"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.

"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."

I try and avoid having the TV on during the day as home schooling is very important stuff don't you know! We do have half an hour some afternoons while eating lunch though when Netflix goes on. There is also of course those odd days where Opeie is feeling under the weather and making a den on the sofa with blankets and pillows is set in to motion. On the evenings if Netflix is on they can watch what they like but if it does go on during the day I try to avoid episode after episode of Pokémon. So what do we watch? Well I try and stick to shows that a little more educational (and Netflix is full of great informative shows).

So here is our top 10 educational shows (in no specific order) that have been keeping us entertained when filling our daytime gaps.

Ill be honest, I'm not a huge fan of Mr Peabody and Sherman but Opeie loves it. The over intelligent beagle Mr Peabody and his human Sherman travel in their time machine to various important times in history while meeting some famous characters (Confucious, Alexander Graham Bell etc). I think its the bad jokes and slapstick humour that I don't like but I will say one thing about the show it is great for getting Opeie asking questions and anything that sparks interest about this sort of thing, is as far as I'm concerned, a great show.

I'm not really sure how Opeie stumbled upon the Wild Kratts but I am so glad he did. The Kratt brothers travel the globe saving animals from often awful predicaments learning about animals, their habitats and how they live. The show deals with big issues through its in show villians, like deforestation and animal skin being used for fashion. The show covers a variety of animals that we had not already covered in books that we have read so it is great for getting Opeie asking questions.

Dinosaur train has been at the top of Opeie's favourite TV shows list since he first became interested in dinosaurs. The show is AMAZING! and I have learnt a lot myself about those 'terrible lizards'. The show focus' on Buddy, a T-rex who upon hatching finds that he is in a Pteranodon nest. Buddy wants to find out why he is different and also learn about all the other dinosaurs that were around in the mesozoic time period. Dinosaur train is so interesting and is great addition to any dinosaur topic.

If you want your young children to learn about different countries and cultures then Mouk is definitely a great add on to help with the introduction into that. If you can get past the slightly irritating theme tune Mouk the adventuring bear and his friends, Based on the french books illustrated by Marc Boutavant will take you on an adventure around the world learning about celebrations, food and how people in other countries live. A great source of TV based education for young children.

Its not all bright colours and cute characters when we are taking in information via the TV. There is a huge selection of great documentaries and scientific shows. Dinosaurs are still playing a big part in our home schooling so shows from the Walking with dinosaurs series have been great for a bit more of a grown up look at what was going on before we started to inhabit the planet.

If there is a problem that can be solved using basic mathematics then the Monster math squad will most likely be there to save the day. We've not watched this for some time but it was such a great show for a Opeie a year or so ago that I thought I would include it in our top 10. Monsters and numbers, who's not going to learn from that?!

As I said before Dinosaurs are still going strong in our house but after watching David Attenborough's The life of birds Opeie has now started swaying more towards the dinosaurs closest living relative. The great thing about being interested in birds (over dinosaurs) is that we can actually see them just by opening the back door or taking a trip to any of our local RSPB sites. The life of birds is a really interesting look at many of the birds we see daily which is great and some more interesting birds, their habits and how they live.

When your kids get into things like sports for example it is great when you can switch on Netflix and find documentaries about the things that they love. The last couple of weeks has been dominated by skateboards and there are a few skateboarding documentaries available to watch. Motivation 2 was the one with the least bad language in but I still had to watch this a couple of times before letting the boys watch to avoid any of the more adult language. Its always handy to have the remote by your side to skip these parts.

Last week we were scrolling through the documentaries and stumbled across 72 dangerous animals: Australia. Opeie wasn't sure what to make of it at first and said he thought it was a little scary but that all changed when it showed a man who had been bitten by a shark and had lived to tell the tale. Opeie was engrossed and all I got was "Cool!". This was a great source of information about poisonous frogs and reptiles, sea creatures and insects that come from a hotter climate. The downside is I don't think we could spring an Australian holiday on Opeie any time soon.

I know that there is always bad press in the media about 'the amount of screen time your kids get' but I believe like anything, if it is done in moderation what's the harm? and with great shows and documentaries like this available at your fingertips then you would be crazy not to take full advantage of the resources available.

"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body."

 Back quite some time ago I wrote a post about mine and Opeie's reading diary which all started because of Mrs M not being able to track down a really important book from her childhood that was read to her at bedtimes by her great Nan. The problem was she couldn't remember the name of the book, only the main character, a very large fat cat.

