"Everyone couldn't stop laughing..."

(This was ds1's verdict today on his first 2-hour IGCSE chemisty lesson with a group of home educated children.)

His other comment was something along the lines of:

The tutor gave us bags of chocolates. There were so many. We stuffed them in our pencil cases. She said she's going to bring some more next week.

Yep.

I reckon that woman has teenage boys just about sussed.

Bring chocolates AND make 'em laugh.

Sorted.

Ds2 had his first Spanish session today. A thumbs up from him.

Next week more chemistry for ds1, and ds2 starts his Arts Award.


It's all rather strange. After years of very much a DIY approach (i.e. we bumble along through most subjects/topics, working it out for ourselves) I finally get to hand over the responsibility, temporarily, for educating two of my children for an hour or so. Apart from the occasional activity the kids have done, this is pretty much a first for us.

I wonder, is this what it's like to send your child to school? Probably not. After all, I'm hardly abandoning them at the school gate to do god-knows-what while I bake cakes and work off the 2 stone I've put on through childbearing by gym and yoga classes. I've never had that experience, and though I hankered for it once, I certainly wouldn't swap our lives for that now.

No. This seems like the next stage. Up to this point we've done everything on a shoestring budget and mother-and-child-fuelled energy. This is the right time to be buying in the experience/expertise/skills that I either don't have, or don't have energy or enthusiasm for.

And if our weeks consist of a mix of fencing sessions, Capoeira, swimming, home ed group, Spanish, Art class, film-making, archaeology club, computer programming, warhammer/model-making, chess, geography and chemistry, plus the projects we'll continue to do at home...Well, that seems a pretty decent spread to me. Let's hope we all have the stamina to keep up the pace!
 
Meanwhile we await news of whether ds1 will get a place on a training session at a local archaeological museum on 'object identification'. The aim, after the training session, is to help out at regular sessions via his (usual) local archaeological group, classifying and photographing and cataloguing objects in the museum. And this is a big, very important museum.

We've been unable to find him volunteer work at the local museums, primarily because of his age (child protection, supervision, blah blah), but also because he is competing against the students from two universities in the city who naturally want CV-boosting experience. Given the choice between a 19-yr-old university archaeology/classics student and a 13 yr-old enthusiastic amateur in a hoodie it's obvious which the museum staff would choose.

So perhaps something will come of this. As long as nobody starts getting picky about his age, this could be just the ticket for him :)

And if not, hopefully ds1 will get a place on the 'big' dig they'll be doing in October - he's done test pits, but not a full scale dig yet, so if it comes together, this will be very exciting for him...

Fingers crossed.