It has been so long since the last time I wrote, for so many reasons. But it feels like the right time to give myself a push to get going again. Like many of us it seems, I have been struggling for motivation with many parts of my life recently, waking up each morning and feeling like we are just repeating the previous day... and many before it. One thing that hasn't been lacking motivation though has been my creative side and I put a lot of that down to that amazing boy of mine and his constant need to be making something new.
A few weeks back he came to me with his latest idea and I was over the moon as it was something I had tried to get him interested in years ago (with no joy). As with many things with kids though, they initially don't share your motivation for an activity until they see a YouTube video (with completed product) and its all the motivation they need. So Opeie started playing me some vides by a very talented chap called Adam Kreutinger and I was hooked from the get go. I went on a bit of a binge for a week after that watching design videos and learning various creative techniques every evening before buying various supplies to get us creating.
Once things started to arrive, I tried not to over think the process and just throw ourselves into it and learn from our mistakes etc, that way of creating has always worked out well for me. There's something really magical about learning new creative skills and it always puts me in a happy place.
The plan was to build puppets of ourselves and we were both very excited. We wanted to create something really playful and not too serious. Making the Foam bodies was super easy and I think contact adhesive is my new favourite thing. Once those were made it was on with the sewing and thankfully we had a few good days of weather in a row so we threw the beanbags outside and sat in the sun chatting while we stitched. It was so much fun watching them come together and really great seeing Opeie so focused on what he was doing. As expected we made a a few mistakes along the way, like cutting the fleece the wrong way round and losing the stretch but that's the great thing about learning this way, that will never happen again.
One of the things that I love about attempting these new projects is realising that actually, craft wise, I can put my hands to most things and come out with something I'm pretty chuffed with. But more importantly, the confidence that it gives Opeie in his ability to create is incredible to watch. I love a creative project but that is massively magnified when the two of us are creating something together.
Making the outfits for the puppets was really satisfying. I made myself some dungarees using the leg of an old pair of Opeie's shorts and although the thought of it seemed quite daunting I managed to pin, cut and restitch an old shirt of Opeie's to fit his puppet nicely. I love being able to use things from around the house, sadly my washing rail is looking a little worse for wear now though as I've pulled lots of the rails of of it to make the army rods, oops!
And now it's time for the real fun to happen. Opeie wants to learn how to make videos about all the things we get up to which I think is going to be lots of fun. So we're setting up a Youtube channel to document that and hopefully have a ton of fun along the way. Check it out HERE.
When all this Coronavirus drama is over and we all go back to our usual routines I wonder how many of us will have acquired new hobbies and skills. It would be a waste to not be trying new things while we are all stuck in our homes and lets be honest if you are anything like me at the moment, anything that can get you back in to bed quicker is a bonus and time really does fly when you are doing something interesting.
We've started watching some drawing classes and have lots of others to watch on various things. I've also been trying to master the Rubix cube. After a few days I can get this far, which I'm feeling pretty chuffed about. Ive just got to master that top layer now.
I love everything about home-ed but one of the things that really makes a huge difference is not feeling restricted when heading out adventuring. Some days we have most of our work finished by 10am, some evenings we are out till late stargazing, it's nice to not have that 'its too late to be thinking about going out, its a school night' mentality. So when we decided at 4:30ish on a Sunday to take a drive to Lake Vyrnwy for a bit of a stomp and have some fun while the sun comes down, there really was nothing holding us back.
Lake Vyrnwy has always been one of those places that I like to go to reset. If things have been a little stressful and my mind is wandering it just seems to even me out. Opeie hadn't had the greatest week so a little adventuring was just what he needed. As you drive up the hill to the dam and reach the opening of trees the view of the water gushing through is always a satisfying start to the visit and it was lovely being able to share that with the newest addition to out happy little family.
There seemed to be a few people along the dam as we drove across which I was really surprised at but by the time we had parked up everyone seemed to have vanished and it was almost as if we had the whole area to ourselves. The walk about the sculpture park was so peaceful, I seem to zone out from the noise from the dam until we are standing right at the bottom of it. The first part of the walk had already chilled Opeie out and he was back to his usual self pretty quick.
