"And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow."

With Seth's first day of secondary school being tomorrow, I should be really thinking about starting the home ed for Opeie tomorrow too. In great home ed style though I'm not. Instead we have decided to have a 'home ed appreciation day' before getting into all of the adventuring and creative learning. We both feel really lucky to be in a position to be educating/learning on our terms and were going to spend tomorrow really thinking about that as we see the local children leaving for school. Tomorrow will be a day of staying in our pj's, reading, baking and playing because... well we can.

I think its amazing how far we have come as a team and I often think back to those unnerving few months around (what would have been) his official 'start date', all the 'what if's' and 'Am I doing the right thing'. It seems crazy now to think that I had that little confidence in not only myself, but Opeie's ability to learn outside of a classroom environment. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't still have the same occasional thoughts every now and again when I am having an off day, but luckily on these days (which thankfully are getting less and less), I take myself back to a single moment.

We had decided to go on a spur of the moment mid week camping trip (because as home edders you can do that kind of thing). As we pulled into the campsite car park at Devils bridge the heavens opened. Not a light delicate shower but the sort of rain that meant that we couldn't park next to the tent pitch for fear of getting stuck on the field. We managed to get the tent up in the rain and flopped onto the beds to read for a while. The rain died down and the sun came out and we saw that as an opening to go exploring. We decided to walk Devils bridge falls (which is beautiful) while reading the local legend that surrounds the bridge.Within 5 minutes of the walk the rain came down even harder than before. We were drenched! usually I love the adventure, but I felt like the trip was going to be a flop and I seriously started questioning the whole 'Home Ed' thing. As we walked up the waterfall though with the rain still coming down and the spray from the falls almost hitting us too, the sun came out behind it all and what appeared a few feet in front of us was the most beautiful sight. 

In an instant, all of those negative feelings I had about Home Ed seemed to vanish and as we stood and stared at a rainbow (that we could almost touch) curving over the waterfall in front of us, I was left with an enlightened feeling of 'This is exactly where we should be right now'. 

“It was a hobbit hole, and that means comfort”

I often day dream about selling everything we own and just adventuring for the rest of our lives. It's always been one of those life choices that I think would really suit me and I know Mrs M feels the same. I've found myself becoming less and less attached to my possessions as the years go by and I just want to be out there visiting new places and exchanging all that stuff for experiences. It is this way of thinking that has been the driving force for the last 2 years of home schooling, learning outdoors is so much more fun and learning though a series of experiences is what life is all about. 

Camping has always been one of Opeie's and my favourite homeschooling things to do as it means we can travel to various places we've not been before, research the area before hand and then spend time adventuring for a couple of days. After a camping trip a few weeks back though it was clear that, due to the cold wet weather it was time to hang up our guide rope hooks for the season until next year, sad times.

Mrs M had been saying for quite sometime that we should book hotels in random places so that we can continue the fun, but being in a hotel really doesn't have the same appeal to a couple of hardcore adventurers like us. Last week though Mrs M sent me a link to a hobbit house on Airbnb which really peaked my attention. A small, simple little hut, built into a hill in Brecon, absolutely perfect for us. Mrs M booked us a night there as she was working abroad and a couple of days back we packed a few things and hit the road.

I didn't tell Opeie anything about where we were going and as we climbed the stairs up the hill to where the Hobbit hole was located he said 'I don't think its up here dad'. As we got to the top and he saw where we were staying for the night, his eyes lit up. With a fold out Sofa bed, small fridge and wood burner/oven, we had everything we needed for a night of adventure. The weather was awful, so our plans for spending a late afternoon stomping through the hills went right out the window so we got out our sketchbooks for a spot of drawing. I had my reservations about whether we were going to last the night there, as it was so cold, but once the doors were closed, curtains were pulled and wood burner was lit the hobbit house became very cosy. 

Our evening was spent playing games and watching movies, tucked up with the fire burning, it was a really lovely way to spend an evening. The Hobbit hole was so toasty in the night that Opeie woke up and said it was too hot. Waking up with no fire burning though was definitely a shock to the system and we quickly got up and got dressed. The cold crisp air was beautiful though and the frost across the hillside really added to the adventure. Opeie wrapped himself in a blanket and we sat with the doors open and watched the sun come up, it was a magical end to a fun evening in the hobbit house.

