London dads go back to school to learn the art of creative play

A 'dad academy' launches in London to help busy working days learn how to play creatively with their children.

LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (OCTOBER 9, 2014) (REUTERS) -  A group of dads makig plastic rockets may not seem like a radical social experiment, but the idea of classes in learning to play with your children in London is, say organisers, to curtail the impact of work on family life.The idea is that fathers can learn more creative and educational play skills so that they can spend more time with their children.

The so-called Dad Academy was launched after recent research revealed many British fathers are struggling to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

32 per cent of dads told researchers there were many playtime activities they had never done due to being too busy with their careers.

"By the time you get home all you have enough time to do is put your son to bed and then you have the weekends but you have to do DIY, it's nice to be able to come here to learn a skill and then be able to share that with your son," said father Emmanuel Davis.

"I've got a three year old girl and she will love this sort of thing, so yeah we will have fun hopefully setting it off tomorrow," said another dad Daniel Jenner.

The leader of the class, which involved making plastic rockets, was scientist and TV presenter DrYan Wong.

"The main thing that is going to be structuring your child's view of the world and their education is the attitude of their parents and I am a scientist, I like science, and I would hope to sort of give that exceitement about the natural world and pass that onto my children and I would hope other people would too," he said.

The Dad Academy classes are now taking placwe weekly at London's Soho House.