These kind of adventures that we have during the week are great for the soul, but there is always an educational element to the visits too. Opeie picks up a lot through experience and he asks a lot of questions along the way. The animals that we spot, fungi, structures, and everything that we are taking in around us is for me what education is all about. When we google the areas we visit for more information Opeie gets to learn random facts about the area too. We had no idea that the lake is actually a reservoir, supplying water to Liverpool 68miles away.
With the sun starting to drop and us quickly losing light we made our way over to the waterfall. This part of Lake Vyrnwy has always been a really satisfying part of any visit. The 20 minute walk from the carpark to the fall is really peaceful and the surroundings are idyllic. By the time we reached the Rhiwargor Waterfall it was all about the slipping our shoes off and submerging them in the cold fresh water.
I try and fill most days with at least a little bit of crazy, its important not to get swept away in the often mundane routine of life and sometimes those random moments can be the difference between going to bed anxious or going to sleep relaxed. As the sun had well and truly departed and with there being no light pollution at the lake, it was pitch black. We pulled up at the bathroom and all slipped into onesies for the drive home. We all had a good chuckle making our way back to the car wondering what someone might say seeing Pikachu, Stitch and a skeleton emerge from the gents toilet.
It was the perfect way to spend a Sunday evening, great surroundings, great people and a calm, happy head space to take home to bed.
With Seth's first day of secondary school being tomorrow, I should be really thinking about starting the home ed for Opeie tomorrow too. In great home ed style though I'm not. Instead we have decided to have a 'home ed appreciation day' before getting into all of the adventuring and creative learning. We both feel really lucky to be in a position to be educating/learning on our terms and were going to spend tomorrow really thinking about that as we see the local children leaving for school. Tomorrow will be a day of staying in our pj's, reading, baking and playing because... well we can.
I think its amazing how far we have come as a team and I often think back to those unnerving few months around (what would have been) his official 'start date', all the 'what if's' and 'Am I doing the right thing'. It seems crazy now to think that I had that little confidence in not only myself, but Opeie's ability to learn outside of a classroom environment. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't still have the same occasional thoughts every now and again when I am having an off day, but luckily on these days (which thankfully are getting less and less), I take myself back to a single moment.
We had decided to go on a spur of the moment mid week camping trip (because as home edders you can do that kind of thing). As we pulled into the campsite car park at Devils bridge the heavens opened. Not a light delicate shower but the sort of rain that meant that we couldn't park next to the tent pitch for fear of getting stuck on the field. We managed to get the tent up in the rain and flopped onto the beds to read for a while. The rain died down and the sun came out and we saw that as an opening to go exploring. We decided to walk Devils bridge falls (which is beautiful) while reading the local legend that surrounds the bridge.Within 5 minutes of the walk the rain came down even harder than before. We were drenched! usually I love the adventure, but I felt like the trip was going to be a flop and I seriously started questioning the whole 'Home Ed' thing. As we walked up the waterfall though with the rain still coming down and the spray from the falls almost hitting us too, the sun came out behind it all and what appeared a few feet in front of us was the most beautiful sight.
In an instant, all of those negative feelings I had about Home Ed seemed to vanish and as we stood and stared at a rainbow (that we could almost touch) curving over the waterfall in front of us, I was left with an enlightened feeling of 'This is exactly where we should be right now'.
I'm going to start this post off on a negative note, which I don't usually do as I always keep all of my posts happy and upbeat but stay with me. For as long as I can remember I have been 'Anti Zoo's'. I never liked the idea of animals being out of their natural habitat and trapped in enclosures, the whole idea of it weirded me out a little and because of this we had never taken the boys to the zoo. When I think about it now my view on this could seem quite odd as I have taken them to aquariums before... clearly I feel completely different about sea life.
After being asked to visit Twycross Zoo my initial thought was to politely decline, but before doing so I went online and did a little research on the zoo and this is where I realised that my thoughts and feelings about zoo's especially in Twycoss' case was very wrong. After reading about their conservation projects and research into animal behaviour, breeding programmes and sustainability, I closed my laptop feeling very different about the views I had previously had. So we decided to visit Twycross so that we could really see what the zoo was all about.
