Almost A Year
Well this is embarrassing isn’t it? Almost a year since my last update, despite the protestations of my cousin Jayne! Well nothing to be done now except to rip the plaster off and bring you up to date. Let’s start with Sam this time. He did really well in his GCSEs, including a 9 in Maths, and nothing lower than a 7. He’s gone on to Bay House Sixth Form to study Maths, Further Maths, Economics and Chemistry (though he’s considering dropping Further Maths, which is a very normal thing to do).
Read more…Unemployed
Don’t worry, Claire and I are still employed! But Lauren, having finished all her exams but not yet having been accepted to a Uni, is technically unemployed. Everything seemed to go well, no major meltdowns after an exam, so now we just await her results. Sam is still working through his GCSEs, but only 3 more to go I think. In his very understated way he’s working through them, overcoming his natural resistance to revision as best he can.
Read more…Catchup
As the rock band Staind so wisely said, it’s been awhile. We’ve been doing the rounds with Lauren, and she’s narrowed her choices down to Exeter, Leeds and East Anglia (York and Warwick are too posh apparently). Exeter may be the favourite, but she’s working so hard at getting the grades to go somewhere that we haven’t had time to sit down and work out where that somewhere should be!
Read more…Schooling
I’m a bit behind, so here’s a quick catch-up on education. Lauren got an A in her AS level Psychology, and Sam got an A in his Statistics GCSE. We’re now looking at the next steps for them both. Sam is considering Maths, Chemistry and Computer Science A levels. We’ve visited two local colleges so far, and his favourite is where Lauren currently is. After some consideration Lauren has decided to study Law.
Read more…Aah
We met up with the rest of the Harris clan yesterday to celebrate Diana’s (and Claire’s) birthday. The highlight was near the end of the day when Kaira wombled into the living room, spotted Sam on the couch, said “hi!", then walked over and gave him an extended hug. The rest of us were a little jealous.
Stop Vibrating
The family were watching the Friends episode where Ross wears leather trousers. At one point Sam asked Claire to stop vibrating, she was laughing so much.
Off to Work
Lauren starts a trial period working at a local pub/restaurant next week. The trial was optional, but a friend who works there cried after her first shift because it’s such hard work, so she wisely decided to give it a try first. Kids these days eh?
Blue's Clues
Lauren cooked some cookies for Mother’s Day. Three of them were in the shape of letters, and Claire and the kids decided that they should eat them. So Sam started singing “We just got a letter” from Blue’s Clues, a kids programme he would have last seen when he was 3.
School Report
Sam had another parent-teacher conference yesterday. As always the teachers are really pleased with how he’s doing. He needs to put himself forwards a little more, and have a go at an answer even if he’s not sure of it. This all sounds familiar from the equivalent meetings for Lauren a couple of years ago. Claire cried when she heard about this, but that was as much to do with being ill (enough that she couldn’t go) as it was pride for her little boy!
Read more…Shoes
Today we bought Lauren some shoes for her birthday. Sadly this is for her birthday from 2 years ago. Top parenting.