"Learning how to learn is life's most important skill."

While I sat writing about Opeie losing his first tooth, I was thinking about how amazing it is becoming a parent and being there to experience all of their awesome milestones. Opeie's first words, steps, the first time I heard "I love you daddy", are all so special to me. I realised though, that although I've written about many of these over the years, I did miss a recent one out.

Opeie had never been interested in learning to ride his bike, Micro Scooters had pretty much dominated wheeled transportation for him and although there had been a BMX sitting in the shed, it was just there collecting dust. Two weeks before his 6th birthday though, he told me that he wanted to learn to ride his bike and he wanted to do it as a 5-year-old. It kind of came out of nowhere and the way he worded it really made me chuckle, but I loved the way he had set himself a challenge and was determined to learn this new skill. The bike came straight out and while all the kids were at school and our street was quiet we got on with it (I love the freedom of homeschooling). 

Seth had learned to ride his bike late on after a huge confidence knock when he ended up with a fractured arm but when he was 8 he decided to have a go and with a little patience, we got him riding within 2 hours which was a huge confidence boost for him. Knowing that this was how Seth did it was all the motivation that Opeie needed to get this new skill under his belt.

Day one was 1hr of trying to balance while I held him up, with tears from pure frustration but he was adamant that he could do it. Day two was a more confident half an hour of me holding him while he pedaled around and day three's hour and a half session completely took me by surprise when he held himself upright withing the first 5 minutes and I just let him go. Kids are AMAZING! I wish I could pick things up as quick as they do.

So our happy little 5-year-old had reached his goal in a few hours which was amazing. What I love most about all these new skills is the confidence that comes with it. To some people, these things may seem insignificant but I see the value in every little thing the boys pick up as they are developing. The more of these skills they acquire the more they realise, that anything is possible if they put their mind to it.

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

It seems that every year at the end of march, that Ferris Beuller quote pops into my head "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it". Tonight was no different, as I stood in the kitchen making a cup of coffee, thinking about Opeie's birthday yesterday, it surfaced again. These are words to live by. 6 years can go by so quickly and the last 6 have been my quickest to date. Becoming a parent seems to push the accelerator down on life and as I reminisced about that first time I saw that boy of mine, I found myself feeling so proud of how much we've packed into this time, it may have flown by but we have embraced every family moment.

Those first years, as difficult as they were at times, taught me so much about myself and shaped me into the person I always wanted to be, becoming a father was my defining moment. As Opeie developed so did I and things have been that way ever since. Parenting has been the most amazing adventure and I feel so lucky to have both of the boys in my life. With each birthday of Opeie's that passes, I find myself going over all of the the things that we have accomplished as a family and it really blows my mind.

During those early years I never could have envisioned me being the stay at home parent, let alone home educating Opeie too, but that is where our lives have taken us and I would never change a thing. Watching your children grow up and pass that birthday milestone each year is amazing but home educating adds an extra level to that feeling because you get to fully see that development and be a full time part of it. Knowing that you have been the one to teach them to read and write, learn maths and be a fountain of information at the age of 6 is a huge thing for us.

6 years on and I honestly couldn't ask for a more amazing child.  Opeie has completely changed my world. He is witty and kind and so much fun to be around but most importantly, he is always smiling, which for me was the most important thing to concentrate on as a parent.

In my head this was going to be a post about his birthday celebration, but as usual I've waffled on.

There was only one way he wanted to kick off his birthday fun, and when given the option of what he wanted to do on his very special day he opted to go to Ikea (which made us chuckle). It wasn't quite what I was expecting him to say but our little Lawrence Llewelyn Bowen has big design plans for his bedroom wall and was desperate to get some colourful picture frames so that he could start redesigning, I love his creativity. Yesterday was a day of family and he had an awesome time. 

Another year has passed and I cannot wait to see what the next 6 years have in store for us. Being a dad is Awesome!!!

A library is the delivery room for the birth of ideas, a place where history comes to life."

This sunshine has been glorious! I am loving every minute of it. Hot, sunny weather will always mean that wheels will be hitting the pavement and that's just what we have been doing. Today started off with an early reading session from Opeie, I can't believe at 5 just how good his reading is. It just goes to show that one to one teaching and lots of patience really does have a huge impact. The heavy reading session brought to light the fact that we had exhausted all of our library books and needed a top up. With the sun blasting out we got our beloved Micro scooters out and hit the road in search of literature.

(For the record we did stick to the speed limit, we may be rebellious home schoolers but safety first around schools people!)

I honestly don't know what we would do now without our scooters, they have become a permanent fixture in our daily fun and without them outdoor adventures would seem a little watered down. They are an amazing addition to pretty much everything we do outdoors. Mid-week afternoon library visits mean quiet reading for us as most chidren are at school, and because we know a few of the librarians in there now they don't mind if Opeie scoots over to the children's section. This is where we split up, Opeie makes a pile of books for me to read to him, while I hit the 'ready to read' section for fun books perfect for his reading level. I was excited to find 'the magic scooter' and have added that to Opeies pile for the coming weks. I think we both feel like our scooter is a magic scooter.

After an hour of reading, it was back to the streets weaving in and out of all those people that don't have wheels. We did have to scoot around some mobility scooters, elderly shopping trollies and pushchairs though before heading out of the town and back home. Adding wheels to your family adventures really adds to the excitement and Micro Scooters are continuing to pave the way for our father/son bonding and the boys development. GO TEAM SCOOT!

