"“Dare to love yourself as if you were a rainbow with gold at both ends.”"

Day 73:

Ive said it so many times since this lockdown started, The #creativelockdownproject that has really kept me and Opeie in a happy creative headspace and I don't think I've ever been this creatively motivated in a long time. Its been great to really reinforce to Opeie that art is everywhere and it doesn't have to be something that has taken a chunk of time to create, to make people smile. as the creative word today is 'books' Opeie decided to search through his collection and make a book rainbow. It certainly put a smile on my face.

“Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.”

Day 29:

One of the big positives of being holed up at home during these crazy times is having to fill that time with activities to get us through the day. Iv'e found that some of the things that I used to really enjoy doing have come back and I'm fully embracing that. Back in the day I was huge comic fan but (like with many things) I just seemed to stop making time for it. Over the last few days I've started re-reading some of the comics I used to love and I intend on finishing many of the runs that I never got round to completing. To make the whole thing even more fun Opeie is really getting into the world of comics too and has been reading solidly for days. 

We may not be able to be living our 'best lives' at the moment but I think we're doing a great job so far of getting through all this calmly and with smiles on our faces.

"You couldn't be kindred spirits with a beetle . . . could you? "

Opeie was adamant on the build up to world book day that he didn't want to dress up. He just wanted a day of reading and to take cake and biscuits in for the staff at the library to say thank you for all the books they have ordered in for him in the last 12 months. That of course all changed on the morning of world book day when he informed me that he did infect want to dress up and as expected he wanted to be Darkus from M.G, Leonards Beetle Boy. So we quickly headed out mooching around our local charity shops for an oversized brown wooly jumper and a headband to hot glue his beetle too. Im So glad he chose something doable on a short timescale.

With the costume complete we headed down to the library with our gifts for the staff and came away with a handful of new books for an afternoon of reading. It was a pretty awesome world book day.

"You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend."

The last few months have been all about making the house ours, moving rooms around, de-cluttering and making use of all of the space we have. We decided that one of the rooms downstairs needed to be a relaxing reading space. We couldn't quite decided what to put on the wall though in a relaxing space dedicated to one of our favourite past times. That was until I thought about a gift that my bestie Helen had got me for my birthday. She has really helped me through a lot of the harder parts of all this heartache and she was eager to help with putting some personal touches into the house. She had very Kindly bought me 3 canvas's so that the boys and I could create one each.

I asked the boys if they would use their artistic flair to create something each around a book (or series of books) that were important to them. I knew straight away that mine was going to be based on A Series of unfortunate events as Ive been reading them to Opeie at bed time and Ive really loved how excited he's been as we have ploughed through them. I didn't want to draw an obvious picture of the Baudelairs or even their nemesis Count Olaf so I went for a random singer from the Volunteers fighting disease, as the song about the heart shaped balloon always stuck out for Opeie.

I wasn't at all Surprised when Opeie decided he was going to base his canvas design on Beetle boy by M.G. Leonard. The Beetle boy trilogy will always be very special to me as they were the books that really opened up Opeie's imagination and made him realise just how amazing the world of books can be. He hung off every word of those stories and after the first and the second books we were both eager for the release of the next one. I was genuinely gutted when Battle of the Beetles ended.

I not quite sure what I expected Seth to choose, as he mainly reads on his own these days and he gets through so many books that I can't keep up with him.  I was pretty surprised that he chose Enid Blyton's 'The Secret Seven' as they are books that I have been reading to him at bedtime. The secret seven and the Famous five were books that I grew up on and I wanted to share those adventures with the boys.When I asked Seth what was so special about the Secret Seven books he said that he loves me reading to him and finds my voice really relaxing (which made my day).

Emotions may be all over the place at the moment but these little personal touches around the house are making fun new memories and giving us the relaxing home that I think we all need.

"Human life is beyond comprehension."

If there is one thing that I have learnt from the first few years of home education, it's that child lead learning really does work. Being able to design your own timetable around the things that they are interested in is not only effective in their development but the things that they are learning really stick. When I was at school I hated reading and writing comprehension at school. The information I was given was generally dull which meant that I answered the questions based solely on what I had read. I know that's the whole point, but being able to make the reading part an interesting piece full of facts that are of a genuine interest makes all the difference.

 
As we sat at home today shying away from the cold weather for a change, I printed out a sheet about beetles (Opeie's current interest aside from Teen Titans and being chained up only to escape like harry Houdini). I then set out some questions for him to answer in full sentences and left him to it while I made lunch and cleaned the house. Opeie shouted through the house telling me that his activity was fun (a sentence you would have never heard me using when taking about written comprehension).

It was a great activity for putting in to practice all the writing skills that he has learnt over the last couple of years while also giving him fun facts about one of the things that he enjoys learning about most. A win/win for home education. 

"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.

"And on that day Mr. Caper learned how sweet being earthy and acidic could be."

With tomorrow being World book day you would expect every school around the world to be doing something amazing to join in with the celebrations. Not Seth's school though, for the past 3 years they have not done anything and the couple of years before that they decided to have their world book day on a different day??? I have absolutely no idea what is going on in the head teachers mind but clearly there is something wrong up there. When we asked his teacher why they didn't do anything he simply said "we're not allowed". So again this year March 2nd has come around and Seth, much like many children at his school I imagine, is left disappointed.  He loved the costume we made him a few years back and proudly walked across the playground dressed as Mr Twit. What has annoyed me even more though is that this failure to get involved with the whole world on this awesome day has left Seth unmotivated to get involved in what we are doing too, which is really sad.

