Good-Bye to Misadventures of a Homeschooler

So, I officially finished 8th grade yesterday.

There wasn't any fancy graduation, or any real feeling of finality to it.  My aunt and cousins came over to hang out and we had pizza, but it wasn't for me.  And I'm totally okay with that.  You know I'm not one to be in the spotlight :)

I just wanted to say a few things:

One, thank you.  For reading, for following, for commenting, for encouraging.

Two: yeah, I'm a little nervous for high school.  New friends, new teachers.  Luckily I still have my constants.  Like family, and crazy best friends.

Finally, yes!  I've finished working on my new blog!  Here is the link, and I hope to see you there.

I love you guys very, very much.

Happy Homeschooling :)

She Sees

Part One

She runs
And runs
And runs
Never stopping
Until
Suddenly
She realizes
The beauty
The sky
The ground
The day
So she stops
And she looks
And she sees

Part Two

Little things
Like peach fuzz

Or shadows

The colors

Of the flowers

The flawless

Blue

Sky

How tall

Are the trees?

How bright
Is the sun?

She looks
At
Delicate whiskers

Veins of a leaf

Poisoned beauty

And finally

She sees.

She Sees, an original poem by Miss Education

I was outside and started noticing all the little things, so I took some pictures, which in turn inspired this poem.

Happy Homeschooling!

Putting Off

So if you were wondering about the Draw My Life, my camera died and my "startup disc is full".  I should know by now that video projects never get done haha :)

Anyway, I've been putting off blogging here because of a few reasons.  One, I really don't have much to say.  All we've been doing is wrapping up school.  I am finishing my Latin project though, which I have to wrap up today.  When I'm done I'll take some pictures (and I figured out the family tree, Granna!).

The other reason is that somewhere in my mind, I think that if I don't post here, the end of May won't come and I won't have to leave this blog.

But alas, it's already halfway through and I only have two more weeks left of school.  Then things will start up at the new blog (which currently is called Freshman's Desk but will probably change).  I'm also trying to think of a URL, which is proving to be a challenge.

Unfortunately, (and I cannot believe I am saying this) the end of school is coming a bit too fast for my liking.  Not that I'm dreading summer--definitely not!  But after that is high school, and even though that's exciting, it's also rather terrifying.  However, I have the assurance that the student store sells really good cookies and muffins, and that it's "actually really fun".  So it seems as though everything will be okay.

I'm working on a blogging schedule for my new blog, seeing as I'll have to balance it with schoolwork and--hopefully--a social life, as well as a few other things (theme design and such).  But June 1 will be my first post on *new blog* and hopefully you'll see at least one post per week there.

Until next time (and there will be a next time on this blog, still),

Happy Homeschooling!

I may have discovered Photoshop

No, not this one ;)  But it's a good video!

So I have long been a fan of Adobe Illustrator, where you can digitally draw and make graphic designs and stuff.  Not that I've ever done anything big, but it's pretty fun.  And last night my dad showed me the wonderful world of Photoshop.

Now I can take my doodles from Illustrator and color them in Photoshop.  Which is probably very dangerous because, let's face it, I love

a.) drawing

b.) digital media

c.) new ways to use both of the above

In short, he has created a monster.  A monster who draws chibis.  Here are my doodles from last night (which I finished coloring this morning).

They're very sketchy (Illustrator tries to "perfect" your lines, which can be kind of annoying) but not bad for my first time!  I'm actually somewhat happy about how they turned out.  Anyways, I just wanted to share what I've been doing :)

Happy Homeschooling!

Heard Back from High School

You may or may not know that I had my interview for admission to the private school I applied to last week.  It was pretty nerve-wracking, because I got asked a lot of questions, but overall, it seemed as though it went pretty well.

And I guess it did, because on Saturday I received a letter that said I have been

The number of exclamation points that escaped my mouth are too many to list here.  But if I could, they would probably fill several long blog posts.

This was literally pretty much my reaction.

High school, here I come!!!!

