When the children came home from school today the learning began. First stop was my son's drum lesson. He's been playing for several years now and he loves it! Only the other day he was 'jamming' with his friend in the music room above our garage. The noises emanating from that room were suprisingly harmonious. We have always resisted music exams on the basis that music should be fun and have made it clear that he could stop at any time. He did play in an orchestra for a couple of terms but he found it too formal. Nevertheless he has persisted in his daily practice and is now really good. If at any time he feels that he wants to pursue his grades then he will do so with the right attitude and motivation.
Whilst we waited for him to finish his lesson I took my other two children to the library. I found my eleven year old son in the adult section browsing the Computer books section.He was looking for computer programming books, unfortunately most of them were the "Teach your granny to use the computer" type!
When we got home , my eldest son discovered the postman had delivered a radio for his car.(He isn't old enough to drive at the moment but as he is studying car mechanics we felt it important to encourage him in his interests and he has recently helped his dad to get the car through its MOT. Before we had even eaten tea he was out in the garden with his Dad fitting the radio. It wasn't long before I could hear the Boom boom boom of the speakers coming from the car.It would seem that his lesson in electronics had been sucessfully completed.
After tea he was off to scouts to plan a summer expedition covering England Ireland  Scotland and Wales, and a Duke of Edinburgh Kayaking expedition from Liverpool to Leeds. He has already asked if he can take a week off school at the end of term to do it and we feel that as his exams will be over he will benefit so much more from the trip and all it entails that what he will learn at school.
I began to google computer programming books for my son and found ".Hello World Computer programming for kids (and other beginners)". It's quite expensive but the reviews on Amazon are good. Before buying it I will ask for advice on the HE.SpecialUK forum as the parents are always full of good advice and eager to help.I may also check the local libary catalogue to see if we can borrow the book before we buy it. Again it never ceases to fascinate me how much we learn independently if we follow our own interests!