Home education diary, August-October 2004

August 23rd

I'm finding it a bit scary how fast the boys are growing up. Daniel's starting full-time work in September with the theatre group. Full-ish time anyway - there will be rehearsals and/or plays each morning, and some teaching in the afternoon, as well as designing and maintaining their web-site and doing some of their publicity posters etc. He hasn't actually finished his NCSC level 2 - he only has about 15 paces left and was going to do them in the summer but somehow time has rushed by. So we'll try and fit them in.

The trouble is, there doesn't seem to be any real impetus, since he doesn't need anything at all for this job. He has his drama grade 8 which is equivalent to an A-level anyway, and of course they know him. Next summer he wants to go on the Doulos ship for two or three months, and after that he doesn't know what he might do. I hope this year with the theatre group will help him decide if he wants to do that long-term, or something completely different.

However as we've paid so much for all the ACE material and he's got this close to finishing level 2, I do think he ought to get them out of the way and get the extra certificate.

September 14th

It's been a crazy three weeks. Antidote Theatre have taken over an old cinema, and had to renovate it in preparation for their classes starting again after the summer.  Richard and Tim got involved with wiring and other technical stuff, insisting it should at least be safe. Daniel helped with some of the stage building

To add to the chaos, a Danish director was visiting for just three weeks, so there were intensive daily rehearsals for one of their future productions. In addition, Daniel has redesigned their web-site and has spent many hours working on updating the content.

October 4th

Daniel's now working at the theatre group with rehearsals most mornings for their next production, and various things in afternoons and evenings. Richard has been helping with installing lighting and sound in the new theatre, and ensuring that they meet European safety regulations. Cypriots tend to be very 'relaxed' about rules and regulations, which isn't a bad thing in some circumstances, but where safety is concerned Richard is pretty inflexible.

Tim's already started working on Christmas music; the inter-church choir who sing annually at a public concert had their first rehearsal yesterday, which I gather went quite well. Tim will be accompanying them as pianist again, so he had the music to work on about a week ago, but says it's extremely difficult. The boys' other activities are slowly starting up again after the summer,

October 16th

Today is Daniel's 18th birthday. We bought him, after much discussion, a drum kit. He'd tried out the electronic drum-kit in church sometimes, but has wanted a real one for a long time. 

He's also temporarily stopped going to church services. He still goes to the youth group, sometimes, and has been involved in an Alpha course, and says he has not given up on God. But he finds church services boring and irrelevant. He says it's just a break until Christmas, when he will resume - so we'll see. It does bother me, but he's an adult now and I need to allow him to make his own decisions and, on occasion, mistakes.

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