Opeie and I have been crafting away this week though and decided to have a World Book Day activity week in preparation for the big day, so we've been busy doing all sorts. Opeie wanted to make masks of some of his favourite book characters. So he made the Lorax, the sweet lollipop and sour caper from The great Lollipop Caper by dan Krall, for me and him and for Seth, Bzzd from the DC Super pets from the books that Opeie is reading at the moment. 

Opeie also wanted to make a giant crayon from Oliver Jeffers amazing book 'The Day the crayons Quit'. If you've not read this book already it's a must.

While chatting to Opeie we decided that it would be a good idea to take some chocolates and biscuits down to the staff at our local library, which I thought was a great idea. We picked up some bits while we were out shopping and then we made some book related packaging to go around each thing. It's been lovely seeing Opeie get into all this book-related fun. Opeie finished off his fun world book day treats with a card for the staff at the library and he's looking forward to dropping them off tomorrow. We also gave his scooter a mini makeover too for the celebrations but I'll put that in a separate post.

It's going to be another fun couple of book themed days for us and We hope you all have an amazing world book day too.

A library is the delivery room for the birth of ideas, a place where history comes to life."

This sunshine has been glorious! I am loving every minute of it. Hot, sunny weather will always mean that wheels will be hitting the pavement and that's just what we have been doing. Today started off with an early reading session from Opeie, I can't believe at 5 just how good his reading is. It just goes to show that one to one teaching and lots of patience really does have a huge impact. The heavy reading session brought to light the fact that we had exhausted all of our library books and needed a top up. With the sun blasting out we got our beloved Micro scooters out and hit the road in search of literature.

(For the record we did stick to the speed limit, we may be rebellious home schoolers but safety first around schools people!)

I honestly don't know what we would do now without our scooters, they have become a permanent fixture in our daily fun and without them outdoor adventures would seem a little watered down. They are an amazing addition to pretty much everything we do outdoors. Mid-week afternoon library visits mean quiet reading for us as most chidren are at school, and because we know a few of the librarians in there now they don't mind if Opeie scoots over to the children's section. This is where we split up, Opeie makes a pile of books for me to read to him, while I hit the 'ready to read' section for fun books perfect for his reading level. I was excited to find 'the magic scooter' and have added that to Opeies pile for the coming weks. I think we both feel like our scooter is a magic scooter.

After an hour of reading, it was back to the streets weaving in and out of all those people that don't have wheels. We did have to scoot around some mobility scooters, elderly shopping trollies and pushchairs though before heading out of the town and back home. Adding wheels to your family adventures really adds to the excitement and Micro Scooters are continuing to pave the way for our father/son bonding and the boys development. GO TEAM SCOOT!

"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.

"THERE WAS SOMETHING odd about the tour guide. She was tall, with long hair, and she seemed to know a lot about Chinese history - as she should, working in a museum. But as Steven Lee listened to her, he couldn't shake the feeling that she wasn't quite what she seemed."

I never did enjoy school trips when I was younger, but for Steven, his school trip to 'The New China Heritage Museum' would change his life forever when he decides to act on his hero like tendencies and follow the unnerving screams from a museum door and an intriguing tour guide named Jumanne acting very out of character. Steven follows the screams down a creepy staircase to an underground cave filled with mysterious pools,

Here he sees a man floating above the pools who is addressed by three scientists as Maxwell. The underground pools contain powers connected to the Chinese zodiac and Maxwell and his army 'The Vanguard' are attempting to consume the powers of all 12 zodiac signs. Had Steven stumbled on this place by chance? or had fate brought him there? and was there anything behind the nickname his grandad had given him growing up "little Tiger".

While saving the Museum tour guide (who he finds out is actually named Jasmine). he unexpectedly consumes the power of the Tiger giving him increased strength and the reflexes and agility of the wild cat. Steven manages to escape the capture set in motion by Maxwell and his army and his world is completely turned around when he joins Jasmine and Zodiac expert Carlos in attempting to stop the vanguard, an evil organisation desperate for the powers of the zodiac.

Growing up with Stan Lee's amazing stories over the years I have connected with so many of his characters. I'm a super hero fan through and through and his amazing writing style, taking people with super human powers who can scale buildings, lift tanks and fly around in iron suits while having to deal with all the real life issues that we all deal with makes him stand out well above the rest. His latest venture 'The Zodiac Legacy - CONVERGENCE' continues this moreish style of writing that gets me hooked every time. I'm only half way through the book but I'm eager to read more and that's the kind of book I want to be reading. As with any book, if it doesn't grab my full attention in at least 5 pages then the book isn't getting read.

If the excitement of a new Stan Lee book isn't excitement enough, it's only signed by the man himself isn't it!!! aaaaggggggghhhhhh!!!! Geek overload!

Convergence, written by Stan Lee and Stuart Moore with art by Andie Tong is the first book in The Zodiac Legacy series and i cant wait to get stuck into the next installment.

 

"Mommy you are AMAZING"

Mothers day! the most important day of the year in our house for me and the boys as Mrs M really takes care of us all and although I like to think that we show her how we feel about her every day its nice to have that one very special day of the year where we can really make a fuss of her.

She's not my mom though so its only right to let one of the boys write this post and our eager 4 year old was quick to step up the the plate as he wanted to write about his lovely mom (in his own words) and pick some great pictures...

Opeie just asked me to add on the end "I think mommy is beautiful!"