If there is one very important thing that I have learned since starting this amazing home-schooling adventure with Opeie, it is that no day sat in a class room, having information thrown at you is ever going to trump a day out learning through experience and that really is what home-schooling is all about for us. Add another home-schooling family into the mix and your educational fun is magnified as the children bounce their thoughts, feelings and ideas off of each other.
We picked probably the best day of the year so far to visit the zoo as the sun was out and there looked like there was no chance of anything changing, which for a day in April is good going. The kids were excited and us parents had our own favourite animals that we couldn't wait to see. What I loved from the get go was how immaculate the zoo was and how welcoming and friendly the staff were which will always put you in good stead for a great visit anywhere.
With maps in their hands we left the kids to show us around (a great home-schooling lesson in itself).
First on their list of places of interest on the map was Lorikeet landing, I don't think I'd ever seen a Lorikeet before and I think its safe to say that we were all really impressed by the bright and vibrant colours on these beautiful birds. I was great to be able to walk into the enclosure and have them landing right next to you as you made your way through. I love the way that there was no shortage of information about each of the animals there, having the educational side of things made easy for us home-schooling parents.
Being the little punk enthusiast that Opeie is these days, he was in awe of the black and white zebra mohicans. It was interesting to learn that the zebras stripes can be used as camouflage but also that their monochrome pattern can confuse and deter flies.
one of the most appealing things about the zoo for me was the shear size of it, you could easily spend the whole day there wandering about, especially on the glorious day that we visited. with something different everywhere you turn, even if you were not interested in reading the information about the animals the visit would be a stimulating visual experience. Being able to see animals that you would never get to see unless visiting their natural habitats, really is very special.
Ive always been a huge fan of the giraffe and as we approached the enclosure we realised we had arrived at exactly the right time, to see them up close while they were feeding. For me personally this really made the visit.
One of the things that really surprised me about the visit was the the way I felt about animals that I'd not really thought about before. We're always watching nature documentaries and although its fascinating to learn about animals, to actually see them is a real experience. I'd never really given Gorillas a second thought, when we reached the enclosure though I could have sat there watching them all afternoon and it was clear that we all felt the same.
At lunch time we found a spot of grass to have our picnic. When we looked behind us we were shocked to see two enormous tortiose happily munching on some grass. (like I said 'everywhere you look there is something interesting).
Tummys full, it was time for our little map reading tour guides to take us to the next place of interest, the Lemurs...
It was at this point that one of our party members started to get very VERY excited... and it wasn't one of the children. When arranging the trip I had been concentrating so much on the kids having a great time I hadn't thought for one second about our friend Helen having the time of her life. It turns out she loves Lemurs and having them walking along right next to her was clearly making her very happy indeed.
With so many amazing animals to see we were fully entertained for the day and the kids had so much to talk about on the way home. As a home educating parent these are the sorts of days out that really have the most impact and the visit has already spurred on many activities and interesting talks about habitats and interesting facts about each of the animals we saw.
If you are planning on a visit soon the new Chimpanzee Eden has just opened. Check out the link HERE!
The thing that really made this visit special is that it made me realise that although it is good to have strong feelings about various things in life, they are not always right and sometimes you can be proved wrong. Twycross and the amazing work that they do to learn about each of their animals while educating along the way really is something special and we hope to visit there again very soon.
It is always great as a parent when your kids take a keen interest in something that you love, or something you loved as a child yourself. I think we are all guilty of introducing our kids to things that we are interested in because we either want a reason to relive them or it can just make your own hobbies a little easier, letting you enjoy them guilt free. Parenting has been one long exploration into my own childhood so far, the boys have always loved hearing stories about what I was getting up to at their age and things like base building, Lego creations and tinkering with bikes are things that have definitely rubbed off.
I loved reading comics when I was a kid and I'd get lost in the trials and tribulations of Peter Parker's complex life, juggling his everyday teen issues, School and of course his secret identity. It was something that I had hoped Seth would have got into but he's not really shown an interest as of yet. Recently though Opeie has discovered the wonders of comic books and has become quite the avid reader.
