"Planets move in ellipses with the Sun at one focus."

An afternoon scoot looking for conkers, leaves and acorns yesterday turned in to an outdoor spelling activity and an hour of learning about the planets in our solar system. I managed to get the first five planets in the right order when explaining their distance from the sun but sadly (and I hang my head in shame) this homeschooling dad had to turn to his old friend Google to fill in the blanks.

I somehow managed to leave the park without photographing Neptune, clearly that's the least important of the planets. Its a great touch having these educational extras on playgrounds, there was nothing like this when i was young. I'm wondering if the next step is pythagoras' Theorem next to the swing frame or π next to the round about? I'll need to sharpen up on that at some point though (I can't turn to Google for everything).

"Life is anything that dies when you stomp on it."

Its been a few weeks since our post about our interesting find in the woods . We did finally get round to painting the other side of our dinosaur feet and on Friday night before heading out on our weekend of camping fun I spent the evening drilling holes and sewing the elastic straps on to our creations, ready for some dino stomping along the beach. Earlier that day we popped out to get some last minute provisions for the trip and Opeie spotted a dinosaur costume in a shop that just had to come along for the journey too.

 The dino costume had to of course go on as soon as we hit the beach and as Opeie galloped along the rocks with a huge smile on his face I found myself falling in love with him all over again. We were after soft wet sand though, so that we could give our dinosaur feet a good stomp but as we couldn't see past the rocks in the distance, the dino rider and his trusty steed inevitably ended up on my shoulders.

 We finally reached the wet sand and sat down to attach those gloriously painted Theropod feet. Opeie looked so pleased with himself and what he had created as we stamped our feet along the shore line splashing in the water and squelching our colourful toes in to the soft wet sand.

 Being a dinosaur is hard work! so after an hour of stamp, STAMP, STAMPING, We sat down for a bite to eat (there were no smaller dinosaurs about so its still the herbivore lifestyle for us). It was a little overcast but the beach was calm and peaceful (after the stomping had stopped anyway).

 Our homemade Dinosaur feet were everything we expected, as we sat on the beach Opeie said "Daddy, I'm having the best day today, I love you.", I could have cried. Being a dinosaur for the afternoon is AMAZING! but it will never beat that awesome feeling I get from being a dad.

"Happiness is the natural flower of duty."

I had the weirdest conversation at the park yesterday with what I can only describe as a complete lunatic. The voice, who introduced himself as 'Choochy' talked about the ultimate battle between Pirates and Dinosaurs. He went on to tell me that Police and Criminals would inevitably need to join forces to take on the sheer magnitude of these colossal forces.

Clearly i was hooked as soon as the voice started emanating for the pretty yellow flower. The voice continued setting me tasks to put in to action to save us from our impending doom and although scared by what was coming I felt strangely at ease by his trusting voice, who was this strange person communicating via plant? was he some sort of deranged botanist as well as our savior? I'm still unsure, but thanks to the chance secretive meeting i am prepared for the events that are going to unfold, are you?

"Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand."

Opeie's self guided learning over the last year or so has made our choice to continue home educating run smoothly, he has a genuine interest in learning about all sorts of things and we read so much throughout the week. Dinosaurs are still taking up a lot of our time and I'm learning just as much as he is (about all sorts of things). Did you know that animals with trunks are proboscidean? Well I didn't until recently when My clever little 4 year old told me.

Despite dinosaurs and large mammals being at the forefront of our play he has also taken a keen interest in science and the human anatomy. We were having a conversation one day about blood flowing around our body and he looked really excited and said 'daddy can we go to the library tomorrow and get some books about blood please?', I love seeing how excited he get about things, his passion for learning is contagious.

So we've been learning about all sorts and a few days back we were reading about joints, muscles and tendons from a book Opeie had chosen from the library. Which brought us on to a fun science activity. Firstly we drew around our hands and cut them out.

We then flattened some drinking straws and lay them along each finger marking the point where each joint was. We cut small triangle sections at each marking and attached them to each finger.

We then threaded string up each straw and attached the string to the tip of the finger. Then holding the palm of the hand between our thumb and forefinger we pulled the string, simulating the movement of all the joints on our own hands. It was a quick yet fun craft session which Opeie found really interesting.

I'm hoping that this new found love of science continues as i was loving all the experiments we did last year with Seth but he seemed to lose interest after a while (I'm really missing the lab we created in Seth's room too since we moved). I think its time now to get our lab coats at the ready and to dig out the microscope, beakers and chemicals so we can get properly stuck in to some science fun.

“Try not. Do… or do not. There is no try.”

