Why give assignments in the Summer?!

So our school gives summer assignments that are due the first day of school. I am currently in 4 accelerated classes (which is why you are given the assignments) so I have 4 assignments to do in a month that are all due on the first day. I am extremely worried that I won't get them done in time but at the same time I don't feel like working on them. All I've been doing lately is just laying in bed doing nothing. We have foster kids all the time which is really bugging me and apparently its my responsibility to do things with them. This adds to my frustration because I am very independent and now I'm expected to be like a super mom (I'm only 15) which means trying to finish school work and hang around with these kids. I try everything to leave the house. It never ends. Why do people expect so much from me nowadays? I don't have to be in school to be overwhelmed.

Holy crap yo, no pressure there huh? Wow, at 15 you're definitely supossed to be out discovering yourself, your friends, focusing on school-I don't blame ya for wanting to lay in bed all day! It stinks that you have so much responsibility when school is so important for your future. I was in AP classes too, I swear to dog my instructor picked the fatest book she could find (Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged) lol. It was a good book-but I so agree with ya, who wants to spend their summer, their break, writing reports and junk?

I'm in college now-and let me tell you it was nice to skip having to take some of those in college. I wanna encourage you to do those assignments-it will save you heck later. I think it's good to vent about how stupid it all is and how much it sucks-that way you can put more energy into the assignments and less energy into procrastination/stress lol

Hope you can find some fun for your summer too.
Take care,
-obj

Can you tell your parents your dilemma? That you have a lot of summer homework that must be completed and you need more time away from home responsibilities so you can do this? Maybe you can set aside a couple of hours a day for homework by going to your library so you aren't distracted by home responsibilities or even stuff like TV or whatever your favorite distractor is. I tried that a couple of days ago and got a lot done. I went to the library, reserved one of the little study rooms they have, and went in there all by myself with just my books and notebooks for 5 hours and got a ton done. Going to try that again this weekend. Good luck. I hope your parents can help with the problem.

I took AP classes and in fact I'm currently doing 2 university summer courses. Like summer assignments, the workload can be big and in university, saying you have to care for kids isn't a valid excuse. HOWEVER, you're not in university, you're in school and you shouldn't be bearing such immense responsibility. Your parents may be unaware you have to do assignments because as you said, you've been laying in bed doing nothing, so they may think you can put your time to good use. If you tell and show them what you need to do for the assignments, how much work it is and you cannot care for the foster kids at the same time, they may understand. Also, tell your parents you would like to spend time with the foster kids (even if you don't) simply so they don't view what you tell them as an excuse to not care for the foster kids and instead hang out with friends.

Thanks! That seems like a good idea. I've spent a lot of time with the one we have already, but spending time with her does seem to pull me away from my work.

Summer shouldn't be that different from any other season in one's life; it was a huge shock when I first started working and had to go to work 52 weeks a year, summer not "off" :-)

I'd make a "schedule" for yourself, work on discipline and self-starting which you'll need to do well in your advanced classes here in a month's time? Make a schedule to work on each of your projects, maybe a different one each day? Also think of a list of things to do with the foster kids and "schedule" it so you have some sort of plan you can refer to if your mom or anyone "complains". The busier you "look" the more others will leave you alone? Just laying around on your bed doesn't get anything worked on and isn't very satisfactory in its own right?