When its too damn hot!!

Well... its been HOT as hell here lately. So what's a homeschooling mama to do? Of course, plan for next year!!!  I have been in research mode for the past 4 weeks, and our break is almost up. I have found some great spelling printables, cool free science e-classes, found some great new lesson thru these curriculm reviews, and even been reading some fellow bloggers posts.  I am taking some time to try cool off with some  yummy treats like from above:) What things are you doing to keep cool and stay ahead of the game plan for next year?

Ways to learn that worked for us....

HAHA ok so this could be consider trial and error:)

This year we did a lot of trail and error.... I had some successes and some failures. They were things I had heard worked for others but it just didn't click for us. Some of the successes were using familiar sites like Time4learning, Spelling City,  I Tunes U, Khan Academy, and for our animal loving family National Geographic.  The things that we also tried this year was educational songs, apps for the ipod, coop classes for Alex and some secular unit studies by other homeschoolers. Areas that we required more than my abilities this last year were Spanish, music and writing, these subjects I left to professionals both near by for Spanish and music. I used an online writing 8 week course for the boys with an actual teacher on the other end. The boys learned a lot from getting some outside the home resources. That is one thing that I can pass on to anyone who is new to homeschooling or maybe just homeschoolers who have less time to teach certain subjects... OUTSOURCE. You are still an awesome homeschooling parent!! And you can't do everything even though we all try!! Now I want to know what worked or didn't work for you this year... come on spill the beans!

Needing help...

I am starting to plan out our writing program for both boys next school year that starts in a couple of weeks after all our day camps are over. I have found a couple of great sites like these for grammar help, match sentence games, helpful writing tips ideas, online English usage rules... just to name a few. After what 4 or 5 years now.. sorry the time just melts into each other,doesn't it? I am trying a new approach, I really want to make a big improvement in our writing this year. Nailing everything down from spelling to grammar to putting in great vocabulary. The problem is we have done a lot of what's out there and then comes the scheduling of exactly how much time a day we need to studying and work on these things. I almost feel like it needs to be our main subject  for a while... but not sure exactly how to put that into a high school credit. So that's the question I am asking you all... HOW would YOU do it? I realize that there isn't a big following on my blog but the peeps I have that check in are AWESOME. Thanks in advance for reading my post and for any helpful hints you can give;)

Taking some time off....but not really!

Well we are "on break" for a month, I have been busy with helping hubby out, catching up on household projects(which I create ALL the time!), swim team practices, working, and planning for the next year.  Why is it so hard to relax? Am I the only one who finds things to do instead of chilling out? I can't be!!! I find myself doubting some decisions and wondering what stays and what goes for next school year. (BTW I now have a 10th and 5th grader in the house! YIKES) Anytime that I take a break from "teaching" the boys feelings like this creep up, and I guess that is why I can't relax. Do any of you feel the same way? When I am doubting or in need of some motivation I turn to my personal favorite site, and start reading the posts by the amazing homeschool secular bloggers. OMG those bloggers are so amazing and just wishing that I had half the creative juices!! I have gleamed several great ideas from going to their blogs! So if you have a minute or hundred maybe you can tell me what you think of these amazing secular bloggers!!!!