It ain't like dustin' crops, boy!

In Star Wars IV A New Hope, Han makes it clear to Luke that jumping into hyperspace is no mean feat; it requires precise calculations, without which they could, 'fly right through a star or bounce too close to a supernova'.

Ferdy is finding that learning to read and write, and to concentrate and follow instructions at school is also no mean feat. His gross and fine motor skills are taking a while to develop (we mustn't forget that he didn't walk until he was nearly 2) and without those everything is seeming pretty tricky. And when you are five years old and you are bouncing too close to those supernovas, whilst your peers  are navigating around them easily, I imagine that you may start to think you will never be able to do it!

For me it's really hard to know when I should (gently) push him (or not so gently sometimes - I make him read a whole book and write something on Fridays and it can be quite a battle), and when to leave him to go his own way.

This Friday was a great example of how when left alone he not only produces something surprising, but he also seems much happier doing it.

He's been watching Numberblocks at school this week and asked if he could watch it. I agreed when he suggested he write down all the sums that they were doing. Which he did! Every single one.

We then went off to our forest school. I had been thinking that maybe we should concentrate more on gross and fine motor activities on Fridays but decided we'd leave things to chance a bit and just focus on enjoying ourselves, as Ferdy was really keen to be out today.

But was I inadvertently performing Jedi mind tricks? He spent quite a lot of the morning picking up leaves with plastic tweezers to clean up the mud kitchen.

 

He really enjoyed himself today, and there was a male helper who he got on well with, they did some bug hunts, collected leaves, climbing etc. Both he and Gil love it when there's a bloke teacher or helper; they're often are more willing to do things for themselves and be more grown up, and they chat more.

Not the best example of being grown up but he had a fun day!

They quickly reverted back to babies though when I realised I'd forgotten my wallet and couldn't buy them ice-creams in the cafe, is there a collective noun for boys having a tantrum?

At home we threaded pasta necklaces for my Padmé costume (I seem to have been allocated the rather flattering role of Padmé at the Star Wars party I didn't know we were having), and Ferdy wrote 'take me to Tatooine as fast as you can'; a very useful thing to be able to write when you are negotiating a long and difficult journey into hyperspace.