I could survive for 1 minute, 13 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

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School School School...

Somehow blogger is not blocked at school. I thought it was, but maybe it's from getting here through links instead of going straight to it. Either way, that's a good thing.

I am in office systems right now. I'm about a week and a half to two weeks ahead of most of the class. Which means free time for me.

I finished reading Dumbing Us Down on Sunday. It was as amazing as I thought it would be. I ended up not highlighting much, maybe a dozen or so points. It is definitely a book I will read a couple more times.

I started reading Lolita. I have no idea why it's taken me so long to read this book. I have seen both versions of the movie already but I'm anxious to read the book.

Current thoughts

Brian starting a new blog made me want to start updating this thing more often. Here are the things I've been thinking of lately:

• Seeing people outside makes me happy. One day this week while canoeing during PE I saw a mom and her young son at the beach. The kid wasn't at daycare or preschool and the mom wasn't at work; they were just enjoying a quiet day at the beach together. As we were leaving I also saw a man come to the park, sit on the pier, and start eating his lunch. No ipod, no phone, just eating and looking at the lake.

• I've been in school about a month now and I think the most practical thing I've learned is how to rescue people who have capsized in their canoe.

• I've been reading Dumbing Us Down (John Taylor Gatto) and it's great. I do get annoyed though by how many people ask if I'm reading it for school when they see it, even though "The Hidden Curriculum of Complusory Schooling" sounds mighty anti-school to me. They ask a lot when I hilight stuff too. I just like hilighting in my books. I marked stuff all over in The Art of War.

• I'm ready for all this rain to end. It's meant a lot of canceled canoeing days (the one fun thing in school) and bad internet connections. Rainy weather makes me want to curl up with a book and lots of blankets, but of course school doesn't allow for that.

• This is a busy weekend for me. I spent five straight hours at the dojo today. Tomorrow I'll spend five hours at the tambura club.

• At karate the dad of one of the kids I teach a lot thanked me for always helping his son. That made my day. =)
  

Big Kids Want to Play Too!

Muffin Tin Mondays at Sycamore Stirrings looked so fun I wanted to join in for myself.

I have a small collection of shaped muffin tins (silicone hearts, flowers, snowflakes, individual easter shapes and metal easter eggs). The one I happened to grab was snowflakes, not very fitting for summer, but still fun.



I ate out more than usual this past week so that meant more leftovers.
Clockwise from the top left:
Dove dark chocolates (which sadly were melted by the time I got to them)
Pringles (I had planned on grapes, but we were out)
Cinnamon granola bar chunks
Leftover "Crusher" burger from Baker's Square
Ketchup
Leftover chicken nuggets and fork

Self-imposed Outdoor Challenge Days 1 & 2

Day 1 (Sunday)- This was a super easy day! My friend A called me and invited me out on her boyfriend (N)'s dad's boat. Our friend K went with too. At first N's dad and grandma came with and N and A went tubing (K and I opted out). Then the adults left and we took the boat back out to swim in the middle of the lake. After eating at N's dad's place we went to the beach and A and I swam while the other two wimped out from the cold water. We spent about five hours or so at the lake that day.

Dat 2 (Today)- I ate lunch outside, which was 15-30 minutes. Then I sat out/played with the dog/ran a karate kata under the sprinkler until the cold water drove me inside. That was another 20 minutes or so. My dad likes taking walks at night, so I'm going to ask him to take me walking tonight and that's usually 30 minutes. As long as I follow through later today I'll just hit my hour mark.

A new goal

I was inspired by reading posts (and challenge participants) over at Unplug Your Kids to spend some time today outside working on a paint-by-number my mom brought home one day (I am definitely NOT a painter).

I decided I want to spend more time outside this summer. My new goal is one hour a day minimum outside. I think this is a good goal since even on days when I'm feeling lazy I can go outside for an hour without pushing it too much. I think if I push myself too much I'll just give out.

I don't watch much TV. In fact, I only watch tv one day a week. This isn't a parental rule or even a self-placed rule. I just don't like TV much and the shows I watch happen to be on the same night.

