"My dreams were at once more fantastic and agreeable than my writings."

I've started so many of our blog posts off with "Home schooling is amazing" or words to that effect. When we first made the decision to educate Opeie from home I knew it was going to be the right decision and I had my romantic ideas about what it was going to be like, but nothing really prepared me for the fun and excitement that was going to happen from that first term. Having control over how your child learns is really empowering and although I still have my 'Should I be doing more?' moments occasionally, Opeie's interest in everything and his happy, confident personality says it all, we definitely made the right decision.

Last week was one of those awesome opportunities and Opeie and I jumped at the chance to spend a few days in Bournemouth. I'd never been before and I love going anywhere new. Opeie, like myself, really enjoys our 'adventuring in a new city' routine, spending a day or two before researching the area to find out where we can visit. It doesn't always turn out how he plan and we definitely aim to cram a lot more into our days than we can physically achieve but it is always good to have a list of places to hand that are of interest to us.

It was our first time staying in an Airbnb and to be honest I was a little nervous. I'm definitely a fan of having my own space and I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about being in someone else's home. It turns out though that Uli and her daughter Eva that we were staying with were awesome and really made us feel at home, we had only been there about an hour and we were Micro scooting along the promenade with Eva, which was great.

Our plan (as always) was to make full use of those amazing wheels of ours and have a Micro scooting break. We had planned out rough routes between all of the places we wanted to visit and after chatting to Uli added in a few more that didn't pop up on '20 things to do in Bournemouth'. It's always handy to chat to the locals. I wanted to take full advantage of being on the coast with the scooters so on the first evening there I decided to venture out alone to see what was going on. Turns out nothing was, Boscombe was so quiet. I scooted along the promenade for 5 miles and then up a hill and 5 miles back along the street, it was so peaceful.

The following morning we kicked off our itinerary with a visit to Oceanarium which was great as it was on the seafront and was surrounded by lots of space to scoot. Opeie is a huge fan of penguins and could have happily sat there for the afternoon watching them. There was something about visiting an aquarium right next to the sea that made it that little more magical for him.

Opeie had never been on a pier before so being able to scoot along it, out over the sea was really exciting. The weather was a little overcast but nothing was getting in the way of our fun.

One of the great things about Bournemouth and the surrounding area is there are so many places to take fun pictures. Everywhere you look there is something that can be used as an interesting backdrop.

While chatting to Uli on our first night there, she told us that Mary Shelley was buried at St. Peters church in the centre of Bournemouth. I was surprised that that hadn't popped up on our Search when researching the area. That night as Opeie fell asleep pretty early I lay in bed and read up on Mary Shelley and her interesting life. As we were scooting through the town I filled Opeie in on some macabre stories and we visited the tomb. I'm not sure it was the highlight of Opeies scooting adventure but he was definitely interested in the story of her husbands heart.

We had made the mistake of driving into the main area of Bournemouth in the morning after, getting stung by the parking charges. What we didn't realise until we got back to Boscombe that afternoon was that we could scoot from Boscombe pier to Bournemouth pier (roughly 1.5 miles). So that's exactly what we did that afternoon, stopping off at the beach to build sand castles and splash in the sea. That evening we went out to dinner with friends which was great. Opeie was shattered by the time we got back and went straight to sleep, surprisingly I followed soon after.

The following morning, after a recommendation from our friend Duncan we drove over to Hengistbury head. Opeie had packed his Binocs (as he likes to call them) for a spot of nature watching and while heading there we drove past a juggling shop, so we popped in and picked up a frisbee (I used to love playing frisbee when I was younger). Hengistbury head was very windy but it was beautiful. I'm not sure Opeie was impressed by the 3.3 mile walk and in hindsight, we should have grabbed the scooters to take the edge off, this was made worse when we saw our only other Micro scooter of the trip whizz past us (I think we need them permanently attached to us).

By the time we got back to the car Opeie had only one thing on his mind, eating chips on the beach (which has become a tradition with every beach trip). We sat on the beach for ages just chatting about all sorts, Opeie as always had a barrage of questions and I did my best to answer them (Google may have backed me up though). With only a few hours left before we headed home, I asked my little sidekick what he wanted to do? "Can we get some nuts please dad?" The day before we had watched a lady in the pleasure gardens feeding the squirrels, who were very tame and climbing all over her, Opeie wanted some of that action so we bought a big bag of monkey nuts and headed to a squirrel heavy grassy area. 

