Kayaking and Electronics · Saturday October 13, 2007 by Rose
Yesterday afternoon JJ went to take the exam for the kayaking course that he has been taking. For five weeks he has joined with a group of other kids from our group, to take their RYA first certificate. I’m proud to say that he passed! Next week he starts a similar course for sailing (which is something he’s really interested in).
This is the first thing he’s done on his own – both without his brothers and often without us, as someone else has sometimes taken and collected him. I’ve watched him “grow up” considerably over the past five weeks and I’m really enjoying watching him blossom.
As if to reinforce this maturing that puberty is bringing, last night instead of reading before bed (he’s a bookworm like me) instead he put on his pc and found an internet radio station to listen to for an hour and a half! He said it was “helping me relax”!
It feels very strange, as I still remember being a teenager; I can’t get my head around the fact that now a son of MINE is a teen!
Whilst he was out the other two each went onto separate pcs. SJ did his emails and his blog, and WD played a star wars game which he can (just about) play on his own.
We are trying to encourage him to WANT to read so that he can play these games without so much help, but I suspect that is a shot in the foot as he LIKES having his brothers “have to” help him..
This weird speech of his (WD) is making it harder for others to understand him at the moment. With every “i” sound having suddenly become “oi”, strangers can’t understand him. I wish I knew why this had suddenly started.
Meanwhile, baby is still colicky and I am fearing some kind of lactose intolerance; I think its more because of how he is feeding that an actual intolerance.
The free trial for Learning Upgrade has run out, and I merrily signed up for a free reading trial (SJ had tried the maths). I should have thought first. SJ got incredibly upset that he couldn’t do the maths (even though my mum is going to pay for him to have it all the time now) and refused to do the reading. It was a reminder of the fact that I really have to think about things from his perspective first, rather than always acting on what I think is suitable.
Yet again I realise just how hard it would have been for him if he had still been in school.
Today we had a photographer round from a national paper that we had been interviewed for, so that was something different to start the day with! We got out the microscopes and the Hot Wires sets, so that we had something visual to use (as we don’t do workbooks!), and when the photographer left, the boys carried on with them.
The Hot Wires is something I can recommend; whilst he was not interested in electronics, when it involved looking at circuit diagrams or the science of electricity, give him these chunky bits to put together and create things with, is really working. He also enjoyed the visit to a power station that we did in our first year of home ed!
