Going down the home education path with Opeie has so many benefits but the one biggy for me is those rare occasions where Mrs M is working away or late, and there's no school pick up for Seth. On days like this we are off adventuring and have the flexability of going further out. I've always loved the idea of Opeie not being confined to a classroom, I didn't enjoy school myself, it never motivated me and I don't want that for Opeie.
Having the freedom to do our own thing and learn through experience is so much more interesting. We decided one morning that we were going to go to the beach, we had nowhere to be in the afternoon so it was the perfect day for seaside adventuring. Our plan was to head to shell island as we love it there but on route we made a stop off in Welshpool. We've driven through there so many times and it's a lovely looking place and we had noticed there were lots of charity shops so we stopped for some book hunting for reading on the beach. It turned out to be a great idea and we managed a great book haul with lots of great books containing a certain bear that Opeie has fallen in love with.
After Welshpool we continued our journey but before we went to Shell island Opeie wanted to go book hunting in Barmouth first. We had packed a lunch but the smell of chips on the sea front drew us in so with wooden forks in hand we marched to the beach with the sweet smell of chips trailing behind us.
The sky started to go a little gloomy but we were not going to let some dark clouds spoil our day so we ran along the beach talking about the tide while collecting shells and pretty rocks.
The weather was desperate to ruin our fun though and when the rain started thrashing down, as lovely as it was watching it on the beach, we headed back to the car. Luckily our four wheeled escape pod was full of snacks and plenty of new books to read, which we took full advantage of as the rain pelted off the windows.
At that point shell island didn't seem like a great idea, so as the rain showed no sign of dying down we decided to head home and play the look out for brown attraction signs that we love to play hoping to find somewhere new to investigate. On the journey back we spotted a sign for Lake Vyrnwy, it was only 10 miles out from our route home and even though the weather was still bleak we made a joint decision to go for it and I'm so glad we did.
As we pulled on to the lake we drove across a huge dam gushing out water and Opeie's little eyes lit up. The area is absolutely beautiful and despite the grotty weather we were having an awesome time. First we headed over to the information centre and met a lovely chap who's name i cant for the life of me remember (even though i thought i had written it in my phone). He filled us in on all the things we could see while there and gave us loads of information about the lake/dam along with a activity book for Opeie. It's days like this that make me realise even more that the home ed path was a great choice.
After our chat we braved the downpour and went investigating, heading first toward the sculpture park. Opeie loved the Giant mermaid and all the other pieces on display. It also gave us a great chance to be right at the bottom of the dam which was really interesting and spurred on A LOT of questions from Opeie.
At this point the weather really started giving it its all and I think Opeie was getting a little fed up of being wet so we headed back to the car. It was such a great place to find and we can't wait to go back and drive the full 10.5 miles of the lake as there are lots of things to do and see along the way including a waterfall.
It turned out to be the perfect day of adventuring and the sort of education that you don't get everyday being confined to a desk. I wonder where our next adventure will be?
Looks like you had an amazing day. Homeschooling is just awesome isn't it. I found it harder when D went back to school and J was still off as it meant we couldn't have those big days out as we always had to rush back for school pickup. X
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