Colly's World

This year as I travel I will be home schooling. Home schooling is in some ways similar and in a lot of ways different. My parents are home schooling me, but I am doing most of the same work my class in Piedmont Middle School is doing. Home schooling lasts two to four hours a day;  you might think that is short, but I actually get a ton done. In class, teachers have to teach everyone, but in home schooling, it is one-on-one and it goes much faster. My parents are sort of my teachers but they only help me to review my work and if I’m stuck. My real teacher back at Piedmont Middle School is Ms. Kelleher and she emails me assignments and instructions for projects. So far, 6th grade is mostly review from last year in math, but in history and science it’s all new stuff. Plus, I’m reading a lot and blogging too. Instead of text books, most of my books are on pdf and Kindle, so computers have became a big part of my life. To me the weirdest thing is that I am in a two-person class, my brother and me.

At first it was really hard to adapt to home schooling because it did not feel like school at all. What helped me adapt was emailing my friends. It was hard not seeing my friends and not being in Piedmont. But I am getting used to it a little, and the year will go by faster than I think, and soon I will be in Piedmont missing my trip.

My parents feel that it should not be all home schooling and that I should learn outside of the home too. We have “field trip” days where we go to some cool places. We try to do it about every week. We take small trips and really long trips.

One small trip that I took was to the Telluride Museum. I learned about the mining in Telluride, the schools and the cooking in the late 1800′s — the Victorian period. At the museum they had wooden school desks that I liked. They were also from the 1800′s. The desks were all connected and had a hole for ink.

One big trip we did was to Mesa Verde National Park. In the 600′s-1300′s AD the Ancestral Puebloans lived there. Some of the cliff dwellings I went to were the Cliff Palace, Balcony House, and Spruce Tree House.

My favorite was Cliff Palace — it had 150 rooms and 100 people. The rooms were tiny, the size of a coat closet. They made their houses out of mud and rocks, otherwise known as masonry. In a way they kind of looked like fallen condos. There were these room-sized holes in the ground called kivas that the Puebloans used for ceremonies because they thought the farther down you go, the more spiritual you are, because you’re getting closer to Mother Earth (not the devil).

Another place I really liked was Balconey House. I got to climb up a huge ladder and crawl through a tiny tunnel shoulder-length wide. The next day, we took an old-fashioned steam train from Durango to Silverton through beautiful mountains and past waterfalls.

After home schooling, you could say I do an afterschool activity. For example, I go swimming, fishing, horseback riding, hiking, or to some cool place. I am missing doing trapeze arts lessons in Oakland and Kids Take the Stage drama in Alameda, but there are some things I really do not miss, such as waking up early and having to do homework after school. Also, home schooling is very flexible, which I really like. For example, if we take a day off during the week, then I do my school work on the weekend, which I don’t mind doing.

However, I really miss people. I am already getting sick of my family and it has only been three weeks! I have been hanging out with my aunt and uncle’s neighbors. They are both girls, and their names are Thia and Caroline. They have three horses that I love to ride. I miss everyone back in Piedmont soooooooooooo much! Thank you guys for posting such nice comments on my last blog post.