Challenge pass the parcel

Thomas is down the snow this week... he is learning to ski. This is his second ski trip to the snow (he and I did a snow ball type trip a couple of years ago) last year he didn't really want to go into ski school (so he wasn't made to) and he wasn't that keen this year either. But we talked it up heaps and in a stroke of brillance on my part (!) changed our language about it and called it ski training (like soccer training) and yesterday on arrival he was so keen to go skiing that he got booked into an extra class. Which he moved up a grade from at the end of (he is a sporty type of kid, it doesn't get that from me!)

He sounded so happy on the phone telling me all about how to go up hills and how to stop and something about a very fast V. It was lovely. I miss him desperately when he is away, but I am trying to get past the sense of enduring it and instead enjoy it for what it is worth. It is much easier when he sounds happy and content.

It is a long drive to the snow (about 6 hours) which they broke up by stopping at a grandparents house on the way down there. So I invented a game for him. It is called challenge pass the parcel. Basically, I bought him a story CD (fabulous travel thing) and wrapped it in layers of paper and in-between each layer was a challenge. I did a word find with all sorts of snow words in one layer, unscramble words in another, snow sums in another. Apparently he loved it. I can tell I will be making a bulk kit before we go on our campervan holiday in October.

There is another one waiting for his trip home on Sunday....