A good example.

Remember my last blog? It was called Go to bed, NOW. Well, anyway this is a perfect example of doing things you don't want to do. Last night, my family and our Chinese exchange student's friend went to the Parsons Dance. I thought that this would bore me out of my skull. I did not want to go. Of course, mom made me go, and the next thing I knew I was sitting in the auditorium watching the show. (This is also an example of, what moms says, is law). I am watching the show thinking, you know, I could be using my time writing in my blog, instead of watching some ballet. Then the second dance was happening, and I realized that the show wasn't too bad. And finally at the end of the show, it was awesome! So, the moral of this story, is the Parsons Dance is cool. NO! The actual moral is doing things you don't want to do, helps you expand your creativity..

Go to bed, NOW!

Why did I call this blog Go to bed, Now? How should I know? Just kidding, I called it that because in homeschooling, you have to do stuff that you don't want to do. Do you think a little kid wants to go to bed? No! Of course not. Do you think I want to read a history paper for an hour and answer a bunch of questions? In homeschooling, you get free time. Lots of free time. But you still need to do stuff you don't want sometimes. It is important to do things you don't want to do. If you do everything you want to do, those things become useless and boring. By doing subjects that are meaningless to you, you learn that it might not help you, but it WILL help someone, someday. If you do stuff that you don't like, eventually you will like it, and learn it. Homeschooling is about an education; so get one.

The list strategy

In order to survive the treacherous days of home-schooling, you need to be organized. Yeah, I am talking to you, not to your mom. Even though she needs to be organized too, that is a different matter. I am saying YOU need to be organized. In order to do that, I suggest that you ask your mom to make a list for you everyday, until you learn how to make your own lists. That sets the goals you need to do, and when you’re done, you are done with school. This has helped me so much it is not even funny. For instance, there are some days that you just want to get done with school. You work harder to get your list done, and then you are finished at noon. This is more convenient than the school's way to do school because you might have math for an hour, but you have gotten everything done that you need to get done in ten minutes. Instead of doing math, because you are finished, you mess around with your pencils or something. This also helps you get more things done when you have a weaker subject that takes you an hour. But then when you have another subject that take you fifteen minutes, it's finished fast. So, doing this will help you with your weaker subjects, but at the same time help you review the subjects you already know. I think the list strategy helps a ton!

Tip #2: get the most out of every experience.

Whenever I go on vacation, mom makes me do work. This might seem like a downfall to homeschooling, but it is actually an advantage. Sure, it seems annoying. And yes, it will make you mad when you want to go to the beach, and you have to complete schoolwork. But if you think about all the advantages, you will realize that there are many. Dear moms, I am not saying to suffocate your kids with huge amounts of work piled up around them. I want you to realize that I mean every day do a little bit of each subject, and even when you go on vacation, don't resist a little work. For instance, last weekend my family went on a whale watch trip, and mom made me study the body structure of a humpback whale. I got more out of the trip than anyone else, and the biologist was happy to answer my questions because she could tell I had already done some research on the topic. So,when your mom randomly gives you some work that is related to your every day subjects, realize it is to help you get the most out of your experiences, even the little ones.

#1 tip to surviving homeschooling

Today I had to go to my grandma's to home-school because mom went to work. My mom is a busy person who is always running around. So, consequently I do too. If I am not doing five thing at once and have to do a million things in a day, it seems I get nothing done. I realized just now, that the #1 rule is "Do stuff". I am not kidding. If your list of to do stuff isn't jammed pack, you will get nothing done. Just like the quote, "If you want something done, give it to a busy person". From experience, you might not get everything you want done, done. If you put more tasks you think you can do, you work harder to accomplish them. Today, with grandma I gave myself five things to do. I only did four out of the five things. The more things you try to do, the more things you get done. Trust me, it works.

The beginning Dun, Dun,Duuuun

Hello, my name is Connor Rohlfing Peters, or you could call me Connor. I started home-schooling about a year ago. I am ten years of age and want to keep it that way. I hate growing up. It all started in fourth grade ahhhh... Oh, sorry. Well, anyway it started when I was in fourth grade-- reading during math class. Yup, reading illegally, can you believe it? The math class was so boring and it rotted my brain. Yeah, math class was rotting my brain, just like when you watch tv. The class was ninety minutes long and all we would do was go over the homework, and do five math pages. And that took ninety minutes. How boring. The rest of the day was like that too. Do some work for five minutes and read the rest of the hour. Boy, did I read alot, but, worst of all, I would get in trouble when I got caught sneak reading.
So, mom decided that school was too easy, and waiting until seventh to go to a private school was too long. By that time I would lose every thing I already learned. All of a sudden, my mom forced me into submission; home-schooling, wa wa waaaaaaaaaa. Home-schooling is not that bad. Actually it is kinda fun. Uh-uh school, fun, funny, right? Well, not really. It actually is fun! Except the times I had to do work while we were at the beach vacationing. And the times... that... you do not want to hear about :).
We started home-schooling Jan 15,2009 in the middle of the school year. My brother thought that I was anti-social,but I hate to break to you, I do a lot of stuff with other kids. For instance, in the middle of my school day I can have another home-schooled friend over. And when our dogs had puppies, I got to stay home with them. Then my brother thought that I did no work at all. Well, that's not true; definitely not true. I finished the whole fifth grade curriculum in half a year. That's right, I completed two grades in one year. I have bragging rights :). I did a lot in one day, and this year I am even doing a online college course at John Hopkins University. My curriculum for last year is below. Well to wrap this up, I think home-schooling is a HUGE advantage. It is awesome, buuuuuuut... there are some tricks to survive it. That is what I am writing for! A kid's guide to surviving homeschooling!