I do however spend too much time on the computers. I spend most of my time at home at the computer. Sometimes I'll do other things like read or craft projects, but I usually have the computer on for instant messaging while I do that.

It's a nice summer, so I think I can do this. It'll probably help that next week I'm going to Florida too. =P

Yikes!

This blog has been rather forgotten about. But hopefully it will be put to some good (and new!) uses.

Lately not only have I continued reading my favorite homeschooling blogs, but I have a new blog reading obsession: blogs about budgeting and living frugally. Yes, I am an odd teenager, but I find them so fascinating.

I've been reading back on Sense to Save and am into December 2007. I love it!
I found her blog through The Grocery Cart Challenge, which is also awesome!

I've decided to sign up on MyPoints and after asking my parents hopefully some paid survey sites. For ones I'm not old enough for I'll have my parents use their information and I'll just do the actual work (if they agree of course, but I don't think that will be a problem).

Now of course a lot of things in these blogs don't apply to me since I still live with my parents, but they're still fun and interesting. They are motivating in some ways. I want to make more of an effort to save up for my trip to Europe next year.
I've always kept loose change but now it will have a specific purpose.
I also want to try to keep better track of where my money goes.
I also want to try to find ways to make small amounts of money that'll add up by next summer, also in case something happens with my job.

I had decided before I wanted to get a DSLR before Croatia, from looking online I figured that through sales/coupons.buying used I should be able to get one for $650 if I shop wisely. The cheapest DSLR I can get is what I want. I want to make that a more definite goal, I'm not sure how yet. Right now my money all goes into one bank account that is more like two sub-accounts. One is interest-bearings and is accessible from ATMs. The other is my checking account which is accessible from ATMs or with my debit card. So both can be taken from with the ATM but only part with my debit card. I need to look into transfering money online I think.

Besides just saving money lately I've been making an effort to finally clean my room with a purpose. I figure that either because of college or working in the next 2-3 years I'll be moving out of my parents' house. So as I've been cleaning I've been sorting through things instead of just putting them away and asking if things are things I really want to bring with/find storage for. I have a couple grocery bags of cheap trinkets and lots of Happy Meal toys to either be donated/sold at a fundraising rummage sale my tambura group may have. It's a really good feeling. I'm also getting rid of a few dozen Archie comics I think. If my best friend wants them I'll give them to her, otherwise they'll probably be sold either at the rumamge sale or maybe somewhere online as a big lot.

50 States Notebook

I mentioned before that instead of just a lapbook about Illinois I decided to make a notebook so I can include all the states. Well, here is the start of it!
I got out a shoebox and gathered up things to possibly include: post cards, brochures, plane tickets, stickers, small souvenirs.

Here is the cover. It's construction paper, a few state mazes, and then the title.


For no real reason other than it was the first postcard I pulled out, I decided to start with Georgia. This first page has basic facts and a pocket for a postcard.


I've also started pages for famous Georgians and Georgian cotton. I think Florida may be my next state since I have a lot of things to include (my grandma has a summer home there we use).

Karate!

My dad knows a man who used to have a karate studio before he moved up here. Right now he's looking for a studio while he uses the basement of the church his brother-in-law is the pastor of. Today my mom, grandma, and I all took a self-defense class there. I was talking to the sensei afterwards and he suggested I try karate. I've thought about it before and so now I'm signed up for an introductory lesson on Tuesday. I'm pretty excited! The sensei, his, wife and other people from the school I met today were all very nice and helpful.

I'm going to go here. They teach Shuri-Ryu Karate. I really like how they try to make it a family thing. A lot of martial arts studios around here focus mostly on competitions. Here they don't admonish competition, but it's at the bottom of the list of values.

Bookplates!

I stayed home sick from school today. After a while of not being able to sleep any longer I was getting bored and decided to play around in photoshop since I haven't in a while. I finally made bookplates like I've been planning to. I don't like how the "to:" is so close to the flower, but I like it! I've only printed a few sheets of them out so far though. Printing enough for all 200+ books I have would take a little too much ink. =P

Wow!