"Being a father is the most important thing, if you ask me. It changedme as a person and gave me an all new life."

Selfishly, I love this time of year. I spend so much of my time doing thoughtful little things for the boys to make sure they are as happy as they can be. so when it gets to Father's Day it's all about me and my relationship with the boys and it will always be a special time of year. Maybe that sounds bad that I love a day for me, but when there is one special day every year dedicated to dads everywhere then I don't think it is at all bad to celebrate the one thing I am proud of the most, parenting two very special little boys.

Each year during the weeks before the big day, Im asked if there is anything I would like and each year I give the same (always grateful) answer "something I can do with the boys". A 'world's greatest dad' mug would be lovely but what I really love is something that me and the boys can do together, that's what Father's Day is all about, right?

I think that subliminally when I say 'something I can do with the boys' it must come across as 'LEGO please' because the boys usually wake me up on Father's Day with something LEGO related. I am quite clearly an ENORMOUS fan of those amazing bricks but more importantly, Lego brings so much creative and educational play and bonding time for me and the boys. So what's on my Father's Day wish list I hear you say? Well... I think that the Spider-Man Web warriors ultimate bridge battle kit is aiming a little high and may be deemed a touch greedy but all of the new marvel kits are definitely high up on my list, The LEGO City volcano exploration base and City people pack have also just been brought to my attention and they look really interesting too. there are some great LEGO kits perfect for Fathers day for us dads to drool over in the lower price bracket like the Hoth attack And the Droid escape pod From the star wars range.

If you want to go for a kit from the lower price range then you can't go wrong with Micro Fighters, these little kits are amazing and I loved them so much that I included them in the Hoth scene in the LEGO arcade. These little ships are very cleverly designed and each one comes with a great Minifigure. Star Wars not your thing? The Super Hero Mighty Micro Racers Micro Racers are also great little kits for the price.

I image there are countless dads worldwide who would be over the moon being given the gift of LEGO, not all of them though are fans of Star Wars and Super heroes. One sure way to appeal to those dads is LEGO Technic. I would love to build the new Porsche or Remote control Volvo with Seth as I think he would get a lot out of building something technical that size. Whenever I am custom building I very rarely use Technic parts but I love to get the occasional technic kit to build because I find it fascinating that you can see how the moving parts are going to work as you are putting each piece together. These are the sort of kits that I love to build with Seth because he asks a lot of questions when we are playing and from an educational point of view, being able to see the mechanisms built is the kind of learning resource that you don't get with most children's toys.

LEGO with continue to be my favourite way to spend quality father/Son time with the boys. Being able to watch them build and develop their creative thinking is amazing to watch and as a doting dad I am so proud of the way they are both turning out.

I hope all you amazing dads out there have a fantastic well-deserved fathers day.

“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.

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."

It doesn't matter where we go or what we are doing, at some point in the day Opeie will say "take a picture of it!". It all stemmed from the Fox hunt game and because of it my phone is usually full of all sorts of pictures he has requested. We only write about the fox's, but flamingo's and racoons are also taking up space on my phone. He loves taking pictures of his toys too and on a recent trip to Gotham he made it quite clear that the camera needed to be on stand by.

Opeie was eager to include a robot shark infested pool in our game this time and well you know i aim to please when it comes to the boys so we soon had Jokers fun house towering over sharky water.

Opeie comes up with all manner of crazy stories, Seth always comments on how great his imagination is and how much fun he is to play with. Our recent role playing game is a fun story when batman, superman and the red tornado are discussing their dirty capes when the joker (or one of the other villains) lets them know about a dry cleaners. Unfortunately the heroes are usually duped in the back of a van or a jail cell for   Permanent detainment. He does make me chuckle.

As much as I love creating, craft and building I think role playing with toys is great for their imagination and development. The boys really get in to their stories and i love being able to get involved too.

You can't get anything out in the house without the furry member of the family getting involved. Plus a big bowl of water with robot fish is screaming 'come and drink me'.

Having so many super hero toys in the house and two great playmates to go all out with is amazing. Being a dad is everything i thought it would be and more. I'm moulding then in to mini nerdy versions of myself.

"You've got to get up every morning with determination if you're going to go to bed with satisfaction."

Almost 4 years of co-sleeping and this week Opeie has finally asked to sleep in the 'big boy bed'. For Christmas the only thing Seth had asked for from Santa was a bunk bed. So when they woke up on Christmas morning to find a huge thing wrapped up in their room, Seth had visions of Opeie joining him straight away.  I think Seth was a little jealous that we all slept in the same bed, like he was missing out on something and this was his chance to claim back some fun boy time with his little brother. 

Sadly despite having something new to throw a sheet over and make a base with, Opeie showed absolutely no interest in wanting to spend the night there, poor Seth. On Sunday night though he surprised us all by very politely requesting the bottom bunk for his evening of slumber. We were all very shocked.

We expected the novelty to wear off after five minutes, followed by 'can I sleep in your bed?' But he got all cosy, asked for a cuddle and dropped off with no effort from me. It was a dream come true. He woke up a couple of times for a drink and i had to get in with him around 3am (which I've done every night so far). But he's now on night six and going strong. We've told him if he makes it through the week he can have a Paddington bear for being good (I was inspired by a story Auntie Lottie told me about her sky dancer back when we were little).

Mrs M isn't liking the change of him not being in bed but it will do him good now to feel a little more independent. Clearly he was ready for the transition as the change was on his terms not ours. Its great to see him making big decisions for himself and i couldn't be more proud of the way he is developing.