I love a good themed book day. It was Roald Dahl day a few weeks ago, world book day is always fully embraced in our house each year and now October 10th is apparently Star Wars reading day! With the force awakens release closing in on us the shops are filled with all sorts of products to coincide with the movie. It's great to see that aside from all the toys and games there is a great selection of themed reading material for the boys to get stuck in to. When I was younger there was nothing like the selection you get these and i would rely on getting annuals for Christmas each year.

My favourite books Star Wars themed that have been released are the recent Disney Scholastic Star Wars Work books. If I had have had theses when I was younger I'd have been in my element. Each book contains a huge amount of Numeracy and Literacy activities with each one being aimed at a specific age group. The activities and illustrations are really cute and even Jar Jar Binks is bearable in these books.

 Opeie loves the work books and has ploughed through most of them, the books don't really appeal to Seth though and he is definitely more interested in 'Grown up reading' these days. Dk books have released some amazing books over the years documenting all the things I loved growing up, especially Super heroes and Star Wars. We have the Star Wars character encyclopedia from a few years back so the recent releases, Star Wars in 100 Scenes and Star Wars Absolutely everything you need to know have been a well received addition to our ever growing home library for the boys.

 Now, Its a well known fact in Shropshire that Seth is possibly the worst joke teller in the county (possibly the country). Yesterdays joke was 'what do you call an egg that just keeps going?"..."Eggain!". I think the puzzled look on my face said it all. As you can imagine he was pretty excited (and we were relieved) when he started reading the Star Wars Joke Book.

I'm not saying Jabba's heavy but the last time he stepped on the scales it said, "to be continued".

or Seth's favourite, Why did the Ewok fall out of the tree? It was dead! I think the humour has been restored in our house.

And for me a bit of light reading with Jason Fry's The weapon of a Jedi, which as of yet Ive not started because I was too engrossed reading the DK books with the boys but I am looking forward to getting in to soon. Star Wars reading day was a blast and has continued over the last few weeks. Disney's merchandising for this movie so far has been amazing (but I expected nothing less from Disney) and there are lots of items we'd like to get our hands on over the coming months. I think there maybe a few things on Santa's list Star wars themed too this year.

And the reading awards for Star Wars reading day are as follows...

Of course I would have to be the Fishiest! “Laugh it up, fuzzball!”

As we all patiently await the release of the force awakens all this reading material has been an awesome distraction and the work books especially have been a great extra for Opeie's home educating. Now were off for a star Battle, guess who has to be Darth!

“Only at the end do you realize the power of the Dark Side.”

The End

"The path of sound credence is through the thick forest of skepticism."

I love getting out and about adventuring with the boys and we've found some pretty great hidden things to do in Shropshire. Ive recently started running again and last week while i was running through a woodland area I spotted a huge piece of tarpaulin that looked high up in the trees well off the footpath. My sense of intrigue quickly kicked in and I found myself climbing over branches and walking through wet mud to find out what was going on. When I arrived I wasn't disappointed and I knew that I had to show Opeie what I had stumbled across, the find was going to be perfect for some Home ed fun.

What I had found was what looked like a landslide that had unearthed a huge tree and the tree had fallen across the other side of a mini valley with the off shoot of a stream below. Above, someone had built large decking supported by the tree with a tarpaulin roof, pretty amazing. Below, further down the tree was what looked like a cliff tent hanging from the tree like a cocoon, so we're not sure if someone is living there. There was no one about when we arrived so me and my little side kick made the most of the very cool structure.

We had a great conversation about how the decking was being supported and then we started an afternoon of painting, home education at is best. At the start of the summer holiday, after Opeie had been making mini dinosaur footprints in his Play-Doh me and the boys had drawn dinosaur feet, cut them out of cardboard and my good friend Steve had very kindly cut them out of wood for us. We are planning on making dinosaur feet to attach to our shoes for stomping in the mud but first we needed to paint them and the towering structure in the woods was the perfect spot for creating.

I love painting with Opeie but sitting in silent woodland was really relaxing and really added to the experience. We talked about all sorts while we were using our creative flair. Its this sort of thing that really pushed us towards home education, Opeie not being confined to a classroom and instead, sitting outdoors with fresh air taking in the beautiful surroundings.

We spent a good couple of hours on the new woodland base and painted one side of our dinosaur feet. The plan is to visit again this week and paint the remaining side. Opeie had had his fill of painting and wanted to move on to something different...

... a game he simply called dinosaurs in the mud. We got to run around pretending to be different kinds of dinosaurs while Opeie told me lots of facts about his favourite topic at the moment. When we were both shattered and sweaty we lay on the leaf covered ground and played with his dinosaur toys and counted the flowers, awesome. 

