I homeschool - why don't people get it? Part 1

Ok, I'm going to describe a a typical everyday scene in my life. The writing in red is not part of the scene and isn't really important. You can just ignore it if you like. This blog post will probably go on for ages, but maybe not if I manage to stop myself from moaning.

Randomperson: So what's your favourite subject?

How do people manage to dredge up such boring topics of conversation?!

Me: Um - I like writing.

I usually start my sentences with "Um". I don't know why, but it's something I'm trying to stop doing.

Randomperson: Ah, so do they do a lot of that at your school then?

Why can't people ask me stuff that they're actually interested in?

Me: Uh, well, I don't go to school; my mum and dad teach me at home.

I say "Mum and dad" because for some reason, people tend to assume that it's just my mum who teaches me. Or they think a tutor comes to the house to teach me

Randomperson: So do you enjoy it?

 DOH.
Me: I love it.

Randomperson: I've never heard of that before. How do they know what to teach you?

"How do they know what to teach me?" Seriously?

Me: Whatever I want to learn about, really. I like art, and like I said before, writing.

Randomperson: So are your parents teachers?

Are people stupid or what?

Me: No; you don't have to be a teacher to teach your kids at home.

What would be the point in teaching your kids at home if you're a teacher? Surely it would be more convenient to send your child to the school you work at?

Randomperson: do you have a curriculum then? 

Me: *Stifled yawn* No; I just tell my  parents what I want to learn about and they help me get resources and help me to learn what I want.

Randomperson: Don't you lack the social element then?

Me: I go to lots of classes, and talk to people everyday anyway. I still have friends, enough friends for me. And not all of them are children my age, who are the same level as me and who I see everyday. I talk to lots of different kinds of people everyday.

I'm going to end my everyday scene there even though it goes on, because I'm tired of switching from red to black and writing like a play.

 What is so annoying is that I get asked this all the time. I'd probably be ok with answering these questions if they were just asked once every five years or something. Also, people don't realise that I actually get bored answering them. As well as that, they aren't interested; They're curious. There might not seem to be a big difference between the two, but I think that "Curious" is a short-term thing, like an urge. Interest is more long term, and can imply approval of the subject. In addition, they aren't curious about me; they're curious about what I do, and they think they can just bombard me with questions about it.

These are some of the most common questions I get asked:

1. What do you learn at home?

2. Don't you miss the equipment at school?

3. Have you ever tried school?

4. Do you know any other home-schoolers?

5. Why are you home-schooled?

Here's another thing that irritates me: Sometimes when I'm getting introduced to somebody, the person introducing me just has to tell the other person I'm home-schooled, like it's the most interesting thing about me or like it's part of my name. Then I have to explain all over again.

This is just the first part to My Epic Ramble. I'm going to bed now, but I'll carry this on in another post later.

Thanks for reading this.

Here are links to the continuations of this:

Part 2
Part 3

Jamilondon

  

Drawing Fashion

This month I've been getting really into drawing fashion in my big notepad. I used to just draw stuff from magazines and change the designs around a bit, and I'd also draw some of my own, and some from the internet as well. Now I'm drawing from life, too, which is way more fun and interesting because I can see the dark and light areas more clearly. Also, the things I've done from life look more realistic than the others. Maybe it's because these are more recent drawings, so I'm more experienced, or maybe it's because it's easier or funner. Whatever it is, I don't really mind, but it's nice to know that I like my drawings rather than getting annoyed over every small detail that doesn't look right, like I usually do.

My mother took me to the V&A museum twice in a week to draw the costumes there. The first time, we saw one of the exhibitions that's always up, and I drew a few outfits from the Victorian times. A lady came up to me and said that was I was drawing was beautiful (She'd seen it from the side because she was standing near me), and a few people paused before they walked past because they didn't want to block the view of what I was drawing, which made me very pleased. Nobody (To my knowledge) looked over my shoulder, and that made me want to jump up, punch the air, and say "YES". I just can't stand it when people look over my shoulder while I'm doing art, especially when they don't ask. Why do they do it? Yeah, I know they want to see what I'm drawing, and it can be quite entertaining to watch someone drawing, but still, why don't they realise that it's really hard to concentrate with someone staring over your shoulder? Not only are they being nosey, they are making my picture worse because I'm getting stressed out.

