WF: Not Overwriting WI: Make the reader feel empathy for both the girls

“And that is why we thank our ancestors for fighting in world war two, any questions class?”

“No, OK then I guess it’s home time, and have a good holiday everyone”

I have never been able to explain the rush of students at the end of a school year. How you try to embrace yourself but it never works, you still get paralyzed in the crowd.

“Alice, is that you” I turn around, “Aanjay”. She’s my best friend. Ever since I moved here from California with my father, I have been isolated, no one will speak to me. In their eyes I’m an overdressed glittery American teenager that takes everything for granted. But about a week after I started Tiga Pancur Intermediate, Aanjay was keen to know about my home back in California and my school, friends and whatever else she could think of.

So we became friends.

As we leave the school gates behind us, Aanjay and I start to discuss our plans for the summer. We want to go camping, hiking and especially go to the mud pools. This will be my last summer here in Indonesia as my dad is getting transferred again, back to America. I know I’ll miss Aanjay but dad’s promised that she can come and stay during the holidays. Aanjay is the best friend I've ever had, she understands me for who I am and she isn't like all the spoiled rotten kids back home.

Even though we live at opposite ends of our village (Kara) we still manage to get together during the weekend. Aanjay lives at the base of mount Sinabung and I live on the hilltop facing mount Sinabung.

“Alice, the phones for you”

I race downstairs as my dad calls out.

“Thanks Dad”. I grab the phone

“Hello?”

“Hey Alice its me”

“Oh, hi Aanjay”

“Look, tonight I’m going camping, up mount Sinabung do you wanna come?”

“Uh” I hesitated. “Sorry Aanjay, dad said that he’d take me to the noodle bar tonight, you can come if you want”

“Oh, no thanks Alice, but I’ll call you in the morning”

“Bye”

“Bye”

It’s the moment of realization the gets you. I felt it the moment dad called to tell me how mum had died in 9/11. Then the moment as you watch the scenes on TV with tears streaming down your face.

This is how I felt this morning when I woke up to the eruption of Mt Sinabung.

Why Tweens should be able to choose their bed time.

Why Tweens should be able to choose their bed time.

 *Tween- age 10-12

 Did you know that tweens need more sleep than both adults and children? This is why lots of parents control their tweenagers (age 10-12) sleeping times But the truth is, most tweenagers would enjoy choosing their own bedtime and it is true that they should be able to. Tweenagers should be able to choose their bedtime because it would offer them flexibility and teach life responsibility as well as extra opportunities. By the time kids have reached 10-12 years, parents should be allowing some freedom and a sense of maturity and giving up the sleeping structure is a perfect way to encourage this.


 Responsibility is important for tweens and this is a valuable way to teach it. If you were irresponsible and you stayed up too late for something unnecessary then you would have to face the consequences of being unbearably tired the next day. For instance, if you had to go to school earlier the next morning for something, then you would know that you couldn't stay up too late. Therefore you would have to be responsible about what time you chose to go to sleep. Choosing your bedtime each night would also offer flexibility because if you had a homework assignment that was due the next day but you were too tired to think then you could go to bed earlier and then wake up earlier to finish the homework.

 The ability to choose your bedtime would also allow valuable opportunities that you could plan out. It is recommended that 10-12 year olds get approximately nine hours sleep. So if you usually woke up each morning at seven to get ready for school, But your parents never let you watch a programme on TV from 8:30pm-9:30pm the night before because they never thought that you would get enough sleep. If you were allowed to choose what time you went to bed then you could be sure that if you were asleep by 10:00pm you could wake up at seven, having slept for nine hours.


 Research has shown that if Tweens go to sleep too early at night then they can’t help waking up far too early in the morning (2am-4am). Only you can tell when you are truly tired so this once again proves that a structured bedtime doesn't usually fit with your natural sleeping patterns. When you reach about 10-11 years old you go through a sleeping shift that will last until you are about 16. This means that your body clock will move forward one or two hours, making you sleepier 1-2 hours later. This may sound fine because you’d still get enough sleep by sleeping 1-2 hours later in the morning, right? Wrong. Early school starts ensure that you don’t have time to sleep in then next morning causing you to become sleep deprived. This leads to your brain malfunctioning and your school grades going down, it can also lead to Depression later in life. Being able to choose your bedtime would put a stop to this because you would know when you had to go to sleep and when you had to make up sleep to stop losing the sleep that allows you get on with your daily life.


In conclusion, tweens should be allowed to choose their bedtime each night because of the responsibility and privileges that it would provide. Because only you know your sleeping patterns, it makes sense that you should be the one who decides when you go to sleep. As tweens need more sleep than any age group, they should be able to make sure that they get it. Parents should stand back because making their tween go to sleep too early causes them to wake in the middle of the night, shortening their sleeping time. So let your tween take charge of their sleeping times, because it will enhance their energy in their daily lives.