on an ink jet or laser printer. Depending on the speed of your connection, some of them may take a little longer to download (although none of them are much bigger than a megabyte, and most are much smaller). This is because we only want you to use downloads of the highest quality, so we think that the wait (if there is any) will be worth it.
Happy making!
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
