SOCCER...THEN THE POETIC LEAP

Six months ago when Michael joined our family, he'd arrived knowing addition, barely knowing subtraction and just being introduced to his multiplication tables. He still hasn't fully memorized said multiplication table, partly because I'd had to cram four years of math, including algebraic concepts, into him in the last two months before his 7th grade started. While that cramming seems to have achieved our goal of wanting him to start his schoolyear on par with his peers, it does mean that full retention of knowledge will take time as there's so much jostling in his lovely tween brain right now. Still, we just got his first quarter report card this week -- he has an A in math. So, ahem:

PREEEEEEN!!

Meanwhile, last weekend Michael's team won their first soccer game! Yah! I was there on the sideline with a raucously cheering big mouth, a boatload-size cooler of Gatorade and four huge pizzas for the star athletes! Moi is also a proud Soccer Mama! Here are photos from that historic game -- doesn't my son guzzle that Gatorade like a pro?





Speaking of Michael and poetry (crude segue but whatever), he also got a B in learning English, but a C in Spanish which is his first language. The latter can be explained by the different Spanishes out there, and Colombian Spanish is different from Mexican Spanish (which predominates in our area) or American Spanish. The poetics here is that he is doing better in something to which he brings no preconceptions. So learn from my son's report card, Young Poet.

Well, I suppose an alternative explanation is that hanging around Mama Moi with her never-conjugated college espanol might be a bad influence. But I think not -- because my son's life is not about Moi (Young Poet -- and future adoptive parents -- you can learn from that statement, too).