A Goat/Kitchen-Centered Life

This picture of our kitchen table is very telling of what our lives are like these days. Lu is trying to figure out how to assemble his new cream separator that came with a manual in some Eastern European language. You can see our 30-yr-old Scrabble board. That red tub is goat lice treatment. And the baby bottle you ask?

The baby bottle is for our little Almendra (almond). 

She and her sisters were born on another farm

and separated from their mother,

so she needs to be bottle-fed.

Her sisters have since gone to other homes,

and we officially have six goats now.

 The cream separator is still learning how to be used. lol

But we'll soon be eating goat butter and goat cream!

Lu has been experimenting with different cheese recipes,

and we're having ricottas and mozzarellas daily!

This is a chili and herbs rolled cheese.

Lu is managing an on-going fermentation process 

that makes a hibiscus flower probiotic fizzy drink.

He also has some ginger beer fermenting :)

 It's a pretty goat/kitchen-centric life right now,

but we also do normal school things.

Like guitar-playing:

 Lu is currently reading Don Quixote

Our algebra skills are getting pretty solid

if I do say so myself.

(If you've been here a few times,

you probably know that math is NOT my forté)

This is a year of Revolutions in History class.

We finished our studies on the American Revolution

and now we're learning about the French Revolution.

 

Besides all the exercise Lu gets walking the goats

for two hours every morning,

we also do swimming and dancing for P.E.

Goats and school make for a hectic schedule, no doubt.

Our days start at 5:30am and it's go, go, go until dinner time.

But we're happy and inspired with everything we're doing,

and that's a lot to be grateful for.

2016, Here We Come!

This is the beginning of our sixth year homeschooling. Lu is 13yo and roughly in 7th grade. It's going to be a very different year than we're used to, because now we have a small farm. It all started with Lu wanting a goat, and now we have five! Chickens are soon to come, and we're thinking about pigs and rabbits too.

We recently had our first litter. 

Lu delivered two healthy kids!

They're so frickin' cute, they're like bunny-kitty-ponies. 

Lu gets up every morning at 5:30am to take the goats out to pasture for a couple of hours. Right now he's only milking one goat, but another is shacking up with a neighbor's buck, so we'll have two milking goats by the summer. I get fresh goat's milk in my coffee now!

Once all the goat chores are done and a shower is had, it's around 10am and time for academics. Lu starts with reading, then history or writing, math, and guitar practice. 

Then it's time for lunch with a documentary 

or a game of Scrabble.

We started out this year re-watching Mankind: The Story of All of Us,

which we just might make a yearly tradition of because 

it's such a great summary of our chronological history studies.

On Monday afternoons Lu has a private guitar lesson. 

Tuesday and Thursday afternoons are for the after-school arts 

and recreation activities we run from our home.

Typical activities are team-building games,

dance, singing, arts&crafts, drumming, and circus arts.

On Wednesdays and Fridays, 2-9pm, Lu is doing his second apprenticeship at a local restaurant a couple times a week. He's working with a team of chefs and learning loads, and doing so well that they even let him be head chef sometimes. This means he gets to design the menu and order the other chefs around. 

He loves those nights :)

So, as you can see, we have a very busy year ahead of us!

Cities of the World

Last year, Lu worked on an independent research project on fifteen of the world's most influential cities. He worked on it over several months. He had many technical difficulties: his computer breaking down, realizing that he had only downloaded the thumbnails of the hundreds of images he'd found for his presentation, and losing information several times. He continued working over the Christmas break and finally gave his presentation. It worked out nicely because grandma, aunts and uncle were visiting, so Lu had a good audience.

2016 Homeschool Resolutions

 

After a fabulous holiday with family, friends, 

parties, wining and dining, 

we'll be starting our school year in a week or two. 

We're in middle school, but not any specific year. 

In a regular school, Lu would probably be placed in the 7th grade. 

He's 13 now and he's a very busy young man. 

He's got goats. 

He's got a girlfriend.

He's got ongoing (non-alcoholic) fermentation projects. 

And he's got occasional catering jobs.

It's going to be tricky fitting in our homeschool schedule with all of this. Goats and fermentation can be called Science Class, but there are still many things I want to cover: reading the classics, developing essay-writing skills, ALGEBRA, world history and Guatemalan history.... And there are things that Lu wants to cover: developing culinary skills (workshops, tutorials, recipe books, experimentation...), guitar, carpentry, photography...

There are only so many hours in the day, so we have a lot of planning and decision-making ahead. We're going to have to give and take, and negotiate, and come up with something that works for us.

 But before I sit down with Lu to do all of this, 

I want to commit to these 2016 Homeschool Resolutions:

I will give priority to Lu's interests.

I will be supportive of projects that Lu decides to undertake.

I will let go of conventional ideas like 

"Math HAS TO BE an every day class." 

I will trust in Lu's desire to learn.

If something isn't working, I won't try to force it.