Still Alive

Believe it or not, I'm actually still alive...even though I don't exactly feel like it today.  I'm a little tired. Well, maybe a lot.

Since high school started, I've learned a few things about studying and thought I would share. Here are my top 10 studying tips!

1. Listen to music.  It helps tune out other distractions, especially if it's instrumental or a song you don't know well.  Turn it to whatever volume you prefer: I like mine in the middle, because loud makes it hard to concentrate and when it's too soft I strain to listen instead of working.

2. Break.  The way I break up my studying is by doing homework for thirty minutes and breaking for anywhere between 5 and 15 minutes, depending on the amount of work I have.  During that time I go on instagram, tumblr, or I get up and walk around.

3. Ask for help.  Sometimes you don't have time to copy down the homework or don't understand the way the teacher explained the lesson.  Don't be afraid to ask a friend for help!  As long as you're not asking for the answer, only an explanation, it's not cheating.  My friends have helped me a ton by explaining things I don't understand.

4. Know what your teacher wants.  Let's be honest: if your teacher wants you to copy straight out of the book, you can do that.  If your teacher wants you to use your own words, do so.  Follow their preferences of how to do your homework and it can potentially create less work for you.

5. Study all week.  Test on Friday?  Start studying Monday or Tuesday.  You won't regret it.  There is nothing more stressful than doing an entire project or cramming for a test the night before--or worse, the morning of.  I've been there and can say it's awful.  If you study all week, you might not even have to study at all the day before!

6. Make time for yourself.  Maybe it sounds cliche or insignificant, but it's actually really important--especially if, like me, you get stressed easily.  Read a book, watch a movie, write a blog post (this one has been a work in progress for a few days)...do something for you at least once a day.  If that means waking up 15 minutes early or staying up 10 minutes late to take a little longer in the shower or write an email to a friend, it's worth it.

7. Weekends are for chilling out.  Do your weekend homework ON FRIDAY.  I always try to reserve Saturday and Sunday for family and friends.  Who wants to worry about homework on a beautiful Sunday afternoon?  Not me, for sure.

8. Push yourself, but know your limits.  Don't be afraid to do the maximum--in fact, go for it!  But if you don't have time or really can't think of enough information to write 10 pages, don't worry. Maybe you're really good at history but can't write fiction to save your life.  Make your history summary the maximum amount and be excited that you know the information!  Your short story is a minimum of 4 pages?  Try for 4 and a half and don't beat yourself up over it.

9. Eliminate distractions.  There is a mirror that I keep on my desk which serves as a handy tool for when I do my makeup in the morning, but once the music turns on and I start my homework, it's only useful for helping me think my life is a music video, and that's not great for my focus.  Now it has a spot on my dresser in the afternoon for this very reason.

10. It's okay to have bad days.  We all do and it's fine.  You might even have a bad week.  The math lesson didn't make sense and you got a C on the quiz, or your English homework fell out of your binder and is lying on your floor.  Most teachers are understanding and though they probably won't let you turn it in for full credit, if you're normally good about turning in your work they're not likely to get mad.

There should probably be an 11, which is don't blog while you should be working on homework, but this post was long overdue and I'm nearly done anyway.  Thanks for reading, everyone!  See you next week--and that's a promise, as it will be my Thanksgiving break.

Hopefully my iPhoto will be up and running again soon (we got a new computer, yay!) so there can be more than just me jabbering on forever.

-Blue

One-Fourth

As of next week, we will be done with the first quarter of the school year!  I find that a little bit insane. Of course, all the teachers are cramming in as much homework as possible, as well as tests and projects that need to be done by the end of the quarter. This means that I have to write a paper, make a brochure on Ancient Greece, take the unit one history test, a literature test, and finish other assorted things in the next five(ish) days.  I just took my math quarter exam, and luckily it wasn't too hard...but it might be a little easier on the kids if everything wasn't crammed into the last week of the quarter! 

However, I really do like school.  I have great teachers, interesting subjects (mostly), and amazing friends to laugh with through it all.  So all in all, I think it's been a successful one-fourth of the school year.  Here's to three more that are just as great :)

I'll try to be back next week!  Things this month are going to be very crazy, though.  I promise to at least post short things, like this, as often as I can. 

Until next time!

-Blue

How to be Athletic

As someone who really doesn't enjoy high-performance athletic activities (reading and drawing are more my thing), I'd like to mention that I have P.E. four out of five days of the week, and one of them is an hour and a half long.

