“Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is.”

 

I love that every time we go for a walk Opeie picks up an object to take with him to photograph  Sometimes it's a toy and sometimes it's something he has created, whatever it is though he wants it photographed in a tree, in grass, next to a mushroom or on moss which to me always says a lot about how he feels about nature and being outdoors. Today was Yoda's turn for the star treatment.

“There is no school equal to a decent home and no teacher equal to a virtuous parent.”

As we were approaching the end of the summer holidays I started to worry a little about how things were going to pan out after deciding to home educate Opeie. I wasn't concerned about learning, not knowing what to do of even the 'social side' of things (despite the amount of times I've had that thrown at me by other parents). There was a slight anxiety though about stepping in to the unknown, and I did loosely question our decision a few times, but I think most people would feel the same in our situation. 

The first week of the 'official school term' though seemed to be a continuous run of events that made me realise that there was no doubt in my mind that we were doing the right thing. The change in Seth's mood and attitude being back at school was one and seeing all the other children struggling with their grim morning routine made me feel happy and excited about Opeie's new journey, sure I still have the school routine with Seth but sadly that is out of my hands, I'd love to home educate him too and i think he would really benefit from it emotionally but unfortunately this time i cant intervene.

I watched a child around 7 run out of the school gates after the children had gone inside one morning. He ran up the road hysterically crying and searching for his mom, with no teacher following him which was a little concerning but again just added to all the other reasons why we didn't want Opeie to start school. I NEVER wanted to be that guy that shoves his child in to school upset and frightened with a 'they'll settle eventually' attitude and if I can help it I never want to be that parent that lets his children fall in to the regimented routine that state education has to offer. I guess I'm a bit of a rebel at heart but me and Mrs M have strong views about whats best for our boys and we're not scared to make big decisions for them.

One of the other big things from week one was this...

While children cried for their parents that morning and walked in to a building uncertain about what was going to happen (which i personally think is a lot to deal with at 4), Opeie was running along a beach with a huge smile on his face having some one to one learning fun. On the drive down we talked about weather, what an estuary was and about all the things we saw along the way. when we arrived we took in everything that was around us, wrote our letters in the sand and had a really interesting talk about an old cemetery that runs along side the beach.

 We learned how to build strong stable structures using bricks made of sand and how to support a structure when you are digging underneath it. We crammed so many activities in to our afternoon and with the sun adding to our relaxing fun day it was effortless learning with a child who is eager to learn. This is all we ever wanted for Opeie and being able to put all the things that myself and Mrs M have talked about over the years in to action is really exciting.

There is a slight downside to this story though, nothing major, just something we are going to have to deal with as time goes by. It was a big day for Mrs M's career and I spent a lot of the afternoon anxious about the huge changes happening in her work life. As always she was fine and receiving the credit she deserves for the hard work she puts in. What I found though while me and Opeie were having an awesome day was the underlying feeling of guilt. Ive felt it many times since we decided I would be the stay at home parent and Mrs M would pursue her career, but for some reason that day was a mix of emotions and I found myself feeling really guilty about the fun we were having without Mrs M and Seth. It sometimes feels like we have our life and they have there's which has made me realise that i need to make a real effort to include them in the things that we do.

I'm yet to find out how Seth feels about us being at home and Ive always hoped that it wont be an issue as he knows that under different circumstances he could have been outside of the school routine with us. I'm fully aware that its going to take time to iron out all the creases and for us to get in to our own way of doing things but I'm sure that Opeie will continue to develop the way he is and we will never look back. Home ed isn't for everyone but I can already tell that this educational adventure is going to be an amazing one and I look forward to learning many things myself with my best buddy.

"If you worried about falling off the bike, you'd never get on."

There are so many great milestones growing up as a child and as a parent, being able to experience each one is priceless. your child's first steps, words, tooth are moments that you will never forget and being able to watch them develop, while maturing as an adult yourself is (for me) beautiful. These amazing moments don't seem to end and if you are an active parent who gives your child the love and attention they deserve you can be right there with them as they make discoveries of the things they are capable of. 

as these amazing children get older and start to realise more just how awesome they are and whats going on, when there make these findings the pride that they feel themselves is really infectious and if you've been there to help them get to that point the excitement and pride in yourself as a parent can be euphoric.

