Zacatlan de las Manzanas 2016

At the beginning of each school year, we go to Zacatlan for a sort of home school get-together. Homeschooling is not a very popular movement here in Mexico, but it is getting there. We use a curriculum written by a lady here in Mexico. It is a Christian program and all online. It was designed to be done in the home - homeschooling - but not everyone has internet in their homes here and in my church only a handful of parents have even graduated from middle school and are therefore not capable of teaching their own children at home. We are a part of a group of about 900 students throughout the country of Mexico doing this program. The meeting we attend each year in Zacatlan is always super informative and inspiring. We always leave with renewed vision and new ideas.

They have different speakers that speak on different topics. One speaker showed actual pages from the textbooks being used in the public schools starting in preschool and kindergarten! This is scary stuff! I won't translate everything, but you can get an idea of what is being taught in the schools down here. It might be the same way in the US, I am not sure.

Sexual diversity and "you can choose your gender"

In past years we've tried to get as many parents to come as possible, but this coming school year we've decided to make this event mandatory for the parents of our students! It is so eye-opening and if anyone is on the fence about whether or not to get their kid out of the public school system, this meeting will convince them. It really helps parents see that they don't have to do what everyone else in Mexico is doing, and help them see what our goal is for their children, education-wise.

Back when there were two teachers in this school... :(

It's become our tradition to eat lunch at this market during break. It's down the street a few blocks from the homeschool meeting place.

There are tons of tiny little individual kitchens set up and when you walk in ladies start yelling at you to come sit and their table. They yell out what they've made and what is on the menu for that day.

If I remember correctly, I got Pipian rojo with chicken, rice, and haba soup (translated: broad bean? Never heard of it.)

After lunch we went back to the event for the next sessions. I was watching Grampa in the front-view camera of my phone and taking pictures of him. I love the following progression:

Losing the battle

Lost the battle

The mouth is falling open

Realizing the mouth fell open

"This is too much. Gotta leave."

He went to go sleep in the car. Lol!

There were actually parts that did get a little boring. Thankfully, I have my ever faithful Mexican jumping beans to keep me entertained in the lull.

I waited so long to get this post up that in a few months we'll be going to Zacatlan again for the next home-schoolers event! It's crazy, but there are only a couple more months left in this school year. Yeah!! We are truckin' along... :)

Bethany