Jack has his recital today. I know everyone says this, but I’m the most proud mum in the world. I just melted seeing him up there playing his viola.

It has been a bit of a trial along the way. There have been many occasions when we’ve have to goad him into practicing. It’s something I try not to do too often. I think if I nag him about it too much he’s going to end up resenting playing and it would spoil the enjoyment he does get out of it.

So I mainly let him play when he feels like it. And he seems to be very motivated to practice a great deal anyway. I think it’s helped that we established a routine with it early on. While he was enthusiastic about it early on, he didn’t need much encouraging to play. So we set up a practice schedule and he was happy to go along with it - we had to talk him down a bit on one occasion. So when the thrill of it started to wane, he carried on in his routine. Unlike Sarah, he seems to get very stuck into a routine. Sometimes that’s a good thing. Other times it’s less so. In the case of his viola playing I think it’s a very good thing.

This morning he seemed very unconcerned about it. It wasn’t bothering him at all. I had to check he actually remember about it! As the time got closer, it was obvious that he was getting more nervous. He tried his best to hid it, but I could tell he wasn’t quite sure.

When he got on stage though he seemed really confident. He walked on all proud with his chest out when he was introduced. And he played beautifully.

I took a load of photos of it. I’ll try to upload them soon.