I was lucky enough last week to experience this from both of the boys and it left me feeling like a pretty awesome dad (but then having two amazing children makes me feel like that most days). Opeie had completely thrown me earlier in the week when he tackled a rock climbing wall, despite me thinking there was no chance he would even give it a chance (i feel pretty guilty for that now). 

Later in the week though it was Seth's turn and again i didn't expect the ask to work out so easily. He came home from school the week before excited about a cycling class at school that was coming up and how he had signed himself up. He told us all about it and said it sounds like lots of fun, the only issue was that he hadn't asked to go on his bike for quite sometime due to finding it difficult to ride with stabilisers on. Seth had made it clear the last time he had his bike out that he was frustrated that he was struggling and because of his muscle condition we didn't want to push him.

So we aggree'd that last Sunday was going to be our 'Teach Seth to learn to ride his bike afternoon', We got his bike out of the shed and i took the stabilisers off straight away, there was no point beating around the bush, he wanted to ride his bike properly and his determination was enough to know not to pussy foot about, he meant business. I think Seth had got it in to his head that the whole learning to ride a bike thing was going to take weeks but as i walked along the road with him holding his coat to steady him i could feel that he was shifting his weight to balance himself and i just let go. We'd been out roughly 3 minutes and he was peddling a bike without stabilisers.

 (I used to stick my tongue out when i was concentrating too, clearly it was helping him balance)

So cycling in a straight line was a doddle! the turn at the end of the road however was not and he quickly lost his footing and fell. Luckily i had been jogging along behind him and caught him before hitting the floor. There's no time for thinking about what went wrong, best to just get back on and try again. That turn caused problems for at least 8 or 9 attempts but eventually Seth nailed it. A quick pat on the back and hair ruffle and i send him on his way to turn in the opposite direction (he would never get anywhere if he could only turn right).

Seth clearly couldn't believe what was happening, his happy little face had a smile from ear to ear (even if his tongue was hanging out concentrating).Watching him ride about knowing it was me that got him there as well as his determination was a great feeling but the hug i got afterwards and the 'thank you so much for teaching me how to ride my bike and helping me, i love you' just makes all this parenting worth while. When your children really look up to you there is no better feeling.

I'm looking forward to the boys next big venture whatever it may be.

"The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life."

A month or so back me and my little sidekick took Mrs M to a business meeting in Stroud, I'd never been before and had no idea what was there so the prospect of heading in to unchartered territory as always was exciting. We love just wandering around places we don't know and taking everything in. When we arrived Mrs M went off to do what she needed to do and we went adventuring. I thought it would be fun to get Opeie to point out all the things he could see that interested him and I'd take pictures. I'm not sure why but the post never got written but a few days back we had to go to Stroud again so we played the same game and well, here's some of the pictures from both trips.

It was nice to see that a lot of the things that interested Opeie were from nature, trees, berries etc...

We stumbled in to a little toy shop and found a little fox to come home with us. The Gruffalo and little brown mouse were very happy about the new addition to our family and 'foxey' as we're calling him now has become a 'book fox' and reads with us every afternoon...

Opeie seemed quite amused by the 'lady with an iPad head' in one of the bank windows, So she was added to Opeie's items of interest. It was so much fun listening to Opeie get excited about things and then say 'Daddy take a picture!'.

"Wow daddy look! a big number 1!" i love how excited he gets about everything...

Fox!!!!

Opeie was really missing mommy and we thought it was cute when we found this book in a charity shop to read while we were having snacks...

More Foxes!!!

Opeie was really excited when we found a book with his friends name on the front.

yeah, you guessed it... Fox!!!

And there you have it, the things that grab a 3 year olds attention. It would be lovely to have his innocence for the day and only see the beautiful things that are in our eye line. As a dad (although i did pick up on the many things Opeie did), i was concentrating more on a cyclist that almost hit us, Selfish smokers blowing smoke our way and an array of people effing and jeffing as they walked by with no consideration that there were young ears present. Never lose that innocence Opeie in many ways i crave it daily for myself.