A busy week

Just as I start to wonder how we are actually going to fit in working for these exams, life seems to get busier. I am still breathing! trying not to let my increased heart rate steal away my external cool nor show SB how daunting this bit feels! ir is going to be fine! I cnnot do the work for her, I cannot learn it for her. I can just facilitate the resources, learning times and hopefully some of the techniques for exam based knowledge. I think there is quite a leap to go from understanding what is presented and remembering the broad outline – which gives you the feeling you know it – and being able to regurgitate minutiae! oh yes, breathe!!

So this weeks ‘hit the books’ days were mon, weds and fri – nice and evenly spaced! As you can see, both SB and BB are doing well with this. SB is prioritising french, classical civ, biol and geog and clarinet followed by music theory, maths and english. the first 4 are her potential igcse subjects for the summer – definitely the first 2, and one of the second 2. She is taking her grade 4 clarinet this term. We have decided not to stress ourselves, but to take grade 6 theory next term or even next november. I think she could just pass if we crammed it this time, but the stress is unnecessary. Better to understand fully and then take the exam, as there is no hurry. Maths and english to keep going! then she picks and chooses what else in the time left – craft/boardgame/another academic/piano. I don’t think she will get much time to look at her MOOCs at this rate! It is all feeling a bit pressured squeezy at the moment, but hoping that it becomes comfortable, and we work with it! BB has done another great work week – she interprets her ticksheet in her own individualistic way. My total home ed plan is really just to keep the envelope where it is, and a gentle stretch once in a while, against her natural inclination to shrink down. In reality this means us encouraging some maths and something writing related weekly and some music, and then being very happy with whatever she determines is home ed on top of this. She would, in preference, probably spend her whole life in front of a computer screen, and although we let her have quite a lot [i think] i can’t bear for this to be her only interaction, even if it is often with friends on skype co-playing. She really misses frb, her partner in crime! her best HE mates either live at some distance or are now in school. I think that when I get my head sorted with SB and exams, I need to devote a lot of headspace to BB and meeting her needs.

SO Tuesday was a last hurrah for the botany group, which won’t be running this year. They all went to Kew Gardens for the day. Initially BB thought that this was going to be really boring, but actually she loved it! she has shown me her pics of things that interested her – the glass houses, interesitng bark and leaf shapes, tall trees, low flying aeroplanes, the vegetables… and talked a lot. SB has been too busy to talk to me about anything or that is how it seems. Sounds like a great day out, even if they did walk their legs off [bb]

thursday SB had a biot of a change as she caught a train alone to meet up with the manor borns for a classical civ study group with steve from portals, who is being her tutor. She said she really enjoyed the session, that he was interesting, and she understands what she needs to do – apparently listen to the oddysey dvd he has made whilst reading the book. i hope that is it, as SB has a memory lapse sometimes on these things. She also went swimming with C and played boardgames. She does love her friend C, adn it is a shame we just dont get to meet up as often as we once did. i am not sure where time goes really.

Another change for SB this week – and another huge time commitment! – is that she is going to stop guides and instead go to air coprs at the locasl RAF base 2 evenings a week. I( am a bit of a peacenik myself, so more breathing over the potential to learn how to handle guns etc. But she is keen to do this, meet new people, learn new skills. So off she goes