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 :)

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!

Tahoe

Hello!  So the story behind this post, in a nutshell, is that I went to Tahoe with my youth group on President's Day weekend, and took all these awesome pictures with my brand-new camera, and then blogger wouldn't let me upload said pictures.  And finally, TWO WEEKS LATER, here is my post about Tahoe.  *Sigh*

We stayed in Zephyr Cove, and the church conference center was super pretty!  All these pictures are from where we stayed.

Here's the dock.  There was a protected little swimming cove (right) encircled (ensquared?  haha) by the two docks and then the open lake was out to the left.

This lovely boat came around the lake with some tourists aboard.  They waved to us, seems like they were having a good time :)

Looking out from a rock near the docks onto the lake

Here is the swimming/beach area...it's probably used more in the summertime haha but the water was super clear, some kids jumped in!

Our winter retreat was four days, Friday through Monday (the first and fourth days were spent driving).  We got to play in the snow, hang out in our cabins, and go sledding!  It was super fun!  Some other things we got to do:

-Polar Bear Plunge (I didn't do this, but it's pretty much where you jump off the dock into the ice-cold lake.  Fun?)

-Marshmallow Olympics (A series of competitions involving marshmallows.  Included trying to eat a full bowl of ONLY the marshmallows from Lucky Charms; Chubby Bunny; Marshmallow Creme Santa Beard; and Marshmallow Field Hockey.  Our team lost haha!)

-Epic High School vs Middle School snowball fight...which I missed most of...

We had an amazing time and I'm definitely planning on going again next year!

More posts coming soon, now that Blogger has its picture-uploading problems fixed :)

Happy Homeschooling!

Visiting

Yesterday I went to visit the private school we've been looking at.  Let me say, it was AMAZING.  I want to go there so badly now!  The teachers were really nice, the principal was so welcoming, and they have a lot of different extracurricular activities and electives (sports, drama, choir, art, computers, etc).

It seems like an awesome school.  One of my friends goes there and loves it, and I really want to as well!  It helps that most of my friends are going there, but now that I've visited and seen the school, there's a lot more to want to go there for.

There's not much else to tell, really.  We had worship, got to hear the choir, watch the advanced drama club perform a skit, toured campus, and watched a pep rally.  Our student tour guides said that even though classes can be difficult, the teachers are great and it's lots of fun.

Only five more months of middle school!  Ahh!

Happy Homeschooling!

Announcements Part 2

Yesterday I posted "Announcements Part One", if you missed that here is a summary:

I'm not homeschooling next year.  I will be a high school freshman, and my mom and I both agree that it would be best for both of us if I attend a public or private school instead of homeschooling.  First, because I miss the classroom setting and being with friends.  Also, because planning high school would be a lot of work for Mom on top of already planning lessons for my sister and brother next year.  I love homeschooling, but we've decided that going to traditional high school is what we need to do.

Today, there are a two questions that have been coming up a lot that I need to answer.

What will happen to Misadventures of a Homeschooler?

Since I won't be homeschooled, this blog won't be used anymore.  I won't delete it because I want to remember my seventh and eighth grade years--kind of like a diary.  But I will be starting a new blog, because I've become kind of attached to blogging :)  Not sure what I'm going to call it.  At first I was thinking High School Misadventures, but I kind of want to start fresh and not feel like it has to be just like this one.  So tell me your suggestions, because I have none!

Also, I will be blogging on here until the end of the school year, then I will start on my other blog, which I will link once it's ready!

What school am I going to?

Hasn't been decided yet.  I'm going to the private school student visitation day next week, and my mom is going to their parent night.  However I might go to public school, and we're applying for an inter-district transfer next month.

We probably won't know if I'm accepted in that school district until July.  So it might be a while before this question is fully answered!

This post was way shorter than my last one haha!  But it needed to be split into two parts.  If there are any more questions, I will answer them in another post!

Happy Homeschooling!

Announcements Part One

Hello everyone, happy new year! :D

[NOTE:  There is a lot of stuff going on in this post, you don't have to read the whole thing.  I won't judge you!]

