L11’s Electives for the 2014-2015 School Year

L11 is my calmer twin, who essentially takes after my mum.  She likes things to be just so and adores being in a strict routine.  She does not enjoy having her routine changed.  That said she is much better than she used to be and, with A6, is probably my most easy-going child.  L11 likes to know what her day holds, what our expectations of her are, and thrives when she is tootling along under her own steam but within the boundaries a routine gives her.  She is loving, patient and incredibly cuddly.  She will often turn so her back faces me and lean gently on me, asking me silently to wrap my arms around her.  She loves anything which requires her to use her hands – art, loom bands, jewellery making and drawing.  She and her sister spend hours drawing pictures with a constant dialogue flowing between them describing what is happening in their drawings, what each character is saying and doing, creating absorbing picture worlds.  They have done this since they could talk, the other almost always finishing off the sentence of her twin.  L11 is also incredibly sensitive, both in herself and towards other’s feelings.  She does not enjoy being teased and T, who is a natural tease, is very sensitive to how his words and actions affect her.  She enjoys a close relationship with all her siblings.

L’s electives for this year are: first aid, cookery, home making, art and learning more about money and finances (both of which I will share about in another separate post).

First Aid

L is a natural care giver.  She offers me cups of tea throughout the day, loves to prepare simple lunches for everyone, and is always the first to offer to cover someone else’s chores if they are ill.  Her choice of learning more about first aid did not surprise me.  She has shown an interest in nursing since a very young age and that was what she wanted to do until she discovered baking, and then art.  I was at a loss for a while what to use to fulfil this requirement.  Eventually I found this:

The first is a DVD for basic first aid.  This DVD is used widely in the work place to teach first aid to workers when it is hard for the workers to get to courses.  The book is a DK book and looks very good.  My degree is in nursing, so I am particularly looking forward to seeing how she does with this (quite expensive) ‘curriculum’.

Cookery

This was of no surprise at all.  L is nothing if not consistent in her loves.  She enjoys baking thing the best and so she and A6 will be baking together each morning to make a snack for our morning meeting.  Whilst she is very willing to work alongside A6, she prefers to be in the kitchen alone.  She sees it as her domain and is not one she particularly likes sharing.  I think working with her little sister, who adores baking almost as much as she does, will be good character training for her!

In addition to her baking sessions each day with A6, she will also be using one afternoon a week to work her way through this series:

She has enjoyed making many recipes from this set of books but this time wants to work her way through them systematically.  The books really are fabulous and full to the brim of helpful tips for beginner cooks.  What we all particularly like about them is that the recipes are ‘grown up’ ones.  She will choose the recipe she wants to do, write a list of ingredients, cost them, buy them and then cook for the family with them.

Home Making

She and C11 will be doing this together.  I have bought them a set of these books each:

I think if L had a different mother she would find this area much more natural than she does.  Sometimes more is caught than taught and I’m not good enough to have thrown very much her way which will be useful in this area.  However, I am always looking to improve and am quite looking forward to learning along side them.

Art

L already has water-colour lessons with a friend of ours (thank you Pat!), which she thoroughly enjoys.  I spent a long time coming up with something.  I am very creative, but not necessarily good enough at the drawing/ painting aspect of art to be able to pass anything on.  We had talked about her taking more formal art classes but they are very expensive where we live and therefore out of our budget.  I have found a video course which looks incredibly good and is usable for a year from the date of purchase.  It is fall based but I’m guessing we could modify it to fit with other seasons.  I showed L11 and she was very excited:

Source

And that’s it.  L is so looking forward to the year ahead, and rightly so!