"Problems are hidden opportunities, and constraints can actually boost creativity."

When it comes to home-schooling, the learning never stops, but over the school holidays we definitely kick back and relax a little. The boys have had so much fun so far over the Easter period and it'll be sad when Seth goes back to school after this week. Ive been trying to get Opeie into a little coding recently and have borrowed books from the library and a BBC Micro:bit but he just hasn't shown any interest. I think part of it is because I want to have a go and learn with him but I didn't want to push it as thats the quickest way to put any child off an project.

Yesterdays activity, which I assumed would only last for a couple of hours ended up filling our whole day and in Opeie's words was 'One of the best Daddy-School days he's ever had'. Back in November we bought Seth a LEGO Boost kit for his birthday (Ok, so I was trying to get them both into coding) and with his obvious love of LEGO, it seemed like the perfect gift for Seth and something that Opeie may have been interested in at a later date. Seth sat and built it after his Birthday and had a little play but it ended up on a shelf untouched. So yesterday as the weather was awful and it was clear that we were not going anywhere, Opeie and I decided to have a play.

After learning the basics and working out what each of the commands does we began building a track out of LEGO so that we could work out the commands to get Vernie the robot to the finish line. For dramatic effect we used Opeie's Creator 3 in 1 robot (Which looks like it could be Vernie's child) and placed it at the end of the course. So Vernie had lost his child and needed to be programmed to get to them safely. One of the many thing I love about the boost is being able to key in the turning Degrees. We hadn't covered that yet so we drew a circle and I spent some time explaining Degrees and how the number we entered, would affect the robots movement. Seeing the actions in motion rather than just being on paper meant that this sank straight in with Opeie

It wasn't all movement that we needed to code though which made the activity even more fun. I placed the traffic cones (that come with the kit) across the track and Opeie stopped the robot at that point, recorded himself saying "Oh no! traffic comes, please can I have some help?" and also added that into the chain of commands followed by a 360° spin and flashing disco lights on the chest once they were moved.

Opeie's next obstruction was a Nexo Knights robot who was blocking his path. Opeie programmed his robot to stop and say hello and then recorded voice commands so that they could have a short conversation before high fiving and continuing along the route. Desperate to make use of the rocket launcher on his shoulder, Opeie built a LEGO target before adding in some coding to make Vernie stop and shoot it down. When the command for 360° spin didn't quite go around all the way (probably due to being on carpet), Opeie worked out how many more degrees he needed to turn and then added that into the line of coding too, which straightened up Vernie, keeping him on his path.

When Vernie finally made it to Vern Jr, Opeie had recorded an excited reunion piece to finish off our afternoon of LEGO fun. These are the sort of homeschooling activities that really reinforce our decision to teach Opeie ourselves and this is also another huge win for those amazing bricks, turning a dull and rainy day into a colourful learning adventure. 

"Treasure your relationships, not your possessions."

There has been an envelope sitting on our tall boy at home amongst the tin robots since last Thursday, addressed to me and the boys with the strict instructions not to open until 4pm today. As you can imagine me and the boys were very eager for that time to arrive as we had no ideas about the contents of said envelope. Mrs M had left us this as she is working away and we've all been missing her very much.

Excitement was in the air when Seth finished school today and we raced back to see what Mrs M had planned for us. Inside, a clue and the start of what turned out to be a very exciting treasure hunt. I loved how personal the treasure hunt was, some of the the clues were things that only we would know and were aimed at us individually. Considering Mrs M is always so busy with work I don't know how she found the time to organise it.

Not only were we running about the house searching for well hidden items, we also had to take our hunt online and get clues from Mrs M's Twitter page. As excited as the boys were getting, I was starting to get a bit of a headache by this point as because the excitement was too much. I loved the effort that had gone in knowing that she would be away for a few days and it really meant a lot to us that she had gone all out with this surprise hunt.

With clues zipped inside sofa cushions, within the pages of books, inside pen lids and hidden in the barbecue in the garden it was just what the boys needed to perk them up because of mommy working away. I was getting so much out of the smiles on the boys faces, it was lovely to watch. there was one point where there was a clue in a box of Amsterdam shortbread and Seth thought that was the end but the search continued.

The final clue was a memory stick with instructions to play a video and when the boys saw Mrs M wearing a pirate hat and explaining where the surprise was  they were on the edge of their seats. She told the boys that even though she had told them where the surprise was they had to watch the video till the end. She told Seth not to run off and that she knew he was giggling (which he was, he thought that was amazing).

As the video ended they both darted for our bedroom to the lever arch folder in the bookcase that was hiding their surprise. Mrs M notched up some serious super mom points today, not for the surprise itself although we've all been so excited about getting this game and it really will keep us entertained while she is away but for the effort and love that went into organising this without us knowing, so that she can continue to put smiles on our faces even though shes not with us.

I feel so lucky to have Mrs M as a best friend and i know the boys feel exactly the same way. Now to go and play LEGO haha.

Thanks Mrs M there really is no one quite like you x

"Science does not know its debt to imagination."

FOX!!!

We had a really fun afternoon at Thinktank but sometimes you just want a lazy post with pictures and yes those 80's throwbacks are still wearing sweatbands, thanks Jamie.