"These beetles are amazing. They're special. Spend some time with them, and you'll see."

I feel so lucky to be homeschooling Opeie every single day, our days are filled with adventure and there is something to learn around every corner.  There are an endless amount of resources throughout the UK and we are doing our best to make the most of all the ones that we find relevant to Opeie's interests at the time. During the early days, I would panic about child-led learning, worried that I wasn't covering things that needed to be covered but I would always come back to a thought of being around 8-years-old, fascinated by a dinosaur project that we were doing at school that only lasted a couple of days. The project ended and it was never touched upon again and I was so disappointed, I don't want that for Opeie, his interests are so important to us.

Opeie's current interest is 'beetles', thanks to our friend Jamie buying the boys a copy of 'Beetle Boy'. Jamie worked with the author M.G. Leonard and had written inside the cover that she was "Beetle Mad". So it quickly became the book that I was reading to Opeie (we always have at least one big book on the go). Not only did it kickstart his new love of Beetles but the story had us both hooked from the first few pages.

We inevitably started our own beetle hunt and managed to find a few but none that matched up to Baxter the intelligent Rhinoceros beetle in the story. What was awesome, was that when we struggled to find the name of a beetle we had found, we contacted M.G. Leonard online and she got straight back to us with the answer we were looking for. In Opeie's words "she's amazing!"

To continue our hunt for the ultimate beetle it was time to take our beetle hunt on the road and while searching online for a suitable place to visit I was greeted by a place I remember as a child. I have fond memories of sitting on the bank of the river Avon in Stratford-Upon-Avon, picnicking on the grassy area, a stone's throw from The Stratford-Upon-Avon Butterfly farm. They have a Mini-beast Metropolis which I took to be a sign, so that is where we planned our next beetle adventure. 

There is something quite magical about being in a room that is filled with butterflies. Everywhere we looked, there were beautiful colourful wings fluttering by and it was quite the experience for Opeie. We learned all about the tiny scales on their wings and how they fed on nectar, it was great to see so many different varieties. As stunning as the butterflies were though, we were there for another (more important reason).

Before we could got to the Mini-beast Metropolis though we were greeted by Mark who had been described to us as the "Beetle Nerd" and most definitely lived up to his name. Not only did he talk us through the beetles they had on show but he also showed us behind the scenes at the Larvae and the Pupa which was very exciting for Opeie and fro an educational viewpoint this was as good as it gets. We even got to see and learn about the outer shell created by the pupa from soil and secretion. It was fascinating to see, and Mark made it all even more interesting, the guy really knew his stuff.

The star of the show for us was definitely the Goliath beetle, as big and awesome as he was though, Opeie informed me that "he's still not as big as the Titan beetle, they can grow to the size of a big ruler! they are my favourite". Another amazing homeschool outing thanks to the Stratford-Upon-Avon Butterfly farm and their staff, education through experience is what it's all about. Next on our beetle adventure is to find somewhere we can see both a Titan and a Rhinoceros beetle. (if you are reading this and know of somewhere in the UK let us know on Twitter @pirategifts).

Who knows, Entomology maybe something that Opeie goes into later in life, it would be so exciting to be able to look back at all these things and know that this is where it all started.

"I miss the days when all it took to make me feel better was my teddy bear."

There's something really quite magical about being able to walk into a cuddly toy store and create a life long buddy for either yourself or someone you love. Build a Bear Workshop is a great experience for your children and I like to think that seeing the process of bringing your bear to life gives the owner a little more respect and admiration for their new furry friend. We've written about build a bear before and this time we wanted to bring our friends in on the fun too. After asking them to join us we found out they had never been before so the trip was going to be even more magical.

Our friends Lucie, Seth and Martha met us in store where we were greeted by Shab a friendly member of staff with a smile that was contagious. She introduced herself to the children and asked all their names putting the more shy ones amongst us at ease. Shab explained the process of the experience and then guided us towards the limp bears so the troops could pick their new friend. Although me and Mrs M don't celebrate valentines we thought it would be nice for the boys bears  to create bears for the other two important ladies in their life, Nanny Roo and Auntie Lottie. Seth picked a bright pink elephant and Opeie (as always) followed suit. Martha seemed to have the same idea but Seth (I'm going to have to start saying little Seth and big Seth or it's going to become confusing) decided he wasn't going to conform and chose a cute larger headed bear, which would have been my choice.

Time to chose a voice/sound, there was a great range to choose from but as the boys were making them for those two special ladies they decided to record their own voices to make their gifts a little more personal. Laura, another of the friendly cheerful staff gave the boys a hand, explaining what to do with the voice boxes.

One by one the children joined Shab at the stuffing machine to plump up their new cuddly pals. (Little) Seth went first and made it quite clear that he wasn't a fan of the sound coming out of the stuffer...

The others managed okay though.

After the stuffing they each picked a heart, well they each picked 'hearts', (little) Seth picked two fabric hearts, a kind of furry Dr Who thing going on, we were told about the 'beating heart' so that went in too and that's also when we found out about 'million hearts, million wishes, million ways to help' an initiative that Build a bear Workshop are running with the 'starlight foundation', there are special Purple Hearts that cost £1 and the money goes to the charity. Also Build a bear Workshop are also inviting their customers to share photos of their “heart ceremony”  across their social media profiles with the hashtag #shareukbabwwishes, for every image they will donate £1 towards the charity, it's a great cause. Back to our 'heart ceremony' Each of the kids ended up somehow with three hearts (little Seth) however ended up with four, an apparent record for our local build a bear, somebody call Guinness! Each heart though was lovingly kissed, held to their own heart and a wish was made. As you can imagine, with 14 hearts the trip was a lengthy one, but the kids were having a great time.

 Fluffing time, the children lovingly brushed their bears to make sure they were nice and soft ready for cuddling.

We now had four plump looking bears ready for squeezing but Opeie pointed out that they were 'nudey rudey' so we all moved on to costumes. There are a great selection off costumes in store. We left the children to dress their bears how they wanted. (Big) Seth and Martha chose bumblebee costumes, Opeie chose a hoody and jeans with boots and (little) Seth chose a skater outfit with a Dinosaur on a skateboard T-shirt.

Andy gave us a hand dressing our bears and they were all looking pretty dapper. The children were so excited and Martha and (little) Seth were giving their bears a great squeeze. I always say I'd love to be a child for a day and if i had the option a trip to the build a bear would definitely on the cards. The thing that always appeals to me about build a bear is how they have added the interactive element to toy shopping, kids love to get stuck in and know that they have completed something themselves which is why the whole experience is so amazing.

 Before adopting our new family members we needed to make sure that all the correct documentation was in order. Its great that they take your details because the bear is also given a barcode that is placed inside during the 'heart ceremony' just in case the bear is lost and is handed back in.

Our Build a bear Workshop experience had almost come to an end. The bears and their birth certificates were boxed up in their temporary bear carriers ready to be coloured in by the children when they got home.

 But we couldnt leave without reciting the bear promise at the front of the store. Laura led the way with the other staff hand on heart while we all followed suit. A fun ending to our exciting experience at Build a Bear Workshop. 

Thank you Shab, Laura and Andy for looking after us during our visit  and making the children feel at ease. The children left the store as excited as when we arrived.

The following day we arranged to see Nanny Roo and Auntie Lottie to give them their bears, as expected they were a little shocked but the smiles on their faces said it all. The boys were clearly very proud of their creations and the happiness they had brought to those two special ladies.

Happy Valentines Nanny and Auntie Lottie xxxx