"The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery."

When I talk about LEGO I instantly turn into a very excited boy. I'm sure it was the same when I was a child but this reintroduction since having children has taken my love of the brick to new extremes. Back when I was a growing up LEGO was a very lonely thing for me, but it got me through an uncertain and dysfunctional family life. These days though it's all about team building and me and the boys have the most amazing creative times. I get to teach them techniques while building and in return they share with me a world of possibilities through their imagination.

Writing for LEGO has been amazing and although building is such a huge thing in our home, being able to visit the attractions is also very exciting for us. It's great to visit LEGO's attractions and see how the professionals build. A few years back Seth won a Star Wars building competition and we were given tickets to visit the LEGOLAND Discovery centre in Manchester. It was a great evening and because Opeie was only very young then and doesn't remember, we were itching to visit again.

We were definitely in need of a change of scenery from all the Home ed fun we have, so we arranged to visit with our friends Emma and Matthew over at Another Last Story. They are also huge LEGO fans and had been wanting to visit too so the trip worked out perfect. When we arrived at the Discovery centre the boys were very excited which is always great to see as a parent. We had missed out on the rides and Factory tour during our last visit so it was interesting for the boys to learn about how LEGO is made and then follow that up with a ride into the main area where they could shoot trolls and medieval bad guys.

Being originally from Birmingham It was great to see the Bullring included in the Miniland section of the centre but what really took me by surprise was seeing the Ironbridge. Being a Shropshire lad now it was really great to see, as Ironbridge will always be a very special place for me and my family. Whenever I see builds like this it always makes me wish that I had more space at home to build larger pieces for the boys but it is great to see what can be achieved by LEGO pros.

As the lights dropped on the Miniland it was lovely to see the scenes light up. Blackpool tower and the surrounding area look truly spectacular.

The most appealing thing for me as a parent is just how interactive the LEGO discovery centre is. It really does make a big difference if the kids can fully emerge themselves in what's going on. The boys loved being able to take their time building a wheeled vehicle and then being able to send it down ramps to jump into big containers of bricks in the LEGO Racers: Build and test section of the attraction. I was probably getting into it a little too much, I do always say though, Surround me in LEGO and I'll get right in on the action.

A month or so ago we got to see the new Nexo Knights 4D movie: The book of creativity at LEGOLAND Windsor while at a Nexo knights event, which was awesome and we got to share that with our friends this time round.  They also had: The LEGO® Movie™ 4D A New Adventure showing too. Both were great fun for the kids and really added to the fun we had while visiting. 

There is so much LEGO to build with and the boys couldn't wait to climb into one of the pits and start building. As expected I sat right alongside the pit getting stuck into some building myself.

The great thing about the LEGOLAND Discovery centre is how much is packed into the space there. It's a scaled down version of LEGOLAND with rides perfect for younger brick enthusiasts. Opeies favourite part was being a LEGO police man and whizzing around the track chasing Matthew in his police car on the LEGO City Forest Pursuit. 

When we visited last time one of the rooms had an amazing Star wars display, this time though the space was occupied by something even better. For me, the Brand new LEGO city builder was my favourite part because it gave me a lot of inspiration for my own builds. Being able to view other peoples builds this close up is a great bit of research for me and the boys

The LEGOLAND Discovery centre sits in the perfect spot for taking a break from a busy shopping day and although the attraction is a much smaller version of its Windsor counterpart there is plenty there to kep the children occupied and building all day.

"Then toads and beetles, bees and bugs, Brother snails and sister slugs, Uncle ant and earwig aunt Clap and cheer and chant this chant."

If your children have a keen sense of adventure and curiosity and you are creative in your parenting then you can find all the fun you need on your doorstep or rather in your garden. It was another glorious day in sunny Shropshire and a chance discovery of a magnifying glass we thought we had lost a while back kick started an afternoon of discovery and learning.

I asked Opeie what he wanted to go searching for and he said 'bugs', so with magnifying glass in hand we began our investigation into the greener areas of our lovely garden. It really is amazing what you can find when you are really looking and with every different species found there was more excitement from our little adventurer.

When it comes to creepy crawlies Seth is pretty much frightened of everything but Opeie is so different, he thinks everything is 'cute' and if I catch spiders in glasses in the house he has to kiss the glass before saying his goodbyes and setting them free, so as you can imagine our bug hunt this afternoon was lots of fun.

We searched the ground, found webs high up, a colony of worker ants in one of the compost bins and some big fat slugs in the other compost bin that Opeie calls the 'smelly bin'. And with most of the things we found Opeie either picked them up or was happy to have them running over his hands. I don't want Opeie to be frightened of anything so i try and treat all bugs and spiders as friends.

Opeie was fascinated by the snails and we lay on our tummies and watched them for ages before Opeie picked them up to have a closer look. Our garden seems to be some sort of meeting ground for all of Shropshires snail community I've never seen so many hiding under all our bushes and plants.

We even spotted a very rare breed of snail too later in the day...

I try and get Opeie to do some sort of writing during each day and i try to keep the theme of the words relevant to keep him motivated, so in keeping with our mornings fun I wrote down some of the things we had found for Opeie to write also while I hung out the washing to dry. He was so proud of himself when he had finished and called me over to show off his work. His handwriting is coming along great and we 're so proud of the way he is progressing.

When mommy got home from work we continued our day of Entomology (thanks Google, hahaha) with some relevant literature. Superworm and The Hungry Caterpillar were part of today's reading, read beautifully by mommy. A fitting end to a creepy crawly yet creatively cute day of fun learning.