All that was left to do after all our forest fun was head home to go and wash our hands. It pays to investigate, get out there! there may be all kinds of fun on your doorstep too.

"You fake a stomach cramp, and when you're bent over, moaning and wailing, you lick your palms. It's a little childish and stupid, butthen, so is high school."

Sometimes I write a post and for some reason or other  it doesn't get published so every now and again I'm just going to publish them as it seems a waste, so here's the first of my belated posts.

I don't have a great recollection of my time at primary school, I'm not really sure why? I remember the big events, marrying my girlfriend of 3 years at the leavers assembly in a mock wedding set up by the teachers (weird) followed by everyone in our year holding hands in a circle while me and my new wife danced at the leaving disco definitely stands out, but the general events have always been a little hazy. What I do remember about school overall though was the uncertainty and the never really feeling comfortable in my surroundings. When it came to getting out of school I was terrible during the secondary years, skiving off lessons and forging apparent notes from my parents. At primary school though I hadn't reached that point so all I had to play with was good old fashioned physical illness because I craved that mythical sick day so much. Back then in the 80's there was a movie knocking about that gave me all the motivation I needed for staying home and doing my own thing, thanks to Netflix Ferris Beuller has been on hand to teach the boys the same life lessons.

Sometimes though there's no need for all the theatrics, This week I had a phone call from the school letting me know that Seth was unwell an could I come and collect him. Although I don't want either of the boys to be unwell. I still get excited about an extra day at home and being too ill to go out means fun in the house when everyone else is trapped at dreaded school. That afternoon Seth pretty much just slept and then went to bed early. The following morning Seth had the tell tale dark rings around the eyes, a classic sign of him feeling unwell. That rare sick day was upon us and i was intending to make the most of it (If Seth was feeling up to it of course).

The first part of the day was spent sofa bound, but there was no complaints here. I don't feel like we get to do this enough as we are always busy doing other things. Cuddles under the blanket is exactly where we needed to be. Plus it gave us another excuse to relive the trials and tribulations of Mr Beuller on Netflix.

It may have been psychological but I was starting to feel a little rough myself, this usually happens with me (strange I know). We needed something tasty for breakfast to set us up for the day so with a little hand from Opeie we made Buckwheat banana and nutmeg pancakes with peanut putter which seemed to perk everyone up.

All the excitement of breakfast was clearly too much for Seth so he made his way back to bed, followed by the hairiest nurse in the house. Polly is adorable and every night when the boys go to bed she goes up with them and sleeps outside their room, like their furry protector. She is very switched on to them being ill and seems to know when things aren't right and this sick day was no different. Polly followed Seth straight up to the top bunk and curled up at his feet, staying there until Seth was ready to come down (She is such an awesome cat!).

We love playing computer games but I'm always wary about the amount of time spent playing, this however goes out the window when the boys are ill. If we are confined to the sofa then I am happy to fully embrace the consoles and our love of gaming. Thanks to our friends Chris and Katie who gave the boys some new games last weekend we were all entertained for the afternoon.

At some point in the day the boys would eventually be wanting to take them selves away from the comforts of the cozy sofa. After lunch we braved it upstairs to the bedroom, because that's where the LEGO is of course. It wasn't the intense LEGO building session that we usually throw ourselves in to but we did manage to make a couple of custom figures for our Marvel Super Hero collection.

It was a day of playing and relaxing and despite the illness loitering in the house I think we all needed it and loved every minute of our stolen day at home. It was back to school the following day and Seth's adventures soon became a distant memory, Thanks to Netflix though Ferris is there for Seth to brush up on his skiving tactics

LEGO Minecraft - The nether Fortress

As much as I love LEGO in its entirety there are some themes that I struggle to know what to say when reviewing the product. The main one being Minecraft and although the kits are awesome and the minifigures are really interesting, I know literally nothing about the game apart from the main character being called Steve. Luckily though Seth knows his stuff which is handy in these sorts of situations.

I was going to just leave him to do his own thing but as we were playing one afternoon we came up with the plan for me to take a series of pictures of the LEGO Minecraft Nether Fortress and put them in our comic format and for Seth to add in the story of what he thinks is going on, enjoy...

As a custom builder the LEGO Minecraft Nether Fortress drew me in because of the interesting minifigures parts and all the deep red bricks, I can definitely make good use of them if Seth decides to brake it up.

The Nether fortress is one of four LEGO Minecraft kits this year and they are all really interesting. If what I hear in the playground at Seth's school is anything to go by Santa is going to be inundated for requests for Steve and his brick friends.

'The product was provided by LEGO GmbH without any obligation in regards to the content of the review’