Hi Phil, welcome to the community and finding Justin Guitar in your retirement. It sounds like your family has the promise of a future jam session. Keep at it each day and some day you may be leading the family jam session. Have fun.
Thanks Steve
A follow up from my original post and where I am now in my journey.
I am glad and proud to say I finished Grade 1 after just over 5 months and have now started Grade 2. All those things I thought I would never master in Grade 1 eventually succumbed to perseverance, determination and practice. There was some frustration involved but the coping technique for this was to put the guitar down and walk away. The majority of the time when I returned later I managed to clear that hurdle.
My strumming and timing have improved and I can rattle out Old Faithful endlessly and change chords at the same time - some better than others 
I found the Nitsuj practice lessons to be a real bonus and always used them as a guide to measure my progress. It was similar to having another student in the room with the instructor having his input as well. Interesting to see that Nitsuj struggled with many of the same things that I did. Also good to jam along with him during the song part of his practice.
I think the whole Nitsuj thing is a master-stroke by Justin and I urge any beginners to use it.
I have also over the last couple of days completed the first two free parts of the practical musical theory course. Very worthwhile and makes a lot of things easier to understand.
Onto Grade 2 now, the four finger G after the 2 finger cheat in Grade 1 is getting my full attention now
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Onwards and upwards Phil 
Sounds like you’ve progressed nicely Phil, be proud and enjoy the next steps!
I fully agree with you on the benefits of watching the Nitsuj videos, eye opening as well as comforting to see him have the same challenges!
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Hi Phil, congratulations on completing Grade 1. I found that the Nitsuj videos also helped me through Grade 2. Sometimes I found that my practice routine was not correct and watching Justin got me back on track.