"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."

I try and avoid having the TV on during the day as home schooling is very important stuff don't you know! We do have half an hour some afternoons while eating lunch though when Netflix goes on. There is also of course those odd days where Opeie is feeling under the weather and making a den on the sofa with blankets and pillows is set in to motion. On the evenings if Netflix is on they can watch what they like but if it does go on during the day I try to avoid episode after episode of Pokémon. So what do we watch? Well I try and stick to shows that a little more educational (and Netflix is full of great informative shows).

So here is our top 10 educational shows (in no specific order) that have been keeping us entertained when filling our daytime gaps.

Ill be honest, I'm not a huge fan of Mr Peabody and Sherman but Opeie loves it. The over intelligent beagle Mr Peabody and his human Sherman travel in their time machine to various important times in history while meeting some famous characters (Confucious, Alexander Graham Bell etc). I think its the bad jokes and slapstick humour that I don't like but I will say one thing about the show it is great for getting Opeie asking questions and anything that sparks interest about this sort of thing, is as far as I'm concerned, a great show.

I'm not really sure how Opeie stumbled upon the Wild Kratts but I am so glad he did. The Kratt brothers travel the globe saving animals from often awful predicaments learning about animals, their habitats and how they live. The show deals with big issues through its in show villians, like deforestation and animal skin being used for fashion. The show covers a variety of animals that we had not already covered in books that we have read so it is great for getting Opeie asking questions.

Dinosaur train has been at the top of Opeie's favourite TV shows list since he first became interested in dinosaurs. The show is AMAZING! and I have learnt a lot myself about those 'terrible lizards'. The show focus' on Buddy, a T-rex who upon hatching finds that he is in a Pteranodon nest. Buddy wants to find out why he is different and also learn about all the other dinosaurs that were around in the mesozoic time period. Dinosaur train is so interesting and is great addition to any dinosaur topic.

If you want your young children to learn about different countries and cultures then Mouk is definitely a great add on to help with the introduction into that. If you can get past the slightly irritating theme tune Mouk the adventuring bear and his friends, Based on the french books illustrated by Marc Boutavant will take you on an adventure around the world learning about celebrations, food and how people in other countries live. A great source of TV based education for young children.

Its not all bright colours and cute characters when we are taking in information via the TV. There is a huge selection of great documentaries and scientific shows. Dinosaurs are still playing a big part in our home schooling so shows from the Walking with dinosaurs series have been great for a bit more of a grown up look at what was going on before we started to inhabit the planet.

If there is a problem that can be solved using basic mathematics then the Monster math squad will most likely be there to save the day. We've not watched this for some time but it was such a great show for a Opeie a year or so ago that I thought I would include it in our top 10. Monsters and numbers, who's not going to learn from that?!

As I said before Dinosaurs are still going strong in our house but after watching David Attenborough's The life of birds Opeie has now started swaying more towards the dinosaurs closest living relative. The great thing about being interested in birds (over dinosaurs) is that we can actually see them just by opening the back door or taking a trip to any of our local RSPB sites. The life of birds is a really interesting look at many of the birds we see daily which is great and some more interesting birds, their habits and how they live.

When your kids get into things like sports for example it is great when you can switch on Netflix and find documentaries about the things that they love. The last couple of weeks has been dominated by skateboards and there are a few skateboarding documentaries available to watch. Motivation 2 was the one with the least bad language in but I still had to watch this a couple of times before letting the boys watch to avoid any of the more adult language. Its always handy to have the remote by your side to skip these parts.

Last week we were scrolling through the documentaries and stumbled across 72 dangerous animals: Australia. Opeie wasn't sure what to make of it at first and said he thought it was a little scary but that all changed when it showed a man who had been bitten by a shark and had lived to tell the tale. Opeie was engrossed and all I got was "Cool!". This was a great source of information about poisonous frogs and reptiles, sea creatures and insects that come from a hotter climate. The downside is I don't think we could spring an Australian holiday on Opeie any time soon.

I know that there is always bad press in the media about 'the amount of screen time your kids get' but I believe like anything, if it is done in moderation what's the harm? and with great shows and documentaries like this available at your fingertips then you would be crazy not to take full advantage of the resources available.

"Physical wounds can be treated without much difficulty, but emotional wounds are not so easy to heal."

I asked Seth if he wouldn't mind writing this post, firstly because I am awful at fighting games. Its always been this way ever since I first played Street fighter 2 as a kid. I don't know what it is about them, I just find them so frustrating, I literally can't beat the boys. Secondly Seth is a HUGE Pokémon fan so it seemed like him writing it was the obvious choice. Anyway that said, over to Seth...

Hi It's Seth. I just want to start by saying I love Pokémon games. My favourite Pokémon is Dragonite because he is a dragon type and he is cute. As well as liking Dragonite I like Jiggly-puff. I wasn't sure about Pokémon at first but I tried watching Pokémon indigo league and then it all changed. I asked Pauly if I could save up for Pokémon omega ruby and he said "I have got it up stairs on my 3DS" so I sat down and started to play . That is how I got into Pokémon games. To add onto this I LOVE!!!!!! Nintendo more than any other computer gaming brand. My favourite console is the Wii U. 

One of the things I enjoyed on omega ruby was the battling so I was really excited when Pauly told me about Pokkén tournament. I was really excited as I also love a game called Marvel vs Capcom it is a super hero fighting game and Pokkén tournament is a Pokémon fighting game were I can use some of my favourite characters to battle.