“Ô, Sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on Earth.”

During a chat outside of Seth's school one morning, the seaside town of Seaham was brought to my attention. In all our times visiting various beaches we had never ventured in that direction and I wouldn't usually consider driving 3 1/2 hours for a beach, unless it was somewhere we were staying for a few days. As it is well known for its sea glass though, I thought it sounded well worth the drive.

If Opeie and I are driving a fair distance I like to break the trip up as it can't be much fun for him being in the car for that long. So I Googled Seaham to look at the surrounding area (because my geography is awful) and after a short discussion with my co-pilot we decided on an afternoon adventuring in York to break the trip up, followed by a drive to County Durham to camp for the night, ready for our beach combing glass hunt.

When we arrived at York we parked up and removed our trusty Micro-scooters from the boot, sometimes I honestly don't know what we'd do without them now, they make getting about so much easier. The older roads in York (for obvious reasons) were not scooter friendly but we were able to get from each historic landmark to the next with the greatest of ease! As soon as Opeie had spotted Clifford's Tower high up on that hill, he made it very clear that he wanted to go up to the top. I was wishing I had one of Micro's shoulder straps all the way up that old winding staircase as trying to carry two scooters and hold Opeie's hand was a pain. At the top though we were rewarded with a great view of York, which took me right back to the last time I visited when I was around 10.

I would have loved to have taken Opeie to the Jorvik centre, which I remember being really fun when I was younger but sadly it is still closed after the flood from the river banks breaking last December. We did however still get our fill of Viking history by visiting the Home and Abroad exhibition at St Marys, where we learnt about the life of a Viking and their industry. We also met a very interesting Viking while there who told Opeie all of the Viking history surrounding the amber necklace that Opeie has worn for most of his life. Opeie didn't look impressed when he asked his age and then was then asked why he wasn't out working. The exhibition isn't huge but there is plenty of fun activities inside including making Viking jewellery and learning about Runes.

Concerned about pitching a tent up before dark and not actually having anywhere to camp at this point, we decided to scoot back to the car and continue our journey to County Durham. Opeie was clearly shattered and dropped off straight away, leaving me to soldier through the drive on my lonesome. When we arrived at Seaham we pulled over so that I could Google local campsites and found a lovely campsite tucked away called Strawberry hill. People obviously have more sense than us, camping on a cold night in autumn as we were the only ones in the field. Suited us though as we didn't have to worry about noise.

We popped the tent up really quickly and then using lots of blankets, two huge thick duvets and of course our sleeping bags, we built a nest in one of the bedrooms and settled down for the night. 

 

While getting Opeie off to sleep I made that classic parenting error and fell asleep at the same time (around 8:30). Which meant at 3am I was wide awake, sitting outside the tent making myself a coffee in the freezing cold. Opeie followed suit and woke up full of beans around 5 and we made the crazy decision to pack the tent up in the dark and head towards the beach (which was 20 minutes from where we were staying). Our crazy idea paid off though when we pulled up at the beach front around 6 and ate our cereal in the car while watching the sun rise. It was one of those beautiful moments you hope your children will always remember.

 When the sun had come up a little we headed down to the beach in search of some shoreline gems! We were both suprised to see that we were not the first people on the beach, there were some serious sea glass hunters down there with their carrier bags at the ready to hold their booty. We picked a quiet spot that hadnt yet been searched upon and began our hunt. I assumed you would really have to look to find the sea glass but there was lots of it about, it was the bigger pieces and certain colours that you really had to look for. Opeie was in his element and it was lovely to see him wrappd up, hunting for glass and interesting rocks at that time of the morning.

After 3 hours investigating the beach the early morning adventures had started to catch up with Opeie and I could see that he had possibly had enough. We had filled a jar with various colours of Sea glass and I had a very heavy backpack full of rocks that Opeie had found interetsing and also big ones to paint for Halloween. We should have a fun seaside themed craft week ahead. If you can get to Seaham it is definitely worth the visit, but if you are going there looking for Sea glass get there early, I was genuinly shocked at the amount of people on the beach by 7:30. It was lovely chatting to people as we hunted though.

We've got a couple of fun idea's for our next seaside adventures and we are hoping that the next one will be a visit to our friends at Micro, so watch this space.

"To go out with the setting sun on an empty beach is to truly embrace your solitude."

