Boomerang

I’d like to introduce you to Boomerang, an 11-year-old going for his Triple Crown on the PCT this year. Also, he’s my second-born.

An unusual childhood

Zane has spent his entire life growing up in Chad, Africa, with some annual vacations to America thrown in. As such, he can get by in French and knows a smattering of other languages. He’s perfectly comfortable spending the day building his own shelter outdoors, fabricating whatever pleases him from mud, dirt, clay, water, sticks, and is in general a pretty inventive fella. He’s the family tinkerer. He loves to take things apart to see how they work. Putting them back together… well… nobody’s perfect, are they? Zane is most of the reason my toolbox is empty, as tools often head into the yard and never make it back inside again. He is quite the inventor and comes up with wild (and exhausting) ‘what ifs’ he loves to pose to any adult nearby willing to feign attention.

The boy has also matured quite a bit as a student. As one might guess, our homeschool regimen is a bit non-traditional. Zane started kindergarten at age six and would sit down and do thirty lessons of math homework straight. It was easy for him, and he loved to be able to do a lot quickly. However, when things became more challenging, he just did a lot, didn’t really matter if he understood or was correct. Outside was more exciting than school, and that was where he wanted to be. So we shaved off spelling and handwriting for years, and he could excel in his other subjects and still spend considerable time getting muddy daily. His showers every evening are pretty well-earned.

Continue reading about Boomerand's adventures here.