On that trip to the museum, we bought some tickets to see Hollywood costumes. Unfortunately, a few days later my mother's bag got stolen, so because the tickets were in her wallet, they got stolen as well. She had to write an e-mail to the museum staff asking for replacement tickets , and we got a reply saying they could, but drawing there and photography wasn't allowed (My mum had told them that I wanted to draw there). I was like "How unfair is that?" but my mum explained it was because it was the last week of the exhibition and it would be super crowded, so they didn't want to risk having people holding everyone up. She did say, though, that I could take a little sketch book and do some quick, two minute sketches. My sketches turned out to take more than two minutes, and I wasn't as happy with them as the others, but they weren't bad. Annoyingly, one of the museum guards looked over my shoulder. He did say what I was drawing was "Very good" but he said it like a school teacher, rather than from the heart like that lady before. Whatever. It doesn't really matter that much. I should just be pleased he said it was very good, right?

On that museum I saw a costume from "Avatar" and ones worn by the people who acted "Superman", "Cat woman" and "Bat man". Also, I saw one worn by the person who acted the baddy in "One-hundred and one Dalmations" (I just can't seem to spell her name) and Harry Potter's too. There were way more, but I can't think of anymore except for one from "Mamma Mia!" worn by Meryl Streep, one from "Sherlock Holmes" and one from "Pirates Of The Caribbean". There were some interviews and lots of silent snippets from movies playing at the exhibition, but it was hard to take everything in when there were so many people.

Ok, enough about the exhibition.

When I got home, I looked up Victorian clothing on the internet because I liked the Victorian dresses at the V&A, and did one in charcoal. My dad liked it because it was bold, but I got annoyed because the lines I didn't want were really hard to erase.

We went to Cass Art recently and there were these lovely patterned Deco-patch papers that I wanted to buy for designing dresses, but they were too expensive, so when we got home I used wrapping paper to design a sort of collage dress. It was a bit inspired by one of Lauren Child's books, "The Princess And The Pea". Then I designed a kind of suit that was a little bit like the one I saw at the exhibition that Meryl Streep wore.

Now I only have about four more pages left in my big notepad. I'll need another one soon!

The up-goer five text editor - second piece of writing

Here is another piece of writing I did using the up-goer five text editor. Like in the other piece of writing I did using that website, I could only use the one-thousand most common words. Can you guess what I wrote about?

A long, long time ago there were some animals that were good at what they did, and had big brains and got a lot out of it. There were also some animals that were not so good at what they did. They did not know a lot of things and were not as fast or strong. Because of that, it was easy for other animals to eat them and they could get stuck in places without food easily. They all got eaten or died because they could not find food or run away fast enough.

The animals that did know a lot did not get eaten because they knew how to avoid trouble. They had babies who knew lots of things because their parents did. The stupid animals did not have babies, because they had died, so none of them lived on.

Some animals did not die because they were stupid. They died because they did not look right and the animals that they wanted to eat could see them. When those animals saw them they ran away because they didn't want to get eaten. Then the ones who wanted to eat them died of not having food. Only the ones that looked right could get food lived because the food did not see them. They had babies and those babies lived because they were like their parents. The few who weren't like their parents didn't live; they got eaten. Soon only the ones who looked right lived.

Some types of animal became bigger or smaller or lost or changed parts of their bodies because that was what was good for them. This happened over many, many years because it took time for all the non good, non useful ones to die.

Because of all this, animals changed and turned into different kinds of animals that were better in that part of the world. They only changed in parts of the world that they could not live in. They didn't change in other parts of the world because the food, other animals, leaves, ground and how much water there was, was different and good for them there.

A man told lots of people about this. First most of them didn't believe him. They thought all the animals were around at the same time. Soon more and more people believed him. Then lots of people knew about him and his idea.

