Homeschooling a 13 yr old

This year Leo has decided to take Latin. At first I wondered if he would meet the challenge of this class. You see, we've been unschooling him since day one and this is one if his first classes where homework and tests are expected of him. I am thrilled to say that he is doing well in this class and we don't have to fight with him to do the work. As an unschooler, I have had many moments where I wondered if we were doing the right thing. Reading and picking the brains of unschoolers that have grown kids really helped along the way and it's exciting to experience the stuff I have read about with homeschooling. He is also continuing to work on math through the Life of Fred book(fractions). I like this math book because not only does it help with learning math, but it helps with reading and introduces other subjects like history. As for his reading, he is into the Manga series. Still loves to build with legos.

More challenges

So the last time I wrote, we were thinking of how we can eat more local without buying food that has been shipped from far away. Well, life continues to challenge us and it's been a bit hard to just focus on growing food with continually dealing with our living situation. We might be moving soon, due to the fact that we can't afford this house anymore and haven't been able to afford it for quite a few years. This has made me really think about what is important in our lives. It brings me comfort in thinking that I don't really need too much stuff and as long as I have a few pots to grow food in, things will be fine. Not to mention that I have a wonderful family which makes life pretty nice.

Anyway, back to gardening. Since I don't know if we will be here in this house for much longer, I have planted some stuff in pots. My Aji Amarillo(peruvian pepper) is doing great. The plan is to let one of the peppers stay on the plant so as to collect the seeds for next year. Another pot has a heirloom purple broccoli plant, that also has stinging nettle growing under it. Stinging nettle is a part of my diet in the winter, so this is exciting to me. I use it for tea or soups. This plant is great to eat because it has lots of nutrients in it including iron, calcium, magnesium and so on.

So our quest for free, fresh local food is still going strong. I might even pull some dandelions and see what I can make with it.