Thirteen

Lu just turned 13!

Here he is with all his presents, minus a goat.

Yup, a goat.

About a month and a half ago,

Lu decided he wants to get into the goat farming business.

Since then, he's been getting up at 5am, 

three times a week, to go apprentice on a friend's goat farm.

Cha and I take turns dropping him off.

We run with the dogs, Lu takes his bike.

5am is not my favorite time of the day,

especially not for actually being awake.

But I can't complain about my early morning walks

with views like these:

He's already put in over 50 hours, so,

as promised, we're getting him a goat!

 

The goat house, companion goat, and goat accessories

will have to be paid back in milk, cheese, and meat.

But the first goat is a gift.

Lu's already done some successful cheese-making

with cow milk. Can't wait for that goat cheese!

AND he helped slaughter and butcher a sheep!

Here's Lu moving rocks on the land

where the goat house is now almost up:

And taking a break by getting some jocote fruits
down from the tree:

Jocote season is definitely a favorite time of year.

On the academic front,

Lu's been busy writing essays.

We took a class with a professional writer

who taught us basic structure and gave us

lots of useful tips.

Here are some paragraphs from his

instructional, compare/contrast,

and character development essays.

He's editing and typing his favorite two

for our homeschool archive.

 This year's math was mostly algebra and geometry.

To keep up with Lu, I covered all the new stuff with him during

the first half of the year, and then got a tutor for reinforcement,

the second half of the year (for my sanity).

Here's his last math homework assignment:

And making shapes with M.C. Escher:

With the rains finally over

(rainy season is about half the year here)

it's time for swimming!

And swimming with friends:

For one of his 13th birthday presents, I gave Lu permission to join facebook. This was something I decided on just over the last few months. I used to think we'd wait until he was at least 16, but I found myself often thinking "this article would be great for Lu" or "I wish Lu was on here to share this with him". And indeed, it is very handy for homeschool, as well as for keeping in touch with long-distance friends (one of the downsides of living in a town that is a tourist attraction, is that friends are usually temporary or seasonal). But having a facebook account comes with many rules, like not blocking me from anything, showing me his news feed whenever I ask, and only friending new people with my consent.

Lu has grown up so much this past year. 

He's done two major apprenticeships 

(restaurant and goat farm),  

and showed serious commitment and responsibility in both. 

I'm so proud of my official teen-ager.

Birthday Week 2014

My baby boy turned 12!

 

When we started homeschooling four years ago,

we started a tradition of taking the whole week off

and having as much fun as we possibly can

for our birthdays.

Lu's grown SO much this year.

Here are last year's and this year's

pics of him reading his Bday card.

Here are some moments from our fabulous week:

Picnic at the Lake

With freshly squeezed orange juice by Lu

 Presents!

The Electric Guitar

(that he's been begging for all year and hasn't

stopped playing since he got his hands on it)

 Cake!

A Halloween Party

Sunday at our favorite BBQ & Pool

 

 

And missing are pics of Mega Sushi Feast, 

Ping Pong and Billiards Tournaments,

and Karaoke Birthday Night.

It was a BLAST!

Birthday Week

One of the things I love about homeschool is that we can decide when to take a vacation. Instead of one long vacation, we like to take a week here a there throughout the year for special occasions like the town fair, or when friends and family are visiting. Lu's birthday week is one of the weeks we take off. For Birthday Week, we do something fun each day that we don't normally do.

This Bday Week started with our traditional Bday morning:

a wake-up serenade in bed of "Las Mañanitas"

and opening gifts.

You could definitely say that this year's presents were mono-thematic.

Herb Grinder and Spatula Knife

 Almond Essence and Chocolate Chips

 

Chef Hat and Kitchen Knife

An Apron

custom embroidered "Jungle Chef"

from Lu's honorary grandpa

 Spring Form Pan

 Professional Chef Suit

from honorary aunt and uncle

 Fancy Cooking Instruments

Lu wanted to try out his new stuff 

and decided to make dinner for everyone - 

which in our house means volunteers, interns, and close neighbors.

 

The rest of birthday week has included making and selling brownies (he sold them ALL), going to play ping-pong, eating french fries, and making a kite. Next up, we're going to the city for two days. We'll eat sushi, go site-seeing, and get our hair styled at a for-real salon - something we don't have out here in the bush. Lu is getting his hair cut short. It's always been long. (mama sad)

 My baby boy is 11 years old!