It all started with the show Teen Titans Go! Opeie loved it so much that I googled it, pretty sure that there was a run of comics to accompany it. Not only did I find that, but I also found Tiny Titans which got me thinking "what else is out there for young comic enthusiasts". So I began my hunt to find some of the best Comics suitable for an 8/9-year-old reader. I'm a firm believer that if you can install a love of reading into your children then that is the best groundwork for their education. We read all sorts of things together and have done for years but what comics have given us now is fun reading time alone for Opeie, which is great as it takes out the 'having to get it right' element and replaces it with extra confidence and more questions. "Dad what does this word mean?" etc.
Since Opeie's new favourite past time started a few weeks back I have found some great titles to add to his collection, including 'itty bitty Hellboy', itty bitty Mask, Li'l battlestar Galactica and Super Hero Squad which have been great as I've been able to get complete runs of the comics for his iPad. Our weekly trips to the library have also given us DC Super Pets (Art Baltazar), Mighty Mighty Monsters (Sean O'Reilly), Monster heroes (Blake Hoena) and the Monsters Like Us series (Steve Barlow/Steve Skidmore).
When I think back to Seth learning to read at school, Opeies learning has cut out all those boring reading in stages books and has replaced that tedious learning with a real love for the written word. I have always said that comics have a bad rep in the world of literature but there are so many levels to the stories and they are ongoing (like an intelligent and creative soap opera). Sure, when it comes to the super hero comics there is action and adventure (which is great) but when you start delving into the personal lives of these heroes there is a deep understanding of emotion. For a 6-year-old, Opeie is getting a great start into understanding the complexity of relationships and the way we feel through comics (and all the questions he asks about Country songs that he loves helps too). This to me is so much more important than a lot of the unnecessary academic information that is thrown at Seth. Home schooling has so far given Opeie the chance to fully explore his imagination and pursue the things that he is passionate about learning, which for a 6-year-old is what they should be doing. This way of learning has taken out the anxiety and the stress of preparing him for standardized testing in mainstream schools, making him a far more well rounded child with a real love of learning. 'Concentrate on the reading an the rest will come organically' is what I told myself from day one.
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.
As I watched Opeie doing his work today, sprawled across the kitchen surface, I chuckled to myself thinking maybe a classroom environment with chairs would be more comfortable? Obviously, I don't actually think that. This world of home education has been amazing for so many reasons, one being having the flexibility to learn wherever he chooses. Maybe learning Symmetry on kitchen work-tops boosts productivity? who am I to question Opeies practices.
Today was one of those awesome, effortless home-schooling days, we had planned to visit a place called Venus Pools which is a great place for bird watching. We were going to take paints and canvases and make an artistic day of it. During Seth's school drop off though, the sky was thick with fog, it was freezing and poor Opeie was looking a bit peaky and dark around the eyes (we've all been a little under the weather lately). So we decided to head back home into the warm and curl up on the sofa reading books. After a few books, we made our way to this custom kitchen top chaise Lounge and as I cleaned the kitchen and prepped lunch, Opeie learned about symmetrical patterns and then we covered a few pages of number bonds and times tables.
The great thing about the way we learn at home is that to break up any academic work we are doing there is no end to the amount of creative things we can do in between. A lot of them being general tasks around the house that need doing, which aside from being creative also teach great life lessons. As much as we want Opeie to be a well educated and creative grown up we also want him to reach his adult years knowing how to do things that will benefit him, like being able to cook and look after himself. Today's fun task was prepping tea for when Seth came home so that we had plenty of time to be doing something fun together. Seth's tea time request was pizza, so It was Opeie's and My job to make the dough.
The remainder of our afternoon we talked about all the things that we want to do during our home-schooling fun and Opeie informed me that we wanted us to have some singing time which I thought was an amazing idea as he sings to himself all day long, making up the lyrics that he doesn't know to his favourite country songs, so I'll be printing out lyrics for us to learn as part of this learning adventure. This self-guided motivation is exactly what we want for Opeie and we'll embrace all of his ideas if we can.
And then it was time to put on our jerseys and grab our sticks for hockey time, the perfect end to a perfect day of home education.
