January 1st may be the start of each year, but for students like us, autumn is the real beginning of things. We’ve all experienced the excitement and nervousness that comes with this fresh start. Not only do we have a whole host of classes and extracurriculars (and work and volunteering and side projects and friends and other random stuff– take your pick), each year brings something extra that we hadn’t expected to be doing.

“Did you know, Minneapolis was colder than Mars last week?”

This conversation came up at a newspaper staff meeting at some point in November. This fact stunned me- after all, isn’t Mars supposed to be really, really cold?- and I spent the next day or two starting conversations with the same statement. I’m a homeschooler, and through homeschooling, I’ve met many friends who share my interests: books, philosophy, and of course, nerdy facts like the one above. You can’t beat a homeschooler when it comes to nerdy facts.

It did leave me wondering, though: if these kinds of cold snaps start happening more often (looking at you, climate change), how will we go outside without freezing? You could stay inside, but sometimes you have to go out, such as when you’re heading to school.

Here, I think homeschoolers have the perfect solution: going to school just means finding the best place in the house to set up with books and a laptop (and maybe snacks). It doesn’t require braving the cold, as fun as that can be. When homeschoolers do end up outside, our ‘schools’ are more likely to provide hot chocolate. Either way, we win, because of the gourmet opportunities.

Clearly, homeschooling solves most of the world’s problems. Students don’t like homework? Solved. Modern families don’t spend time together? Solved. No one understands homeschoolers? Solved...

Sure, there can be drawbacks. I expect all of us can remember a time when we were asked how we socialize if we’re ‘always at home’. That question is a great opportunity to explain our busy lives: school, friends, sports, clubs- and somehow, we still find time to relax (hopefully) and send in submissions to newspapers.

If we have so much community already, why do we even have a homeschool student newspaper? Perhaps the reason is in the question: we have a newspaper because we have such a strong sense of community. None of this would exist without the support of the AP Homeschoolers board, the newspaper staff, and everyone who reads or submits to the newspaper. It's a group effort.

Community? Definitely.

Luisa Ensslin, Editor-in-Chief

It may be only April, but at this point, all of us are thinking about upcoming AP exams (well, not quite all- we love our Honors students too!), and your teachers are offering all kinds of suggestions for how to do your best on exam day. And, in case you don’t have enough exam tips already, our newspaper staff has put together our top suggestions for absolutely acing your APs. 

I took my first AP exam last year. My teacher had made sure that my whole class was very prepared, so although I felt nervous when I arrived at my exam location (a local school), it was an amount of ‘nervous’ that I could handle pretty well.

Then, partway through the Multiple-Choice Questions, I realized that the exam was relaxing, and that I was having fun. Here I was, spending my morning reading cozy poetry (the specific poem I was on featured a well-worn blue coat and a flock of chickens) and getting post-secondary credits at the same time. If I could spend every morning reading cozy poetry and getting post-secondary credits, I certainly would.

Those of you in AP Calculus probably won’t be reading poems about chickens (and if the exam does involve chicken poems, you know something’s wrong). But you don’t need the encouragement of delightful poetry to believe that you can and will put your best exam foot forward. Don’t take a nap during the exam (someone did this during my friend’s exam last year), don’t bring your Apple watch into the exam room in a brazen attempt to cheat on the MCQs, and do take a look at the latest newspaper articles if you need a study break.

We published this edition a little bit earlier than the previous two, partly because we wanted to get those study snack rankings out there, and partly because we on the newspaper team have exams as well. Which brings me to my final point: a heartfelt thanks to everyone on the staff, who have put so much time and energy into this newspaper, and to Mrs. Inspektor, our wonderful faculty advisor. I’m so proud of everything we’ve achieved together in PAH!’s first year, and I can’t wait to see this newspaper continue to develop next autumn. And of course, many thanks to all of you reading the newspaper; good luck, everyone!  

Luisa Ensslin, Editor-in-Chief

Interested in being on next year’s newspaper staff? Apply here!