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.

Concert, Mom's Day, Algebra, and a Protest Poster

Lu played a few sets of background music 

with his guitar teacher at a comedy show.

 

I was well-celebrated for Mother's Day <3 

Lu completed 50 hours of a cooking apprenticeship,

which is now over until the chef comes back

for the next high tourism season.

Until then, he's practicing his gourmet skills at home!

We've had incredible plates like Pad Thai

 Mango Coconut Shrimp

and SUSHI!!!

 We started the second chapter in our Algebra book.

Chapter 1 took us four months!

This is hard stuff, but we're doing it. And I'm proud of myself for not hiring a math tutor, because this does NOT come naturally to me. I failed math my last year of high school after years of barely passing, and now I'm successfully teaching it to my son. It's a great feeling. So if anybody out there is doubting homeschooling because you feel like you can't teach something, I'm proof that YOU CAN!

This weekend we're going to the city to participate in the on-going peaceful protests, with dozens of thousands of other people, to demand the resignation of our president and the rest of his corrupt government. Here's Lu making a poster for it:

So we'll be in the middle of this in a few days:

And lastly, here's Lu making up a new tune on his guitar:

A Math Tutor & Lu takes Mom to Yoga Class

 This week's BIG NEWS is that we got a Math Tutor!!!

I've mentioned before that math is NOT my strength. My brain stopped learning math after 3rd grade, until we started homeschooling and I pushed my way through 4th and 5th grade math in order to accompany Lu in his math learning.

Well, long story short, I went as far as I could and then suddenly Lu caught up and passed me. This year, he's pretty much been working on math on his own, and then checking it with Dad at night. But, this wasn't always the best setup on nights when Cha was tired from work, and Lu was sleepy from a long day. Sooooo, we found a recently graduated 18yo who is willing to tutor 6th grade math from Mon-Fri, 8-9am, for the rest of the year! And I am SOOO relieved.

Not only does this take away our family's math-related stresses, but it gives me an extra hour in the morning, which is very nice.

It's an expense.

But right now, we really need it.

We're still doing history and watching documentaries together,

Lu does language arts, geography, and science mostly on his own,

and we're usually done with academics by 11am.

This gives us lots of time to practice other things

that are just as, or more important than math and spelling.

Like drinking 8+ glasses of water every day,

eating real food,

spending time outdoors,

 being gentle, caring, respectful, and loving...

 exercising and taking care of our bodies,

being mindful and aware.

Last weekend, we were sitting in a café

when a lovely lady handed us a tiny piece of paper that said:

"Namaste. Daily yoga classes. Donation based. 11am." 

Now, we live in a town where there is more yoga 

than I could begin to explain, but I've never really felt a calling.

Anyway, 

Lu reads the paper and says "Free yoga classes! We should go!" 

I explained that "donation based" isn't the same as "Free", 

but that if he was interested, we could definitely go. 

So, we've been going to yoga, and we're both loving it!

Improv Show, Being Present, and Dancing Paprika

Last weekend, Lu was in an Improv Theater dinner show with his improv crew. They worked hard to put a lovely show together which included a three-course meal served by the actors.

Lu did some hooping.

And the improv skits were funny.

Improv is a great way for kids to practice quick/clever response,

develop verbal agility, and build confidence in general.

Lu also debuted his song: "Face to Face"

It was a wonderful evening.

 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Our year starts in January, 

and this was our second week back from break.

This year, we're not quite sure what grade we're in.

Last year we were in 5th grade, but we didn't quite get to everything. See, I spread myself a little too thin, taking on more work (dance classes), and leaving Lu to try to do the work on his own. I thought that the independence and responsibility would be good for him, but it was too much. Math skills and handwriting suffered the most. So we need some time to catch up in these areas - not catch up to some standard, but to where Lu would be if it hadn't been for my absence. Also, because I was so busy running around between assigning assignments to Lu (that I didn't even have time to check), and working, I was Stressy. All. The. Time. 

And that is not how I want to be.

So, we're calling it 5th/6th for now, because we'll be doing 5th grade math and 6th grade language arts. But really, all the rest of it (history, science, geography...) is pretty... gradeless, as in who knows what grade this would be taught in at a regular school.

And I am not taking on any work until the afternoons, so that I can have all my focus on being a present and good-humored learning partner for Lu again.

Guitar lesson via YouTube tutorial.

 We do math in Spanish from Mon-Thurs

 Here Lu is learning about the Mayan numeration system.

 On Fridays, we do math in English with Arithmetricks.

Lu LOVES this book. Yay!

He reads a chapter or two,

and then explains the tricks to me.

In this week's science experiment,

Lu made paprika dance!

In History, we're reading about feudalism, castles, lords, vassals, and knights, and Lu's interest in history is returning having been briefly lost during the collapse of Ancient Rome.

 

In Geography, Lu learned about

the Scandinavian Countries, the Lower Countries,

and the British Isles.

We have a collection of mythology books from around the world that I like to keep handy. They get used a lot. Whenever we start learning about new places, people, cultures... we pull out one of our books and read a myth or legend from that place or culture. This week Lu read several Norse myths.

Not only does Lu love them, 

but they connect us to something essential and magical 

about those places and cultures.

 This week, Lu made Arroz con Chorizo,

from his Colombian cook book.

 Accompanied by diced zucchini, garlic, and onion curry.

It was really delicious!

 

 (not the best pic, sorry, but I had to show it cause it was so YUM)

 

And Strawberry Mousse for dessert!