 My favourite part of Pokkén tournament is when you mega evolve and you can turn into a new evolution. To mega evolve you have to get a few hits and wait for a bar to go up and then you press two buttons to trigger off mega-evolution. You can also play multi-player which is lots of fun. A few days ago my next door neighbours and us had a tournament and I won it. You can also play in single player mode. In the single player mode you can play against the computer and level up  your Pokémon to make it stronger. On Pokkén tournament you have extra characters that you can send in and help you.When they help you they will only help you for a few seconds and then you'll have to wait a while before you can call for backup again.

I play mostly on two player but I hope when I play on one player that I can unlock more things to use or play as. My favourite character on this game is Charazard because he is easy to control but I also love Lucario. On Pokkén tournament the controls are easy. Opeie really likes playing as Machamp and sometimes it is really hard to beat him because he just keeps smashing us and Mega evolving.

 As well as mega-evolving there is a massive selection of arena's to battle in. There's a Dojo one and lots of others for battle. The magma one is my favourite.

    By the way I'm really excited about Pokémon sun and moon on the 3DSbecause they are brand new Pokémon games and I love being able to take my Pokémon games out with me on my 3DS. Pauly said that when it comes out we can maybe get sun and moon so that we can play together, I am excited about that the most.

“'Pipe a song about a Lamb!' / So I piped with merry cheer.”

You've got to love the look of pure satisfaction on someones face when they tick something off of their bucket list. I asked Mrs M earlier if she wanted to go for a walk to break up her work day and It really did just that. We're lucky to live next to a huge amount of farm land and with so much greenery on our doorstep, we try and make the most of it as much as we can. 

Mrs M being a HUGE sheep enthusiast stopped to watch the lambs bouncing around one of the fields and then we continued to the surrounding woodland area where we had a wander before heading home. As we passed the other side of the field where Mrs M had been watching the lambs she noticed a farmers truck unloading sheep and lambs into the field and Ive never seen her move so quick, "come on, I might get to hold a Lamb". Me and Opeie couldn't keep up and Mrs M's power walking soon turned to actual running (Mrs M runs for no one!).

When we finally caught up with her she was chatting to the farmer and he told her that he would be bringing more in 10 minutes so naturally we had to wait. When the farmer returned and handed her a lamb to hold I saw the sort of happiness that I didn't even see when I popped that special question.

An unexpected afternoon stroll ending in sheep cuddles, I love living in Shropshire.

"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.

"Some people are better at handling the limelight than others."

A few weeks back our friend Chris came over to help me with photographing the LEGO arcade, while he was here he asked whether he could take pictures of Mrs M to practice his head shots for work (clearly I wasn't attractive enough!). During their mini photo session though they had a visitor who decided to steal the limelight and of course, I had to share. Thanks Chris.

"Twilight drops her curtain down, and pins it with a star."

I always love the games that we get to review for Nintendo, especially as Nintendo played such a huge part of my childhood. What I love most about it though is that every now and again the games go beyond enjoyment and completely suck me in and take control of all of the spare time I have. Despite being such and enormous fan of Nintendo for the last 24 years, when we reviewed The Legends of Zelda Tri force Heroes not too long ago it was actually the first Legends of Zelda game that I had played from the franchise. I'm not quite sure what was holding me back but after playing that I was itching to play the remastered The Legend of Zelda The Twilight Princess HD.

As far as it being a remake goes, I can't really comment as I've not played the Wii edition and have nothing to compare it to, but as a stand alone game The Twilight Princess HD is a truly amazing piece of work and my evenings have been fully submerged into the land of Hyrule. With a Vast land that you can easily spend hours just wandering around, I was glued within 5 minutes of playing.

The story follows Link a ranch hand from a quiet rural community who is sent on a trip to Hyrule to deliver an important package. He arrives to find the land covered in darkness and the eerie dark curtain also causes him to be transformed in to a wolf. So at different chapters in the game you can be playing as link or his wolf shaped counterpart. My favourite part of being the wolf is that you get to talk to any animals you meet along the way giving you further insight in to what is going on  Throughout the story. You meet a variety of enemies but also many friends to help you along your way, my favourite so far have been a group of monkeys to help you get across large gaps. With you throughout the game is Midna a strange ghost like character who gives you tips and often points you in the right direction.

I've racked up about 12 hours game play so far and if the information on any of the gaming sites is anything to go by the game takes an amazing 30-35 hours to complete, so I'm looking forward to many more quiet gaming nights to myself. I can't recommend the Twilight Princess enough. If you've got the sort of spare time that lets you get lost in a huge gaming adventure then you should definitely embark on this HD adventure to Hyrule.

"What you are as a person is far more important than what you are as a basketball player."

You've got to love those amazing neighbours that are more than happy to let you help themselves to their stuff. Our neighbours are AWESOME and seeing as the sun has been out, we have been making the most of their basketball hoop. Seth has been attending basketball club at school so clearly he now thinks he's Patrick Ewing and Opeie has become quite the expert at the scaled down 'Three point line' shot.

Now that the nights are getting lighter, Shooting hoops has become a great way for Mrs M to shut off a little from work when she finishes for the day. Shes still not loving the temperature outside at the moment (but that's what my winter coat is for).

One of the things I love about homeschooling (especially for Opeie's age) is that pretty much any activity we are doing during the day can be turned in to fun learning. Supermarkets are great for spelling and numeracy activities and visiting ANYWHERE can lead to none stop educational questions if you have an interested student. Playing basketball outside is no different. Last week we spent almost two hours playing basketball, using it as a spelling, writing and maths activity.

First Opeie spelt basketball related words (Basket, hoop, Dunk, Dribble etc) covering writing and spelling. Then we took shots and used the number of shots and subtracted the amount of times we scored to come up with how many times we had missed, simple and fun.

12 shots - 7 scored = 5 missed

A maths lesson in the sun.

With Opeie's birthday approaching next week this new love of basketball in the street has got us thinking about other sports we can play out there as a family, its going to be a great summer.