Jimmie at One Child Policy Homeschool gave me my first blog award! Thank you so much!
It just so happens that the blog list I have on here is ten blogs long! Perfect! Some of these aren't homeschool/education blogs, but they're blogs I read regardless. That means I nominate:

Barefoot Meandering
Bits and Bobbins
Just Call Me Jamin!
LaPaz Home Learning
LiebeMarlene
Nurtured by Love
One Child Policy Homeschool
Peer Into Our World
Pink-Flamingo.Org
The Cheeky Lotus

The Well-Trained Mind

I finished reading The Well-Trained Mind. I read it in exactly one week! There are parts of classical education I like, but I still think I lean more towards unschooling. I want to read about as many different schools of education as I can: Montessori, Mason, Waldorf, etc. I think it's all fascinating. I like reading these kinds of books now because I can read them fast or skim through sections and it doesn't matter because at this point I'm just reading for fun and for general ideas.

A funny thing happened in school this week. I had The Well-Trained Mind out on my desk (since it's so large and doesn't fit well in my school bag) and my Law teacher said, "I can't believe you're reading that." I asked why and apparently he's read parts of it!

Big Kids can Lapbook Too

Reading homeschooling blogs has brought about a fascination with lapbooking. It's an idea I love. So I wanted to make one. The first one I made was about rocks and minerals. I used something we were studying in school at the time to make it easier so I could focus more on just making my first lapbook. It was so much fun! After that I used an online guide to make one about Halloween.
I've shown these to most of my friends and it makes me sad that they don't understand why I did them if they weren't for school. I wish more people my age realized that learning can actually be fun! That's one of the things I hate most about public schools is that they take the fun out of learning.
Anyways, enough of that. Here are my lapbooks!



Details: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenniferannifer/tags/geologylapbook/




To help keep the folder closed I put velcro circles on the backs of pictures.

Details: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenniferannifer/tags/halloweenlapbook/


This is the guide I used (and tweaked) for the Halloween lapbook: http://www.homeschoolhelperonline.com/lapbooks/halloween.htm

My next project is going to be to start a 50 States notebook instead of the lapbook on just Illinois I was planning to do (I was going to use this). This way I can have facts about every state and a good use for all the souvenirs and knick-knacks I always end up with!

Brand-New

After years of blogging in various places off and on I decided I want a new blog. As the name implies it will be academic-related topics. Academic doesn't just mean school to me though. It also means music and vacations and reading and all the other every day occurrences that help us learn. As in introduction, here is an overview of the things I'm sure to talk about a lot:

Music: I have taken lessons in piano for a number of years now. I think I have the greatest piano teacher. Instead of being strict and formally he lets me choose what to learn and doesn't scold or chide about anything. I also take flute lessons; I started playing about a year ago. My favorite instrument though is my prim. A prim is a type of tambura, a traditional Croatian string instrument. I play in an adult and a junior group that are both part of the Croatian Fraternal Union. Each group performs in a big festival every year. In both groups we play traditional songs and sing as well. In the junior group we also do traditional dances and wear traditional costumes for festivals.

School: I am a junior in high school at a very poor public school. My school does have a lot of electives which I love, but we are on the state financial watch list so that may not last long. I don't like public education. I plan to try to convince my mom (who doesn't like homeschooling) to let me homeschool myself for my senior year. My dad has no problem with the idea of homeschooling. He doesn't want me to go to college for a degree either; he encourages me to go into business for myself instead.

Homeschooling: I read nearly everything I can about homeschooling. I love the idea and sometimes get anxious to have kids and begin homeschooling them.

Work: I have an after school job at a chiropractor's office. I do miscellaneous things like filing and cleaning.

Business: A few years ago I started attending real estate classes and seminars with my dad; I can now say with confidence that I know more about real estate investing than most adults. I have plans to own real estate when I am older, but the market is horrible right now. Since I turned 17 I have also began going to meetings and trainings with my dad for Pre-Paid Legal. Pre-Paid Legal is network marketing, but not in the traditional sense. Since I'm not old enough to be a member yet my dad has set up a corporation I can use that I will get full ownership of when I'm older.

Of course there will be more, but I think this will suffice as an introduction.