Now that I'm running and doing ab exercises four days a week, as well as learning different sports, I thought I would share my tips on how (and how not) to become an athlete. 

1. Good shoes are helpful.  In fact, they're more than helpful.  They keep PE at "hard" instead of "torture". 

2. A positive attitude actually really helps me.  If I'm complaining and insisting that I hate PE, I will.  If I try my hardest and think about how much the exercise benefits me, it'll make class way better. 

3. Jogging the mile is better than sprint/walk/sprint/walk.  I get better times (9:12!) and even though I'm tired at the end, it's very satisfying to know that I made it the whole way without stopping. 

4. Nobody is going to be amazing at every sport.  Some people think they can do all of them, and others think they can't do any.  Coming from someone who was convinced they were in the latter category, neither are true!  It's not as bad as I always used to think. 

5. Count by tens.  Thirty sit-ups?  Count to ten three times. It seems much shorter. 

6. IT'S JUST A GAME.  Too many people just don't get this, and it makes everyone feel bad.  We're learning and playing for fun.  Our grades aren't based on how many games we win, it's on who participates and tries hard to learn. 

7. Get sweaty. (Granna will be glad to hear me say this one!)  It means you're working hard and it's paying off.  Just last year, the thought of sweating made me cringe.  Now it's only slightly gross, haha!

8. Your makeup will come off, so don't wear a lot.  Or plan on re-applying.  (I'm lazy, so I just don't wear a lot)

9. Deodorant works wonders.  Bring it, use it!

10. Have fun!  No matter what, the point of sports is to enjoy yourself.  So do just that!

Sorry for my lack of posting this month, I've actually been writing this over a few weeks (the majority was written after I'd finished my math homework and had free time in class).  Homework has really picked up recently!  Hopefully I'll remember and have enough time to start posting weekly again!

-Blue

I may die young, but at least I'll die smart.  -Looking for Alaska by John Green

Off to Hogwarts

I will steal a flying car if I have to, so help me

So, it's off to Hogwarts today, for all the people who actually got their letters when they turned eleven.

I'm still waiting for mine.

Actually, instead of going to Hogwarts, I've spent the day doing homework and trying to pick out a biography for my book report.  Give me spells and potions any day!

This week has been a busy one.  Not only have I been assigned two essays and a book report, we also had two tests and two quizzes, homework upon homework upon homework, and struggling through PE even though I'm pretty sure I pulled a muscle in both of my legs.

Then we had our  first school social on Friday, which was at a trampoline place, where I had lots of fun and lost my voice and messed up my legs even more (but it was worth it), and afterward there was a party, and then a birthday party yesterday, and how do popular and social people do this?  It's tiring!!

Alright, time to keep researching biographies.  'Till next time!

-Blue

Week-end

Sorry for no Tuesday post the past two weeks.  I may or may not need to reschedule now that I have an idea of what homework is going to be like.  Until then, I'm gonna play it by ear.  Hopefully that's okay with you guys!

High school is great!  My teachers are awesome and the older kids are nice and helpful.  As with any school--or any situation where you put more than 10 kids together in a group--there's drama and "mean girls" and stuff like that, but they're not interested in me.  And honestly, that's totally fine.  The less drama, the better.

I have some pros and cons to the first two weeks of school.  Here is my list:

PRO: Retreat was awesome!
CON: I was sick during retreat, so it was less awesome than it could have been.

PRO: we have a separate locker for our PE stuff, meaning no stinky shoes with our notebooks.
CON: I frequently need to ask for help opening my combination lock.

PRO: I know where and when all my classes are.
CON: My 5th period class is on the other side of the school from my 6th period.

PRO: My first class is choir, which is amazing!
CON: Singing at 8:30am can be a challenge.

PRO: We get out of school 30 minutes early twice a week!
CON: We have 8 different bell schedules.

But really?  Even though there's a lot of homework and it's a little bit stressful, truth is I love school so far and am really looking forward to the rest of the year.

I'll try to post again on Tuesday if I don't have too much work!

-Blue

The Friday Post

Today was orientation!  I learned several things today:

1. Pep rallies are really loud.

2. My school looks much smaller from the outside.  Wait, where are my classes again?

3. The seniors are really nice!  Or at least the ones I've talked to.

4. When faced with the question, "What's your favorite food?" I will not be able to give you an answer right away.  And when I do, it will be brownies even though I like apples more.

