"A" Team, at last

Son was very excited when I picked him up last Friday. He had been picked to run in the 'A' team for Sports Day. They had done qualifying runs some times back and his time was good enough to go into the 'A's'.

In everything else -- football, rugby, hockey, cricket -- he's been in the C's or B's. So this is great encouragement to him.

I've never thought of him as a runner as such. Having said that he surprised everyone by coming in third in his qualifying race on Sports Day last year. But there is great competition amongst the boys. All the best to him.

On Wednesday last week husband and I met with his Form teacher. There was very little she could tell us. Everything was good with him, it seemed.

He appears to have lots of friends. His writing is flowing. His vocabulary and grasp of the English language is good. He shows great maturity of thought, for example, when it came to writing about the one object he would take with him if he were going to the Arctic. A warm hat was his choice whilst his classmates were bringing their PS1 and PS2's.

OK.

His Form teacher is new to the school. When we noted that son refused to write two years ago because he thought his handwriting was not good enough, she was surprised. No one seemed to have briefed her on that.

Well, we noticed that with the new teachers at school, son does not come with any 'baggage'.

Which explains why the new Drama teacher gave him the starring part in the class play earlier this year. A far cry from being given four lines when he asked for a 'main part' previously.

To be fair he is not a 'natural' actor. Just as he is not a 'natural' footballer. But he is extremely capable in learning lines, and when he's given good acting directions, would follow it to the letter. Suits some types of directors more than others, I guess.

Still, he confessed to shedding a few tears on Friday when he was being very quiet after swimming. We are used to him "getting into the zone".

There are times when he would 'blank' and seems in a world of his own. It happens before he performs on the piano. It happens when he has a serious thought or when he tries to work out some complicated connection. It happens any where, sometimes at dinner table.

His classmates noticed he was very quiet. But boys being boys they could not leave him alone. Someone said to another, "LT is crying."

He was not, but when others started echoing that same comment, he did indeed cry.

He has to learn that he could tell this people: sometimes people wish to be quiet and think about something rather serious.

Ah, well.