The up-goer five text editor

 The up-goer five text editor is a text editor that makes sure that you only use the one thousand most common words in the English language. Most people try to write about complex things, but to practice I wrote about something simple. See if you can guess what it is:

I like putting water in a big grey cup with a top that turns so hot it has little pieces of air coming up through it. Then I put the water in a smaller cup with dry leaves in it and a handle. After a while some parts of the leaves that are so tiny you can't see them come off the leaves and into the water because it is so hot. They turn the water a red that looks a little bit like the sun. Then I take the big bits of leaves out because they aren't nice in your mouth and put them somewhere where you put things you don't want. After that I take white stuff that isn't water but moves like it and feels like it and I put it in the cup. The red water and the white thing like water are made out of really really tiny pieces. When I take a grey stick with a wide end and move it around in the cup, the really tiny pieces move together and look different. Then I drink what is in the cup. It is good.

Our holiday in France 2012

For the Christmas holidays my family and I went to Onnion, in the Haute Savoie region of France to visit some friends of ours. Their kids go to school, so that's why we had to go in the holidays.

This is the house we stayed at for our holiday

It seemed like every day of our seven day stay, our hosts had an activity planned for us to do. They took us to see fireworks, swimming, ice-skating, tobogganing, skiing and on lovely walks.

On Christmas' Eve we went to see fireworks. It was spectacular! I think it was one of the only times I watched it so close up. Really, we were so close; it felt like they were going to land on us. Luckily I wasn't scared. It was actually quite relaxing watching the sky because everyone went quiet while they were watching and the fireworks was so beautiful. The display was very varied but my favourite was the kind in the photo below. Quite obviously, it looked One Hundred times better in the sky but I want to show a picture anyway. 

Before the display, these ladies in dresses like really pretty Christmas trees on stilts did a kind of parade and threw confetti to the people. When they'd finished, a Papa Noel came on a carriage drawn by a horse! He waved to everyone from it, and there was a woman walking behind the carriage dressed as an elf, who gave sweets out to some of the children.

This is a picture from a walk we went on. The floating girl? She's not really floating; she's just jumping down a steep... I actually don't know what its called. Maybe a "Drop". Not a dangerous kind of drop though. A fun kind. It was great jumping because when we landed we actually slid down an extra bit. The snow was so deep, though, so it was hard to get back up.

One of the beautiful views over Onnion

Both the swimming and the skiing were amazing. I'd never been skiing before my holiday, but our hosts were good teachers so I learnt quickly. To turn Left you have to turn your right foot in slightly and lean it round to your left. And to turn Right you do the same but the other way round. If you want to go forward, all you have to do is lean forwards, and to stop, you lean both the skis inward and push out so they're digging into the snow. Travelling back up the slope without using the lift is possible if you use your skis like ice-skates, but you can get injured so I just used the lift. I fell off it once or twice, but otherwise using it was fine.

After a while, I could go down the slope smoothly, but our hosts told me it was important to practice zig-zagging so that if I get good enough to go on a steeper slope, I will have more control. After a little while, I was told I could go on the steeper slope with the host's daughter. She was really good at teaching me. The lift was harder to use because it went faster, but at least I didn't have to ski up the slope!

Me skiing uphill

My sister using the ski-lift

Tobogganing was great apart from having to pull the sled uphill. The sled was lighter than our one at home, but it was still tiring and I kept having to rest. Still, going downhill was great. I tried on my front, at the same time as my friend, and once from even higher up. Despite falling off a few times, I really enjoyed myself.

The toboggan slope

Around the middle of our stay, our hosts took my sister and to a swimming pool, or rather, about eight. There were a few warm mini pools with jets of water in them, and there was one large pool for playing in. It had some really large waves in it, but they weren't there all the time. There were also foam body boards to hold onto that helped you float.

Another pool had a diving board that my friends/ hosts and I jumped off. The queue wasn't too long, which was great. Next to that pool was another one, deep enough to dive into, and my friends taught my sister and I how to dive from standing up.

There was a different swimming pool, which had a slide. My sister had to go accompanied because she's under ten, and she was a bit scared. The slide was super long. I mean really, really long, and it was way better than the ones I've been to in London.


I was so sad when we had to go home! I definitely want to go back to visit Onnion again!