My Musical Boy

W was a grumbly boy this morning. But between us we got most of the stuff for camping out and packed, or at least into the front room. He mucked about at swimming a bit, but swam really well in the big pool. He interacted well at Music Train, listening well and answering mostly correctly, but I do think he is tired as he was lying back on me when we sat on the mats rather than sit up like he normally does.

This is William getting a sound, or rather lots of sound, from the French Horn. He also played the clarinet, flute and of course his old favourite the violin!

Waiting for ballet was interesting. In the gym below the 'big boys' were being coached by a local club coach, in hurdling. Carys stood and watched for over half an hour, asking me why they were doing the drills they were doing etc and talking about the hurdles man who talked to her at Crystal Palace (Felix Sanchez, double Olympic and double World 400mH Champion, who chatted to her for over 5mins when she asked him for his autograph when she was 3.5!) She has a very long memory.

Once C had gone into class I took W downstairs and waited for the coach to come out of the gym to ask when Carys could start at the athletics club. her answer surprised me. Carys has to be 9 before she can start at her local club, because athletics is a late development sport and therefore it is not good to put too much strain on their joints to early! Now I agree with the sentiments of that statement, but most of the nine year olds I know are already involved in swimming, football and hockey clubs. They have no time for another sport. Surely this is short sighted on my sports behalf. No wonder we have such a small pool of talent to pull from, most of the talent will have gone to other sports before athletics even gets going. I started at 8, had a pretty good time, making the English Schools team and representing Wales at cross-country and on the track both indoors and out as a senior. Now we have Sportshall for the little ones and bigger kids, supposedly. I think we are missing a trick! Rant over.

Off camping in the Forest of Dean on Saturday. Fingers crossed for the weather. Suggestions as what to do gratefully accepted. :-)