I have some stuff to actually talk about, that I've been ready to post for a few months now but it wasn't really the right time.  So here we go.

Next year, as you probably know, I'm going to be a high school freshman!  Exciting stuff right there ;)  But high school is a really big deal, and I will not be homeschooling.

There are a few reasons why:

The first is that I do miss seeing my friends every day, I miss having different teachers, I miss those funny moments where one of the guys says something totally random in class and everyone starts laughing for five minutes.  I grew up in a private school, and that's what I'm used to.  I honestly miss it.

Don't get me wrong, homeschooling is amazing and fun!  We have a really good time at home, and I learn a lot.  We get to go on field trips and I use what I'm learning in real life.  Plus, every day is a home ec lesson :D  But mom and I agree that high school is really important in social life.  Mom still has friends she met in HS!

Another reason we've decided to not homeschool next year is the work for Mom.  A lot of her time is already used making lesson plans and teaching me and my brother.  Planning high school would be even harder, along with homeschooling my siblings, who will be in kindergarten and second grade.

It was kind of hard, but we finally decided that it would be best for everyone for me to attend public or private high school, rather than homeschooling.  That way I will be able to get back into the routine that I was in from kindergarten through sixth grade, and she will have more time to spend on my brother and sister's education.

Obviously, I know it's not going to be all High School Musical!  (haha)  There's going to be a lot of homework, a lot of drama, and probably quite a bit of stress added in for good measure.  But I'm up for the challenge.

I will post part two of this tomorrow, because there is more to talk about concerning this blog, school options, etc.  This was just an explanation of why I'm not homeschooling next year.  Check back tomorrow!  I love you and...

Happy Homeschooling!

Latin

Hey, I know I'm a day late on this post but at least I remembered to do it right?! ;)  Anyhow, Latin was yesterday and of course we had a ton of fun, went over the syllabus and such.

Here is what we get to do this year:

~Learn more vocab and grammar stuff
~Make Latin Mad Libs
~Storytime!! This is when we all listen to a cool story about Roman history and then translate it from Latin to English (we get the simplified version).  They usually involve heroes, missing appendages, and fire.
~Do little grammar videos to show next year's sixth graders
~Make a Latin Book as a class

AND FINALLY...
Dun-dun-dunnnnn

~Make a MOVIE about everything we have learned about ROMAN HISTORY!!!!

Am I too much of a Greek/Roman history nerd?  Because I find these things fascinating :D  Of course a contributing factor is that many of you know that in my spare time I randomly act out scenes from books/movies/etc with my friends and make videos starring my cousins.

And, of course, ME.  Haha :)

So of course everyone is in overdrive, and we all want to start rightawaypleasepleaseplease Miss Weight?!

Alas, we must wait.  But I shall be patient.

Oh, can't we start now?!?!

That's all for now, hope you have a good day at school, work, or home!

Happy Homeschooling!

Va-va-VBS!

So I realized I never told you guys what went on at VBS.  Well I made friends, learned A LOT about kids, got asked to babysit, and had a super fun (if tiring) time with all the preschoolers!!  Danielle (the preschool director) is going to ask the children's ministries director if I can help out in the class once a month or so.  The kids seem to like me well enough :)  The girls like it when I play cats or house and read with them, the boys prefer to play Iron Man.

Or Spiderman.

Or Batman.

One of those guys.

As long as there are blowing-up noises and bad guys getting punched and lots of yelling, they are happy.

I found something out about myself that week: Spider (Iron, Bat) Man is way more of my thing than house or cats.  And I thought I was a Barbie type of girl!  Guess not!

???

The kids liked that I drew mustaches on myself, let them test their lighting and fire powers on me, and gave us all war paint made of shaving cream.  It was the best fun I've had in a long, long time.

And I got asked to babysit!!  Note to self: take first aid/CPR/babysitting class at Kaiser ASAP!  It's true though, and since then I've been asked again about 3 more times or so.  Better get my booty off the couch and sign up huh?

That's all for now.  Thought you might be interested in how the whole VBS adventure turned out haha!

Happy Homeschooling!