13.5 years old!

Ian's shirt was white when he arrived at church last night.

Ian has been a teenager for six months (and three days)! Here is a brief description of what he's been up to lately. 

1. He finished Algebra I at the end of May, took one week off, and then started Algebra II. I decided to have him take Algebra II before Geometry so that he and Nadia would both be doing Algebra II this coming school year. Since the beginning of Algebra II is just a review of Algebra I, he has already completed eight lessons and the first test. 

2. For a few months he had been studying German on Duolingo, but I asked him to switch back to Spanish for the time being because we're planning to visit Ecuador in less than eight months. 

3. He has been waiting for more than a year for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom to come out on the Switch. He purchased it as soon as it came out. Oliver chipped in $20 toward the game. 

4. Although most of his screen time is used to play on the Switch, he also plays Brawl Stars on the iPad.

5. Not counting the books that he read for school, over the last six months he read three Harry Potter books (two of which were 752 and 896 pages long) as well as The Winter War by Priscilla Shirer and the newest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book. Ian listens to far more audiobooks than his siblings do. 

6. He enjoyed learning more about coding (Python) over the last few months. 

7. In March Ian had four baby teeth extracted by the dentist at the request of the orthodontist. He's been wearing his retainer for two years now. 

8. He took a weekly art class at the homeschool co-op from January through May and ten weeks of ice-skating lessons from January through March. He spends a fair amount of time drawing each week.

9. He has continued to attend the youth group on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights and Bible quizzing on Wednesday afternoons. The Bible quizzing team is headed to Indiana in two weeks for the national competition over the book of Acts. Ian did very well at the practice quiz in Indiana last month. 

10. I think Ian is now willing to ride any ride at an amusement park as he rode the Impulse at Knoebels for the first-time last month.

11. Currently, his favorite musical artist is Toby Mac. 

12. He's gained two pounds over the last five months. I looked online, and he's still underweight, as his BMI is at the 2nd percentile. The doctor wants his BMI to be at least at the 5th percentile. He's currently 5 feet tall and weighs 78 pounds. Hopefully we can get more weight on him before his next physical.

13. Recently he has been enjoying creating rules for new games using Lego minifigures and existing game boards such as Sorry, Clue, and Labyrinth. Oliver and Paul have played some of his new games with him.