5. I'm pretty sure we have an algebra pretest on Tuesday.

6. Getting up at 6:30 in the morning is going to take some getting used to.  Being ready by 7:30 is going to take even more getting used to!

7. Almost everyone plays sports.

8. Spanish looks fun--as long as you do your homework you won't get behind, and the teacher throws fiestas at least once every quarter :)

9. I know a lot of people who are in the class of '17.  I also don't know a lot of people.

10. High school is going to be an adventure!

The comments section is working again!  To my adult readers, what life lessons did you learn in high school?  And to the other teens out there, what are you excited for this year?

Thanks for reading!

-Blue

Twentysomething

So yes, this post is late.  Tuesday was busy though!!  We're busy people!  But at least I didn't skip the whole week.  I'm still here :)

By the way, school starts in twentysomething days.  I think, specifically, 24.  Where did summer go??  I wasn't doing anything and then the past month has pretty much been visit after visit after visit.  In just the past two weeks I've had a friend over, two sleepovers, and a day at the beach.

And on top of that, school starts in just about four weeks and we haven't even gotten a school supplies list.

We'll see how that turns out.

Anyways, I really don't have a big story today because I'm tired and there's nothing too exciting happening.

Next week I'll try to have a post on time!  Thanks for reading and being patient :)

-Blue

Written

Sorry about not posting last week, we got a surprise visit from our friends that live in L.A.  We were really busy with Independence Day being that week too, so I just thought I'd wait until this week to post.

I finally finished my short story for writing class!  If you remember, I posted the first paragraph or two of my rough draft (the first rough draft, actually...there were four or five) on Misadventures.  If you want to read that, you can click here.

But today I am posting the finished draft, which was completed last month.  Enjoy!

New Beginnings

As the Woods family loaded the boxes into the moving van, Aurora spotted Erica running down the street. 
“I’m gonna go somewhere really quick,” she muttered to her sister, Courtney, and took off towards her best friend.  “Erica!” she hollered.  “Erica, wait!”

Erica turned and beckoned to Aurora, then kept running.  “Come on, Aurora!” she yelled back.  Aurora knew where she was headed--the abandoned playground where they used to hang out after school last year.  It’s the only place where they’re sure to have any privacy.  Reaching into her pocket, Aurora rubbed the five string bracelets she made for Erica.

“I thought you’d never get here,” Erica giggled as Aurora ducked under the slide and scooted towards her.  But then her ever-present smile collapsed and it’s suddenly obvious how hard she’s taking this.  How hard the move was going to be on her, too.  “Why do you have to go?” she whispered.  “What am I gonna do without you?  The school paper, Aurora.  You taking photographs, me writing the stories...all our plans, gone!”

It was too much, and then they held each other and cried, and without any words they knew how much they’d miss each other.  “I’ll email you every day,” Aurora promised.  “And you have to sign up for the school paper!  One of us should.  Here, these are for you.”  She held out the friendship bracelets, each of them woven with a blue string to match the one in each of her bracelets.  “Because we’re different, and we’re going to change, but we’ll always be friends,” she explained.

They slowly walked back to Aurora’s house, grabbing mint-chocolate ice cream cones even though it was cold out.  It usually is in San Francisco, but ice cream on the first day of July was an Erica-Aurora tradition that went back to elementary school.  When the moving van came into sight, Erica grabbed Aurora’s hand and held it tightly.  “Aurora!”  she heard her mom yell.  “Come on, we’re making lunch and then we have to leave!”

Then, somehow, she’s said goodbye to Erica and May, her 20-year-old cousin who had been helping them pack, and she was on the road to Hollis, California, her new home.

The car ride there was long and boring.  Aurora checked on her cameras, which she had stashed in her backpack so she wouldn’t have to wait to unpack them.  But looking at the flat, brown landscape she thought that maybe it wouldn’t have mattered if her cameras were packed away.  It’s not like there was anything to take a picture of anyway. 

“Meow,” her orange tabby cat, Sea Biscuit, protested from inside his crate.  He didn’t want to leave San Francisco either.

“Sorry, Bud.  We’re stuck here for another half-hour.  As soon as we get to the house, we’re gonna go give the Canon some air and explore, sound good?”  He gave a grunt-like purr in response and she put on her headphones for the rest of the trip.