Opeie was in his element and would have happily sat there for hours feeding them one at a time. I tried my best to coax them on to the scooter for a shot but they were having none of it. They were so gentle the way they put their paws on our hands to take the nuts. This was the perfect way to end our three days in Bournemouth.

As always our adventure was amazing and our fun time was magnified by the magic of Micro scooters. I often wonder how we ever got by without those awesome wheels of ours. Well, it's definitely getting warmer which means one thing for Opeie and I... Camping scooter trips. I can't wait to start pitching that tent of ours, so stay tuned for more scooting fun over the coming weeks.

"I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay Wastin' time"

I can't even begin to tell you how much I am loving this sunshine. Waking up in the morning and seeing it desperately trying to find a way in under the blinds, sets me up for the day and where there is sunshine there is adventure. If you read our previous post then you will know that after a trip to Liverpool to pick up Mrs M's passport we were eager to get back there with the scooters to scoot Albert dock. Well, last weeks sunshine and lack of needing to be anywhere important was all the fuel we needed to pack up the Micro-scooters and head out.

Opeie was the DJ during our journey and with Justin Bieber and Taylor swift being his choice of soundtrack I couldn't get there (and out of the car) quick enough. When we arrived the sun had dulled a little but we were confident that weather wise it was going to be an awesome day. I used our outing to put the Pedalflow to the test as it had not been out long distance and I really wanted to see what it could do.

The thing that was so appealing scooter wise during our previous trip around Albert dock was the flat, smoothness of the area and the huge amount of space to bomb about. On top of that there were ramps to raised levels, which made our scoot even more entertaining. Its great to be scooting around new cities as it gets Opeie asking lots of questions and for homeschooling these kind of days out are a great source of education and experience.

I mean where else are you going to scoot past a picture of the Beatles made entirely of Jelly beans?

Scooting together has really become our thing. That special father/son time where we can concentrate completely on having fun while whizzing around. It has given us an extra level to this amazing relationship that is continuing to be built daily. This awesome bonding time is made even better when Mrs M and Seth are scooting with us.

The evening we got back from our trip, I sent a picture to a whatsapp group of all the cool moms I hang out with. One of the moms recognised the Beatles jellybeans, which started a conversation about the universities we all attended. Emma over at Another Last Story mentioned her time as a student in Leeds and how lovely the city is. Which without thinking got me asking "Whats the scooting like?", it made me chuckle to myself that I have actually reached the point in our family scooting adventure that I am measuring the appeal of a new city solely on the ability to scoot there. That's how much of an impact those wheels have had on our life though.

As much as we love those wheels of ours, the afternoon wasn't all about scooters. With every city scooted we also try to hunt down any museum or educational establishment to add in to the adventure, Its what makes our home education so great. We had visited the Tate and the Museum of Liverpool during our previous visit but this time we headed towards Liverpool's 'World Museum' as I had read some great reviews (and they've got dinosaurs!).

The great thing about all three of the museums that we have visited in Liverpool is the size of the lockers available which comfortably held a Pedalflow, a Mini Micro and our bags and coats, genius! When we were getting them back out before leaving there was a mom with her two children who was very impressed by what we were pulling out, which started a long chat about Micro Scooters and all the benefits to having them and again the impact they have had on our lives. I think that may just have been another customer coming their way.

The museum was great, with lots of different themes to keep us both entertained. The dinosaurs where what had me hooked when I was researching online but there was and eqyptian themed floor, a planetarium, an Aquarium and lots of other interesting things to look at and information for the little sponge that travels with me.

(Get a room Starfish!)

I was expecting the dinosaurs to be Opeie's favourite part of the visit but it turned out to be and exhibition called 'eye for colour - the rainbow revealed!', a collection of information and activities around how colour is formed and how the eye processes colour. Opeie got to learn about how colour is used in art and we went over colour mixing again but this time using light too.

There was a great section on colour in the animal kingdom and how colour was used to attract mates, scare off predators and also how it was used to stand out. Opeie's favourite part was using colour as camouflage to blend in to a surrounding environment.

We could have quite happily spent the bulk of our visit at this exhibition as there was so much great information to keep us entertained. Using the Dog, Fish and Bee heads below you could move them around to look about the room and it gave you an idea of the colours that these animals can see compared to what we do. Opeie of course used them to pretend he was a spy and I had to jump out and make faces while he was looking around.

The museum visit really added to our already eventful scooting adventure and as we pushed off in to the sunshine we were reminded yet again of just how much Micro Scooters has been shaping these amazing homeschooling days together.