Back to school

Waif started term today with a seemingly light heart :-)     She is starting her GCSE courses and also wants extra curricular art, piano and tennis lessons.  I am concerned to see that she does not overextend herself so we are playing it by ear.  So far, I have arranged for art lessons after school on a Monday (with a lovely lady who just had a picture in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition so clearly has talent but, more importantly, she is a very gently spoken, encouraging, calm woman with just grown daughters of her own).  Piano lessons are to be on Fridays.  I am holding out on tennis, with a promise of the odd lesson at weekends if she has the energy.

Waif woke up with a jolt in the night last week (yes, she is back in our bed) saying "I can't do as well as my sister in GCSE's because I am only taking 9".  Sigh, I wish she didn't feel that she was in such direct competition with Older Daughter because they are so different and both so talented.  I can't help thinking that her ED began as a competitive thing with OD as OD, being 2 years older, grew first and attracted attention that Waif was not yet getting.  Now she herself has grown and filled out a little, Waif gets plenty of wolf whistles and admiring glances.  Cycling with her is a completely different experience from doing it on my own - all the van drivers merrily allow us plenty of space and time to change lanes, turn right etc and all with cheery waves  :-)   Oh to be young!  Anyway, it turned out today that her englishes will constitute 2 GCSEs and her maths also (maths and further maths) so in fact she is taking 11 GCSEs.  That seems like more than enough but I still hope that she is not going to work herself into the ground for a string of top grades.