Pleased or what?
With possibly the youngest qualified electrician, and (newly) accountant (buy the financial times on the 10th of September and you will see Timothy's name in print) I consider myself blessed. After all, homeschooling DID work ; - )
This week the blessings consider to be heaped on me. David completed his 3-week blacksmithing course (there is an alternative version of the course which is spread over 9 months!) on Friday. At the start he was well behind - a real novice, it seemed, compared with all the other men on the course. Some of them were re-taking the course having failed. With a bit of winkling (he has Timothy's modesty) I find that not only was he the youngest on the course - and the least experienced at the start - but he was in the half of the class which passed. Not only that but, although faults are permitted ( a bit like with your driving test) David had NONE - he had been preparing a set of metal things which had to be on a board - to be inspected as part of the exam - as well as some of them having to be made again for the exam in a set time. There were no faults on the exam pieces either. he was told that one of the things he made under the pressure of time was better than the one he had perfected for his display board already.
I'm thankful that David doesnt' have to fritter away 9 months of his life slowly working through what he just did in 3 weeks - though it was jolly hard work. I'm also thankful for the lovely family which the Lord provided for David to stay with in Hereford. Once he has found a training farrier (I still favour the one in Wellington - 3 miles from the farm) he will return to Hereford for some weeks per year over the coming 4 years, for the classroom part of the apprenticeship.
Things I've been finding out this week are: you can spend many days tidying up and the house can still not look like a show-house AND some of the exciting ways I can help Victoria to develop language , understanding and memory. But this isn't the place to report on Victoria....