It's not even a week in grade 2 yet, but Julian has already made his mark. His teacher asked the class to draw an emotion, and he decided to do "nervous" by drawing a multi-coloured rainbow where all the colours went wildly in different directions. (This was his description; I haven't seen it.) The teacher was very impressed, telling him a Spanish artist painted something similar. (Dali? Kahlo? He didn't know.) Since he'd like to be a famous artist himself one day - and a scientist! - this came as welcome news.

This is not a shy boy I'm raising. Taking him to a friend's batmitzvah, I looked around the room during the dances and couldn't see him anywhere. I looked again - and there he was, behind the microphone, doing some kind of hip hop rap into it. Luckily, it wasn't switched on...

Grade 2 is proving to be good fun. In other news, we've begun reading Harry Potter - after much resistance in previous years. Seven years old is probably a good time to start, anyway. We're up to page 90 or so, and he's very much enthralled by the words and story...