Penmanship

Robin

Just as Robin has turned away from stories, there has been a great flourishing of penmanship. It started with his drawing of footballers, a thread that culminated in his picture of the full Spanish football team. He has drawn animals: cats, dogs and monkeys. Robin has been writing, too – his name, sentences dictated to him, and the letter y, in its most curly format, across the bottom of the Observer’s holiday crossword. At Christmas, I saw him trace the letters of curlywurly along the packaging of his Cadbury’s variety pack.

Eliza

Eliza’s new bed has been delivered and assembled. She’s had three satisfied nights sleeping in it. It’s a full size single bed, with a second mattress stored below, which can be rolled out, elevated and made into a double. Stretching out, Eliza covers no more than one-sixth of the single bed’s area. Curled up asleep, 90% of the bed is left empty.

Gabe

A letter home announced the start of sex education lessons for year 5. Gabe appeared reluctant and when asked, he explained that it was “rude”. I made some attempt at reassurance – more information has to be better. Gabe has come across nuclear weaponry in a book. He was alarmed and upset, and sought more information. How many bombs would wipe out a country? How many countries have nuclear bombs? Do they have one bomb each? Would a bomb on Manchester destroy us? Will there be a bomb in his lifetime? Can we move to the country? I wasn’t sure how to reassure and am not convinced that more information is beneficial.