Thought I'd share this exciting news with you :)  Much love and as always--but sadly, not for much longer...

Happy Homeschooling!

Untitled

My new, under-construction blog has yet to be Titled (with, of course, a capital T).  However I have received one suggestion and come up with two of my own that I like well enough, so here they are:

1. Turn the Page (much thanks to my Granna for this one)

2. Freshman's Desk (may be changed to Sophmore's, Junior's, Senior's as needed)

3. Castles in the Sand

Let me explain the last one.  There is a song that I came upon while searching the magical land of Google called "Four Years" by a guy whose name I don't remember.  The song itself didn't do much for me, actually.  It wasn't overall a great song...at all...but there was a line in there which didn't even make sense in context, but I liked, and that was castles in the sand.

I guess it does kind of make sense, because the point of the song seemed to be "be whoever you want to be because it's only four years, live life to the fullest etc etc".  And your popularity or whatever is as fragile as sand-castles.  It's not my favorite of all of them, admittedly, but I do like the phrase.

Right now I'm leaning toward's Freshman's Desk because that's where a lot of stuff gets done, whether it's reading, writing, homework, phone calls, blogging...it's my second-favorite thing in my room (first being my bed).

I'm gonna try to add a poll to my blog, allowing you to vote on the three names.  It may or may not have much of a difference in my decision, but unless a big stroke of inspiration comes around, these are my final three choices.

Happy Homeschooling!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Hello there!  Happy St. Patrick's Day :)  Hope everyone has been having a good month, mine has been very up-and-down so far.  Or I guess you could say, down-and-up, as the beginning of this month was kind of rough and now things are settling down.

For today, I was thinking that I could share some of my writing with you.  Currently, I'm taking a writing class and learning a ton!  A month or two ago I shared one of my poems called "Behind the Scenes", which is probably my favorite thing that I've written from class.

Here's a few paragraphs from the fiction I'm working on right now :)

As we load the boxes into the moving van, I spot Erica running down the street. 
“I’m gonna go somewhere really quick,” I mutter to my sister, Courtney, and take off towards my best friend.  “Erica!” I holler.  “Erica, wait!”

She turns and beckons to me, then keeps running.  “Come on, Aurora!” she yells back.  I know where she’s headed--the abandoned playground where we used to hang out after school last year.  It’s the only place where we’re sure to have any privacy.  Reaching into my pocket, I rub the five string bracelets I’ve made for her.

“I thought you’d never get here,” she giggles as I duck under the slide and scoot towards her.  But then her ever-present smile collapses and it’s suddenly obvious how hard she’s taking this.  How hard the move is going to be on her, too.  “Why do you have to go?” she whispers.  “What am I gonna do without you?  The school paper, Aurora.  All our plans, gone!”

It’s too much, and then we’re holding each other and crying, and without any words we know how much we’ll miss each other.  “I’ll email you every day,” I promise.  “And you have to sign up for the school paper!  One of us should.  Here, these are for you.”  I hold out the friendship bracelets, each of them woven with a blue string among the others, a blue string to match the one in each of my bracelets.  “Because we’re different, and we’re going to change, but we’ll always be friends,” I explain.

We slowly walk back to my house, grabbing mint-chocolate ice cream cones even though it’s cold out.  It usually is here in San Francisco, but ice cream on the first day of July is an Erica-Aurora tradition that goes back to elementary school.  When the moving van comes into sight, she grabs my hand and holds it tightly.  “Aurora!”  I hear my mom yell.  “Come on, we’re making lunch and then we have to leave!”

Then, somehow, I’ve said goodbye to Erica and May, my 20-year-old cousin who has been helping us pack, and we’re on the road to Hollis, California, our new home.

Please keep in mind that this is my first draft that still needs editing, and is not by far the end of the story!  It's a work in progress :)

Hope you enjoy it, constructive criticism is appreciated!  And I'm still trying to think of a name and permanent URL for my new blog, so leave any suggestions in the comments or just email me!

Happy Homeschooling!