"The only source of knowledge is experience"

It seems like we've come such a long way since those early days of Opeie's home education journey. I'm no longer second guessing that decision to take that path and whether it was the right thing to do at the time. Watching Opeie develop over the last few years has been amazing to watch and his thirst for learning and creativity is something I strongly believe would not be there had he been in a school environment. Opeie has many genuine interests and being able to shape an education around these things and focus on his passions is what learning should always be about.

One of the things I've loved most about this journey is having the flexibility to just drop what we are doing and focus on a day out somewhere relevant to the projects we are covering so that we can learn through experience. These kinds of fun educational outings are beneficial to all involved as they really get you thinking and tend to put you in a much more creative headspace.

After a morning of maths the three of us decided to take a trip to Derby Museum and Art Gallery, we'd visited last summer and had a relaxing afternoon painting there. With Opeie starting a new animal project we thought we'd make the most of the natural history section of the Museum and gather images and information for the coming weeks, plus I was hoping we'd find something of use for Becci's uni work too.

We took lots of interesting photo's for the project and found a really interesting book by Jean-Baptiste De Panafieu and Patrick Gries called 'evolution in action' which I think is going to come in really handy for reference purposes. After a good look around the animals we headed upstairs to the Japanese ghosts and demons exhibition on loan from the Ashmolean. The art work was amazing and Opeie really enjoyed the macabre feel to each piece. With the exhibition being so quiet we were able to sit and spend the last part of the visit doing Origami which was a really nice end to the afternoon, with Becci's Origami crane and Opeie's Frogsf itting in perfectly with his animal project.

Learning through experience makes so much more of an impact, over having information just thrown at you. we're all so different from each other and it's really important to be able to focus on the things that make us 'us'.  An afternoon of education like this should stay with Opeie (and us) forever.