With the start of the school summer holiday in full swing and there being a clearly huge change in the number of children and families everywhere we go, I am reminded of how lucky we are that we have the flexibility to do fun and educational things at our own pace, wherever we please and whenever we like. Home schooling is one of the best decisions we have ever made as a family and seeing Opeie stress free and eager to learn every day is extremely rewarding. We were obviously fully aware of how busy everywhere gets during the holiday so Opeie and myself tried to squeeze as much as we could into the last couple of weeks before everything became a lot louder.

I don't fancy the idea of going camping to a family site during the holiday because I remember many of my old family camping holidays to St Ives. The fields would be heaving and the tents felt like they were almost on top of each other. I remember awkwardly stepping over guide ropes between tents to get round to the back and there also being very busy shower blocks. So we decided to make the most of a few days last week where we had nowhere to be. In Shropshire, as we were pulling away the weather was awful! rain, gloom, the sort of weather we've come to expect this year. As we reached Shell island though the sun was lighting up the sky and the big white fluffy clouds were the perfect backdrop for our camping adventures. We found a great spot in a quiet field practically on the beach and got set up.

Opeie loves being in the tent, we had camped earlier in the year and used our 2 man tent but with it being a lot warmer now I thought it would be best to try out our bigger tent. We've had it for a couple of years, just haven't had the chance to use it (until now). Opeie was a great help pegging the groundsheet and guide ropes down with his trusty mallet and once the tent was up it was time for our adventuring to begin.

I wasn't sure what the weather was going to be doing so I packed a LEGO kit to keep us entertained if we got stuck in bad weather. The weather as I said was great but Doc Ock kept Opeie occupied while I was cooking the tea so that was great.

There was no way that Opeie was going to be able to sleep at any reasonable time that night so around 9pm we headed down to the beach (with a sleeping bag) to watch the sun go down. We curled up on the sand and read The Tiger that came to tea, The Gruffalo and loads of Dr Seuss and Berenstein Bears books. It was the perfect end to our first night at the beach.

Surprisingly the bright sunshine glowing thought the tent fabric, the warm sweatiness and even the seagulls making a racket we not waking Opeie up the following morning. He slept great and had a long lie in so I opened up the tent, made a cup of coffee and sat outside taking in the beautiful morning. When Opeie did wake up I quickly realised that I hadn't packed any bowls for our cereal, so Opeie had a large mug and I used a saucepan....classy!

After our Michelin star breakfast, we took a drive along the coast to Black Rock sands as I thought that Opeie would love investigating the caves. I'd not been before but while googling the surrounding area of where we were camping the beach popped up and the photos online looked great. I couldn't have picked a more perfect day for us. I start to feel irritated when it is too warm and although the sun was bright and warm the breeze from the see had the perfect chill which kept us cool during our long walk across the empty beach.

The caves were so much more fun than any of the pictures I had seen while researching and Opeie was asking question after question which is the sort of home schooling day I love the most. The textures of the caves were fascinating, we got to see birds making nests in the rocky hillside and we found lots of Crabs, Jellyfish and Sea Urchin shells.

We spent three hours investigating the beach and the best part was that we only saw 5 other people (I'm not antisocial but having a huge beach practically to ourselves was very idyllic).

I somehow managed to get extremely lost on the way home and drove an hour completely off course. I probably would have realised sooner if it hadn't been for the beautiful scenery along the way. Our satnav lost connection and I got so drawn in by our surroundings that I just kept driving. Opeie had fallen asleep by this point anyway so I didn't feel too bad about the time it took us to get back to the tent.

We had our course taken the Micro Scooters with us and when we finally got back to Shell Island it was time to show the other holiday makers what a pair of pro scooterers were capable of. Shell Island was made for scooting, although you obviously cant take them on the beach, there are smooth path's everywhere and it is one of the fastest ways to get from one side of the island to the other, from the harbour all the way over to the impressive sand dunes.

The few hours of scooting, skimming stones and searching through rockpools really shattered Opeie out so there was no watching the sun go down on the beach that night. We were woken by rain belting off the side of the tent the following morning and I had to get the tent down wet, but we still managed to squeeze in a (very wet) walk along the beach, searching for stones and shells before heading home. It was the perfect two nights camping with my favourite little companion and it has got us both talking about going away again mid-September so watch this space.