Day One Hundred Ninety-Four

You know that thing where something is clearly too good to be true, so you sort of wince a little as you wait for the other shoe to drop? But then it doesn't so you just look weird with your scrunched up face?

I've been making that weird face since school started.

I've mentioned that both girls are somehow ahead on their school work. Just typing that sentence makes me want to throw salt over my shoulder, build a temple and beg the Fates for mercy, and smash myself in the face with every good luck charm under the sun. I still don't know how it's possible. Okay, with Alexis it's expected. But Mila? MILA? I thought she was going to be rival me with my procrastination skills. It's almost disappointing that she's not.

Realizing that has made me figure out why the shoe hasn't dropped yet. There's a skill that both girls are figuring out that I never considered to be an advantage to cyber school - they're learning to manage their time.

Yes, really.

Mila is 110% motivated by her desire to stop doing school work. There are rules that she has to spend a minimum amount of time doing her work and she has to complete a full day's worth each day, but if she does? Whatever. She can go do all of the things that make her heart sing.Obviously she's allowed breaks and all of that, but what's happening is that she's staying focused and completely her work quickly so she can do what she wants. In fact, today she told me she was just getting a drink for her break (not taking her full 15 minutes) because she wanted to be done in time to watch some dumb show on TV.

Yes, really.

Basically, Mila has proven that she can do 5-6 hours of work in 4 hours (... and sometimes less) because she just wants to be done. There's only one small "butts in seats" requirement for her, so instead of becoming an expert at wasting time as she waits her way through a school day, she focuses and is done.

I WISH I HAD LEARNED THAT SKILL. Do you know how often I sat through dumb classes with information that I already knew just because I had to wait until a teacher handed me a test to prove I already knew it? I am sooooo good at spacing out and accomplishing nothing while I wait for the world to get to the point. Mila is off acing tests and jumping ahead and finding her way to the point. Because she can.

And Alexis. Alexis does have some "butts in seats" requirements because she wanted live instruction for 4 of her classes. They're a little spread out, so she uses the time in between to get everything else done. Even wth tests and projects and all of that, she has managed to be completely done with school each day at around the same time she would have been at a brick-and-mortar school. The difference? No need to study or do homework in the evening. She's already done it.

She's also doing it on purpose. She has decided she doesn't like doing homework in the evenings, so she will balance her time during the day to make sure she doesn't have to. She has commented that she didn't realize how much of her school day was previously spent waiting for other people, so that's probably a huge part of it, but seriously she is getting so much better at managing her time.

So do we think they'll be able to teach me? Because they have both definitely passed me by.