How to deal with living away from home for the first time by Adebisi Okieimen

Living away from loved ones can be an exciting experience and at the same time frustrating .Life might not be the same because of the vaccum created by the absence of loved ones. That was how I felt when I had to go to college, leaving my  family behind.

Likewise every child that is used to been around the parent at all time.

This could be challenging getting life started on your own without dad and mom to bail you out when in need of a helping hand. The first thing to do is to study the new environment and get acquainted with your new roomies in the dorm if that is the case. Open your  heart to making new friends so that the absence of loved ones will not be easily felt. Your new friends become a part of your new life to help you wave off boredom.

Secondly, you should avoid going home frequently, so that you can get yourself in the mind set of living independently with every accountability of your actions. Let your new home be as comfortable as it could be.

Be sure to learn to do some of the things that are taken care of by mom and dad at home so that when you are out there alone, you don’t get frustrated. Never be shy to ask to learn some chores like cooking for yourself, doing the laundry and getting to  do some little car maintenance if you have one.

Get in touch with family and friends as often as you can so that though you are far from home you are still current about what is going on while you are away. This gives you a sense of belonging even though you are far away.

The fun , the excitement and the lessons learned from living away from home makes you a better, responsible and accountable person. Don’t be scared you can do this just take a day at a time.

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How to Get Your Kids to do Their Laundry by Harold Brucia

For some reason, getting my kids to do their chores has always been a difficult task.  This is especially true with laundry.  My wife and I could do the housework ourselves, but my mom always made my brother and me do chores when we were kids, and I think it helps build character.  I am a firm believer in letting kids be kids, but I also think responsibility is an important thing to teach – plus it’s not fair that either I or my wife has to always pick up the slack.

            Last summer we started working on getting the kids to do their laundry on their own.  First we tried just telling them to do it, but it would just pile up and never get done, or they would try to do a ton of loads at once and tie up the washer and dryer when we needed to do our laundry.  We would get frustrated and just do it ourselves.  My son would either forget how to work the machines or pretend he forgot so someone would have to walk him through it each time, essentially doing it for him.  We were getting fed up.

Then we had a genius idea.  We bought a dry erase board with a weekly calendar, just like this one.  Each kid was assigned two days each week to do his or her laundry.  The rule was that they could only do laundry on their day, but they could do it at any time that day.  If they didn’t do it, they had to wait until their next day.  My wife also typed up very detailed laundry instructions and taped them to the laundry room wall so everyone knew how to use the machines on their own.

At first, I think they thought we were kidding.  The first week, Michael didn’t touch his laundry.  Then came the day of a pool party we were having and he had no clean swim trunks.  In fact, both pairs were wet since they’d been stuffed in the bottom of his hamper.  Since it wasn’t his laundry day, he had to wear stinky, wet swim trunks.  He still remembers it, and Samantha likes to remind him of how gross she thought it was.  Never again have we had a problem with getting laundry done!

English 1301 Blog Entry Assignment Instructions

One assignment for this course is for each student to complete one entry for the class blog. You can choose any topic, provided it is not obviously offensive or inappropriate to the college classroom climate. The requirements are as follows:

· Clearly use a specific writing genre, such as personal narrative, descriptive writing, comparison / contrast, how-to, analysis (of film, literature, music, etc), persuasive.

· Do not use the same topic or materials you are using for the major essay you are writing for class.

· Write in blog style (see accompanying materials and websites).

· Entries should be short, about 250-300 words.

· Include at least one picture.

· Include at least one link.

· Edit your grammar and mechanics.

· Email your completed entry to me in the course and submit it to the course drop box and turnitin.com link by the due date you have chosen when you signed up. I will then post your blog for the class.

Besides writing your blog entry, you must read the entries of your classmates and comment on them in a meaningful, adult, intelligent way. We have all had the misfortune of reading the other kind of comments online, and we will not accept such behavior here. I hope that you develop the same disdain for unpleasant commenting and discourage it among your acquaintances. The requirement for commenting is that each student must comment once on each entry, including his/her own. Your comment on your own entry should respond to a classmate's comment. After all, the ability to converse online is one of the reasons blogs are so popular. Comments will count for 50% of the blog grade and are due within one week of each posting.

*Important note re: comments - Be sure to sign your name at the end of your comment to receive credit! I cannot give credit for Anonymous posts unless they are signed within the comment.