Looking for a quick, screen-free creative project to get kids drawing and off the pesky internet? Eggs With Legs is a simple but fun activity that works brilliantly in the classroom or at home—and it doesn’t require kids to go anywhere near YouTube.
I’ve made a short video just for adults—teachers, TAs, parents, or anyone leading a group. It shows you how to guide the activity yourself, so children stay off screens and fully engaged in real-world creativity.
Learn to draw so you can teach your own children – they will think you are amazing!
Drawing is the perfect ad-free, algorithm-free, social-media free activity even better when you can teach the simple skills. You only have to be one day ahead!
Remember… If your child has access to the internet, the internet has access to your child – let’s go offline for Children’s digital activities.
This story covers ideas about time and measurement in ancient times. It also goes into moving heavy stones around the place – is this something else that Dug has invented?
When Dug sees his dad celebrating the first glimpse of the Midsummer sun, he wonders how they can track its movements. With sticks, heavy stones, and the strength of oxen, he hatches a brilliant plan—but will he be able to stay out of trouble?
Join Dug, Woof, and Mini on a Bronze Age Adventure, over 3,000 years ago, where wild animals roamed free, and survival depended on skill, bravery, and friendship.
My website header says I’m “A real, live, proper, human children’s author.” It may seem obvious, but it’s getting harder to be seen in a world increasingly flooded with AI-generated content.
I recently got an email from a company offering to turn my videos into newsletters for $19 a month. I pointed out that ChatGPT already does that perfectly well. They came back suggesting I join their image creation drive — they upload 15,000 new colouring page images to Pinterest every week!
You’d think it would be obvious who the human creators are. But it’s not — except when their AI images of Jesus turn up with only one hand…
Apart from blatant copyright copying, those AI colouring pages lack something vital. But clearly some people don’t mind — they must be selling, or they wouldn’t keep churning them out.
With so much dross filling the digital space, how can anyone genuine still be found or heard?
I’ve always felt conflicted online. I create for children — but children don’t have the means to support my work. Books are still a safe, trusted way to share stories, but traditional publishing has become harder and less rewarding.
Online creation is direct and fun — no waiting years for your book to come out! But the internet has also become more dangerous for kids. Just look at the national conversation sparked by Netflix’s Adolescence. Online influence isn’t always friendly.
I started building a Patreon for grown-ups teaching children — offering story videos, drawing guides, worksheets and more. But however much I flagged it as for adults, I knew kids would still access it. That made it my responsibility, and I wasn’t comfortable with that.
Then, it hit me — a blinding revelation: go offline.
I’m now reworking my Patreon content into downloadable story packs — ebooks, multi-book bundles and curriculum-themed resources you can download, keep, and use offline, forever. The license is simple: use it, enjoy it, just don’t share it outside your home or classroom.
It’s called the Shoo Rayner Story Shop.
I’ve got a huge backlist of books I can bring to life again as ebooks and story videos. If children want to read on screens — great! I just want them reading. And offline, I’m glad they won’t be interrupted by ads, algorithms or dark distractions.