True to her word, when they stopped in front of their new house, Aurora immediately opened Sea Biscuit’s crate, grabbed her cameras, and set out to wander the streets of the small town.  Her small town, now.  But even after wandering around for twenty minutes, she only had a few lame pictures of cows and cornfields to show for it.  When Sea Biscuit and Aurora arrived home, the whole “adventure” had turned out to be an epic fail. 

Aurora’s mom showed her up to the second floor, where her bedroom was.  It was big and white, empty except for an air mattress and the row of boxes stacked against one wall.

“Why don’t you start unpacking, honey,” her mom suggested gently.  “Or at least organize the boxes so we can move everything in neatly when the furniture comes.”  Aurora nodded numbly, sitting down on the floor in the middle of her new room.  She wrote a quick email, telling her best friend that they were here, Hollis was boring, and she missed her already, then resumed sitting on the floor, doing nothing.  After staring at the boxes for a long time and determining that she really couldn’t use The Force to unpack them without moving, she got up and pulled one toward her.  It was labeled ‘Aurora, grades 3-5’.  Opening it, she began pulling out stuffed animals and books that she had forgotten about years ago.  Her Junie B. Jones books, her favorite teddy bear.  Digging down farther, she uncovered a few old CDs and finally reached the bottom, where she pulled out three model horses.

She’d completely forgotten how much she’d loved horses in third grade!  Running her fingers over the intricately painted models, she remembered how badly she’d wanted a horse of her own, how she’d begged her mom for lessons.  How her mom had tried, but hadn’t found any places close enough to their apartment.  Horses didn’t live in the city, Mom had reminded her.  They live in the countryside.

Aurora looked out her window at the rolling fields as she reminisced about her childhood obsessions.  The countryside really was quite beautiful, she thought in a moment of fondness.

The countryside!

Aurora leaped up and rushed to her window.  Throwing it open, she leaned out as far as she could, as if trying to get as close as possible to the fields in order to make sure they were real.  Dashing down the stairs, not even bothering to put down the model horse she was holding, she burst into the kitchen.

“Mom!  The horses!  I found them!  And then, I realized about the countryside!  It was an epiphany!” When Mom’s expression went from wondering to downright confused, Aurora jumped up and down, waving the horse she was holding.  “Don’t you see?” she exclaimed.  “I can finally learn!”

“Whoa, slow down!  Could you tell me that again, in complete sentences this time?” Mom laughed.

“Well, I was going through my boxes...” Aurora told her mom what had happened.  “Since we don’t live in the city anymore, can I take horseback riding lessons?  Please?”

Two weeks later, after many phone calls and Google searches, they’d come up with nothing.  Hollis’ only horse stables were at private residences, and the owners didn’t offer lessons.  The only other option was a few towns over, and it was too long of a drive to make twice a week.  Closing her laptop, Aurora’s mom sighed and looked at her apologetically.

“I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” Mom said.  “I know how much you wanted this.  Don’t worry though...maybe something will end up working out.”

Aurora knew her mom really was sorry that they couldn’t find anything, but that didn’t lessen the disappointment.  “It’s okay,” she mumbled.  “Thanks for trying, Mom.”  Then she walked slowly up to her room, picked up her Canon, and went for a walk, only pausing to call, “I’m going out, be back soon,” so Mom wouldn’t worry.

She knew there wouldn’t be anything to photograph, but having her camera made her feel better.  Photography always calmed Aurora down.  Suddenly she felt something fuzzy brush up against her leg.   “Sea Biscuit!” she giggled weakly.  Her cat always knew when she needed company.  After snapping a few pictures of the tabby, Aurora set out, not knowing exactly where she was going, Sea Biscuit trailing behind her.

They ended up at the edge of a field.  “I should have known we would reach one of these eventually,” Aurora told her cat, laughing a little.  The walk had lifted her spirits considerably, though she was still kind of down about the riding lessons.  Raising her camera, she adjusted the focus and took some shots of the yellow grass, then prepared to take one last photo before heading home.  Just as her finger pressed down on the shutter, a horse galloped into the frame.  The rider seemed to be a girl, though Aurora was too far away to tell how old she might be.  The mysterious horse and rider turned toward a barn not too far off the road.

“Come on!” Aurora called to Sea Biscuit, sprinting towards the place where she could see the horse and now-dismounted girl.  The tall, dry grass whipped at her legs, but she barely felt a thing.  She just wanted to see the horse.