After our visit to RAF Cosford air museum, Opeie couldn't wait to get home and get the LEGO out. Part of the museum had an exhibit based around the Berlin wall and he had asked a lot of questions about it while we were there. He thought it was really interesting that a city was separated into two halves by a huge wall and was asking questions like "what if people in the east had friends and family in the west" it was really quite cute how concerned he was. When we got home he got those amazing bricks out and built his own berlin wall, with upset, angry looking people. He then broke down part of the wall letting in the happy people after we had watched a video on youtube of the wall being opened and how happy and relieved the german people were.
This is one of the things I really love about LEGO. It doesn't matter what it is we are covering, somehow it can be re-created by those amazing bricks.
There are so many great reasons for learning to play an instrument. It teaches coordination, perseverence and discipline not to mention that it has been scientifically proven to increase the capacity of your memory. I was never given the option to learn an instrument as a child which was disheartening but the thought of one day playing an instrument was something that stayed with me throughout my adult life to date. Years ago it was the violin that really interested me but I was too scared to take the leap as I was told by a violinist that I know that it was a really difficult instrument to pick up as an adult. Years went by and still I hadn't taken any musical leap, until recently. Seth has been taking Trombone lessons for a few months now and although he enjoys his lessons he is frustrated that he cannot hit certain notes after this amount if time. His teacher keeps telling him that he needs to practice for short periods every evening but sadly he rarely makes time for it and this is something I will never push because I feel that this is something he needs to work out for himself.
That being said though, this was all the motivation I needed to start learning an instrument myself. A few months back it was Opeie's friend Matthews 5th Birthday and we thought it would be nice to buy him a Ukulele. I had always loved the sound and felt like they were a very misunderstood instrument, often being seen as more of a toy. I couldn't shake off this niggling in the back of my mind that I wanted to learn to play one myself and eventually caved in three weeks ago and bought myself my first Ukulele. This was so out of my comfort zone but I really wanted to give it a go.
As I said, I wanted to learn to play an instrument for many years and this was a very exciting step into the unknown. There was another bigger reason regarding Seth's trombone predicament that was my motivation for taking the leap though. The information that is readily available to us these days means that anybody can do pretty much anything if they put their mind to it. All this information is now available at any time and no matter where we are, and that is a really exciting thought. I want the boys to realise that because of this, NOTHING is out of their reach if they really want it and if they have any questions that maybe Mrs M or myself cannot answer, then the information is only a few clicks away (what an amazing time to be a child growing up). I also wanted to show Seth that if you put the time in to your endeavors you can see the results pretty early on.
So I began to play, and Youtube became my teacher for the first few nights. I learnt to play a few chords and practiced. I sounded terrible! So I waited until everyone was in bed, shut the lounge door and strummed away out of tune. Desperate to learn quicker, I clicked on a link for Yousician that kept popping up in my browser. You've got to love how clever computers are these days, offering you the information before you even need it based on your web browsing. I downloaded the app to my phone and signed up for a free trial. Two weeks on and I still cant believe how quickly I advanced playing. Being able to have a music teacher of this calibre to take with you in your pocket is truly amazing.
Yousician makes the introduction in to learning the Ukulele so simple and each tutorial when completed makes you feel increasingly confident which is what you need from your first few steps. With videos on the basics like strumming and how to play your first chords, Yousician has the sort of direct information that you really need as a newby to the instrument. The Chord and Strumming workshops and lessons on finger picking (which I am terrible at at the moment) steadily advance at just the right rate that it pushes you, but not enough for you to get frustrated and possibly give up. The video's and tutorials are so clear that you could use this app from a young age, which has been really interesting to learn, as Opeie has shown some interest in playing so I think that santa may send a Ukulele his way.
The best thing about this app though from a personal view is the impact it has had on Seth as he has seen me advance through perseverence and practicing every day. Last week I played my first song through, which was the Lava song from the Pixar short movie. I still cannot believe I have come this far in 3 weeks. Seeing this has motivated Seth to practice a little more which was exactly what I had hoped for and now I am excited at the thought of one day playing together.