We managed to find the book eventually but the whole thing made me think that I would hate it if Opeie couldn't remember an important book from his childhood, hence the beginning of the reading diary, which we have been packing full of wild and wonderful stories and plenty of educational content.

Over the last few months though the way we read together has changed and it seems to now be Opeie reading more to me. So last week Opeie asked me if he could have his own reading diary to keep track of what he is reading. I think the way in which we have read as a family to this point has laid down some great groundwork. It means so much to me to see Opeie excited about reading and hearing him say "can I just read one more?" After already devouring two books.

Filling in his book is great for his writing too and I am hoping we continue filling the pages at the rate we are now. If there was one thing I wanted to install in Opeie early on, it is the enjoyment you can get from reading and the knowledge that all the amazing books out there are readily available to him.

The Pirates Vs The Land of the Living Dinosaurs

I've been doing all i can recently to throw myself in to Opeie's new love by coming up with fun themed things to do and places to go. A couple of months back a friend of mine put up some images on Facebook and I got really excited. Her little boy was looking very excited standing among life size dinosaurs and it looked AMAZING! I assumed that they were on holiday and that the attraction was going to be miles away so i was pleasantly surprised when I contacted them and found out that the awesome looking dinosaurs we had seen were just down the road at the West midlands Safari Park. I had not been to the Safari park since I was a boy myself so i had no idea about the Land of the Living Dinosaurs.

Although the trip was for the boys i was really excited to see some big scary dinosaurs after all of the books we have been reading together. As we pulled into the main entrance of the safari park we spotted two dinosaurs waiting to greet us and i knew we were in for a great visit. It was fairly early when we arrived and we made a Bee line for the Land of the Living Dinosaurs which was really quiet as the bulk of the visitors had gone straight for the Safari tour.

Being able to sit in the jaws of a dinosaur pretty much kicked off our Mesazoic adventure. I was in my element which is still surprising me to this day. Like most boys I was a big fan of the dinosaurs and I was captivated when we did a project at school, but that's as far as my Dinosaur love affair went. This time though like some sort of parasite I have been feeding off Opeie's excitement and passion. The great thing about being a hands on parent is that when your child is into something you can go all out and throw yourselves in to a world of fun.

As we passed the Dino jaws and rounded the corner, all those books that we had read, documentaries we had watched and never ending dinosaur activities we had been keeping ourselves entertained with over the weeks was staring us in the face. It was like all the previous weeks fun had been building up to this very moment and i was loving every minute of the expressions on the boys faces. Its that kind of moment that really makes you realise that as a dad, you are doing an awesome job.

THERE ARE DINOSAURS EVERYWHERE!!!

With tales swinging and heads moving about watching you, The Land of the living Dinosaurs really was an amazing place to visit, the fantastic weather really added to the day and we were all having an awesome time.

The only negative about the trip was that there was a board with information for the Archaeopteryx (Opeie's joint favourite dinosaur, with the Triceratops) but no feathery dinosaur to be seen anywhere? A little disappointing but there were so many other dinosaurs there that Opeie soon forgot about that.

"Mommy, mommy......A TRICERATOPS!!!"

Only half way round the park and Opeie's day had reached its peak but there was more to come. He was hoping for at least one Triceratops and there they were, his beaming little face said it all. As if a life size Triceratops wasn't enough the boys then spotted two to ride on, AMAZING!

Next we moved on to the Dino dig area, where there was a dino handler taking care or a baby raptor which was really cute. Opeie gave it a stroke and then began to explain to the lady that the raptor was a 'Therapod' and if it was a Velociraptor it was Cretaceous but an Eoraptor was Triassic. The poor staff member looked at him like he was talking another language haha.

The Dino dig area gave Seth a great idea for something we could do at home and as I like to accommodate as many of the boys creative ideas as I can, I put his idea into motion this week. I'll write about it very soon, but it was an amazing idea.

I was really hoping to see my favourite dinosaur during the visit. So you can imagine my excited when I spotted a Pachycephalosaurus staring at me. By this point I had reached excitement overload, it was such a great place to take Mrs M and boys, interesting and educational.

From a home education point the West Midlands safari park is a great learning resource and the opening of the exhibit couldn't have come at a better time for us as a family, with dinosaurs being at the forefront of everything we do these days.

The Land of the Living Dinosaurs was a fantastic place to visit, interesting and educational and I would love to visit again later in the year when they have the dinosaurs at night event. I bet the dinosaurs look great in the dark. I think Opeie's love of dinosaurs will be around for a while and no matter how many fun activities we do and places we go it will be hard to beat the excitement we got from spending an afternoon with real dinosaurs.