Reaching the barn, completely out of breath, Aurora wheezed toward the girl.  She knew she must look terrible, but still she approached the rider.  “Can...can I pet your horse?” she gasped.

The rider turned around and tried to keep a straight face.  “Did you run here?” she joked.  Aurora nodded, unable to speak.  Then she giggled, making the other girl chuckle too.  Soon both of them were doubled over, nearly crying with laughter.  “Why...” the girl began, “Why on earth...did you run...all that way?”

“Wanted...to see...your horse,” Aurora responded.

That sent the girls into a fresh round of hysterics.  Once they both caught their breath, Aurora introduced herself.  “I just moved to the big house on Third Street,” she explained, figuring that in such a small town, the girl would know where that was.  She was right--the girl did.

“I’m Nyssa,” the girl replied.  “I’m going to be a freshman in the fall.”  Aurora was too, and they talked for a while about school and San Francisco, where Nyssa had never been, before the horse whinnied, getting their attention.  “Oh, that’s right!  You wanted to pet him.  Hey, Sunny!” she patted the horse.  “This is our friend Aurora!  She’s super nice, you’ll love her.”

Tentatively, Aurora ran her fingers down the animal’s back.  Once she was confident that the horse wasn’t going to spook, she began petting it’s neck and nose, too.  “She’s beautiful,” Aurora whispered.  “I’ve always wanted to ride horses,” she added, almost as an afterthought.

Nyssa seemed to think about this for a moment, then noticed the camera around Aurora’s neck.  “You like photography?” she asked.  Aurora nodded, still stroking Sunny.  “Well then, how about this,” Nyssa proposed.  “If I give you riding lessons, will you teach me about photography?  I have this great camera at home, but don’t have a clue how to use it.”

Aurora whipped around, staring at Nyssa in disbelief.  “You’d do that?  Really?”  Nyssa nodded.  “Deal!”  Hugging her new friend, Aurora grinned from ear to ear.  Finally, she thought, things were starting to look up.

Original story by Blue.  Many thanks to Mrs Dudley!! :)

Hope you liked it, and talk to you soon!

-Blue

Graduation

Sorry that this post is a little late, but I wanted to talk about graduation.  And since graduation was last night, there wasn't a chance to blog about it before I headed off to bed.

Anyway, my friends graduated 8th grade last night!  Now we're all freshmen :)  It was nice to hear the teachers talk about everyone, and I could tell that even though the members of the class of 2013 were described as "monkeys", they'll also be missed.  I know I'll miss my friends who are going to different schools!

I saw a few people who used to go to my old school as well.  It was really nice to see some old friends.  One girl, turns out, was homeschooled too!  Too bad we didn't know about that before, because we could have hung out and worked together.

It was a really fun night, and I wish everyone the best of luck next year. :)

Until next week!

-Blue

Hello!

Hey there!  As it says in my description, you probably know me as Miss Education, from my old blog.  You can read my posts from my two years of homeschooling by clicking the "Homeschool Misadventures" tab above.  But this is a new blog, and a fresh start.

Welcome to Ink Stains.

This wasn't in the original poll that I ran on Misadventures.  It actually just kind of...came to me, I guess.  You may know that I love to write.  And even though most of my work is done on the computer, I write things by hand as well, and afterward my hands are usually smeared with ink.  Thus, Ink Stains.

I may or may not change it, but the URL will likely stay the same.

Also, let me introduce you to my new screen name, Blue.  There are a few reasons why I chose this name.  One reason is because I wrote a poem in second grade (I think it was second grade) about my cat, whose name was Baby Blue Eyes.  That poem was published somewhere, in a magazine or something, and I was really proud of it.  So Blue ties me to my writing.  Blue is also my favorite color.  And it's simple, no fuss.  Just Blue.

Presently, I'm trying to work on a blogging schedule, which will probably change once I start school, but the plan is once a week, probably on a Tuesday or Thursday.

And finally, this blog is not only about school and life and that kind of thing, it will also include beauty stuff.  Not as much as the others, but it will still come up (probably when I don't have much to post about).  If you'd like to skip over that, just look under any tabs not labeled "Girly Girl".  You'll find blog posts according to the headings there.

Thanks for stopping by, whether you've been reading since the very first Misadventures of a Homeschooler post or just found this blog recently!

-Blue