Home education diary, December 2004
December 1st
Daniel has had an amazing idea about a future career: in musical instrument repair. He's still taking his music very seriously - despite working many hours at Antidote Theatre, he's doing an hour's practise every day on the clarinet, and a good amount on drums and piano too. He's hoping to buy a wooden clarinet some time next year, with money he inherited. He has made some minor repairs to his clarinet, and read a great deal about instrument repair in general - and finds it fascinating.
The idea sounds exactly right for him. He's still considering working in a music shop next September, after his two months on the MV Doulos (assuming he gets a place). However our home ed friend in Limassol, who also thinks instrument repair sounds perfect for Dan, suggested that perhaps he could do an apprenticeship to the 'master craftsman' guitar and cello-maker in Limassol, who is widely respected locally.
He's also hoping he might be able to take a proper course in instrument repair. There seems to be a centre in Wales that offers this kind of course; not cheap, but we can probably manage it.
He still has about fifteen paces of the NCSC level 2 to complete, and is so busy at present that he's certainly not going to get them done before Christmas. He hasn't actually done any ACE work since about June.
Tim hasn't done much ACE either this term; we need to take it more seriously in January. But he's currently very busy with Christmas music, and seems to sleep until about 10am - or later - most days.
December 22nd
Daniel is still working for Antidote. They didn't pay him for a while, but eventually did pay him two hundred pounds for his work in October and November. Less than they had said - and very little for the amount of work he's done, even at Cyprus rates - but he doesn't care much about money anyway.
He's finding the work a bit frustrating, but I'm encouraged that he's continued working hard anyway, and plans to stick with it until next Summer. He's looking forward to a bit of a break over Christmas, anyway.