"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."

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.

"It's impossible to make your eyes twinkle if you aren't feeling twinkly yourself."

The Weather is really throwing a spanner in the works for us at the moment. Opeie and I are desperate to go camping and after our failed attempt a few weeks back when it thrashed it down on arrival, every time we've looked to go since the weather has been awful along the coast. This week gave us another 2 days with nowhere to be so we looked at the weather again and yet again Disappointment! We decided instead to head to London and do a spot of adventuring.

On the way to London during our last visit, we decided to visit Wendover woods to hunt for the Gruffalo hiding at the forestry commission site. Being such a long drive from Shropshire to London, stopping off to break up the journey really makes a difference. The night before starting our journey I googled 'attractions off of the m40' and then looked for museums and the perfect place to visit popped up.

I didn't let Opeie know where we were going as I thought it would be a really nice surprise after a 2-hour drive. When we parked up in Great Missenden, Opeie was excited about stretching his legs and  finding out where we were going. When we arrived at the museum we passed the shop window first and he noticed some Roald Dahl books, so when we rounded the corner and passed through the archway Opeie really started to get excited.

I've wanted to visit the Roald Dahl museum for quite some time and with me and Opeie 3/4 of the way through Charlie and the chocolate factory it seemed like a very fitting time to make that visit happen. We've been reading the book every day for the past week and Opeie is really getting into it, so you can imagine his excited little face when we rounded the corner and found doors made of giant Wonka bars, what a great start to the visit.

We had been bought The Enormous Crocodile from our friends over at Another Last Story a while back which we both loved and despite knowing the story Opeie still fell for the Croc disguised as a bench. Thankfully he was safe, though.

My Roald Dahl trivia knowledge was rubbish, I just knew that he wrote great books! so it was really interesting to learn about his life and how he came to become a writer of children's books. Opeie was fascinated to learn that he was a pilot during the war and being able to dress up like a pilot too really got my passionate new reader excited.

What really stuck out for Opeie about the visit though (apart from the Wonka bar doors) was Roald Dahl's little hut where he went for four hours a day to write. His homemade felt covered table, sleeping bag to slide his legs into, and cannister of coffee was too cute. It made me think that maybe I should transform our shed for blogging!

With lots of props from the movies and books to sit and read while you are there it really is the perfect Museum for excited little fans of literature. We didn't think much of the newer Fantastic Mr. Fox movie but the film prop was amazing to see.

The Museum is really interactive with lots of things to keep you and your little ones entertained. With 'create your own movie' sets and activities like writing your own stories using word tiles, It is a museum we are sure to be visiting again.

The Roald Dahl museum was a perfect distraction for our 3-hour drive and with only an hour left to go, it was spent excitedly talking about Roald Dahl and all his magical stories.

A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”

Ever since seth first began to confidently read for himself and like many of us before him, he has been captivated by the books of Roald Dahl. For me as a child I was hooked on charlie and the chocolate factory and the witches. These timeless stories are everything that a child wants when reading, intrigue, adventure and all manner of gross things happening. Its not just the stories that hooked me in when I was younger, The illustrations by Quentin Blake still to this day have me buying other books he has illustrated solely on how these books made me feel as a child.

For Seth it has always been The Twits and me and Mrs M enjoyed every minute of reading with him and hearing the story again. Roald Dahl's stories are amazing and extremely stimulating for a young mind but there is something really special about being able to reread the books with your own children knowing that they will most likely feel just like you did as you went from page to page.

As you can imagine when we were asked to take part in Roald Dahl day we jumped at the chance and we were excited to hear that there were two new editions of this well loved book 'The Twits' coming out. For the smelly Twit lovers out there, a copy that comes with a selection of scratch and sniff stickers, we were not sure what to expect, but the revolting stench that comes from these stickers after you glide your nails across them is definitely worthy of Mr Twits cheese and sardine filled beard, yuck.

For the more hairy Twit fans out there a hard back book with Mr Twits rough facial fuzz protruding from the cover. Either of these books would be an amazing edition to any child's library as it would be a shame to grow up not having the chance to immerse yourself in one of Dahl's books, that have entertained so many children for such a long time. I cant wait for it to be Opeie's turn to be introduced to these books although he did listen in on many of Seths reading sessions and as expected was very entertained by the grossness. 

I really hope that these new editions spur on some updated versions of the witches or Matilda, although I think we have all of Roald Dahl's books in our ever expanding children's library.

Roald Dahl day is on Sunday 13th of September so get making some stinky beards, giant craft peaches or golden tickets to use on some chocolate fuelled adventure and celebrate the amazing work of stories that will entertain generation after generation.

Now it's time for us to dust off Seth's world book day costume from last year so that Mrs Twit can get ready for his big day.