Weekend Getaways...

We don't get to have them too often, but we LOVE them when they happen! This past week, my parents took my boys and my nephew to Daytona Beach for the week. Since this is one of our favorite places to go, the hubs and I decided to come join them just for the weekend.

Even though it's a short trip, it's so refreshing to just have a break, ya know? The boys have had a great time, and have enjoyed their week of unschooling, lol. We will get home tomorrow night sometime, and next week Bailey is taking his first peek at his new high school curriculum...except that it's not new, it's Time4Learning!!!!!!!!

Can you tell I'm excited about that, lol? They just announced that they will start offering high school courses, and we were all (yes, including Bailey!) ridiculously happy when we heard the news. Bailey has been using T4L since 2nd grade, so for him, being able to stick with what he knows is wonderful. For me too!

Braeden is going to learn more about science tools and will continue to read the book he's working on. He found an old copy of The Wizard of Oz at a used book store, so he's been reading that and enjoying it.

I will spend the week trying to defend myself from the laundry demon. The boys and I will resume our Harry Potter summer movie marathon with Deathly Hallows Part 1 this week, and at some point, we are hoping to go see Pacific Rim too.

For now, I'm going to get off here and go enjoy my last day at the beach! Have a fabulous Sunday, and a wonderful week! :)

Do you use #hashtags?

I enjoy social media. For the most part. I try to not whine on Facebook or Twitter (I mostly save that for my lucky blog readers, lol) and I've never posted a "selfie." I do post about my kiddos every now and then, but I also post about myself and my interests. I share funny memes and I follow and "like" a lot of my favorite movies, TV shows, musicians, authors, etc.

Having said all that, I'm a lurker much more than a poster. I read what others are sharing, and tweeting. Why? I enjoy it. We don't have cable or satellite TV anymore, and I sometimes miss upcoming movie trailers or info about the next episode of a show I watch (we LOVE Netflix, Amazon Prime videos and On Demand programming) or the next book by my favorite author.

I also use both social networking platforms (as well as Pinterest too) in my homeschooling. I connect with other homeschoolers, find craft/experiments to do, learn about curricula and materials, find and download printables and games for my boys to play...just everything.

I have been using hashtags on Twitter for a long time. It makes searching for something specific SOOOO much easier! If I want to see what others are talking about in regards to spelling, I can search for #spelling or #homeschoolspelling. If I want to learn more about elementary level animal lessons, I can find others who are talking about #homeschoolelementary or ask for #homeschoolhelp. If I want to learn more about homeschooling through high school, I can look for #homeschoolhighschool info. Granted, you still have to weed through some not-so-useful posts, but for the most part, hashtagging is an incredible search tool.

Recently FB started allowing the use of hashtags as well, and that's been so much fun! I have "liked" an awful lot of homeschool related pages, but looking through them all one by one, or trying to go down my timeline constantly, can be frustrating and time consuming. Not that I don't enjoy it...but some days, I simply don't have time. So looking for specific search terms is a no brainer. :)

Are you interested in learning more about the differences between Facebook and Twitter hashtags? Here is a cool little infographic:

While I enjoy hashtags on both platforms, I'm a wordy sort, so it's probably not surprising that I would enjoy FB more than Twitter, lol. It's really, really hard for me to condense what I want to say into 140 characters. ;)

Anyway, that's really all I wanted to say today...just that I've discovered some really great learning/educational materials and websites through hashtag searches, and that it might be something that many of you would benefit from too. There is a Facebook page, Homeschool Hashtags, that has more information about using hashtags on FB, as well as nice list of hashtags you can use to search and share with. They are adding to this list everyday, and would love your suggestions for new hashtags to add!

Off to curl up in a ball and wait for Friday. I just dropped my boys off with my parents for the week and being the overprotective, sheltering, helicopter mama that I am, I miss them terribly when they aren't with me. :/

Hope you all have a great week!

What. A. Week.

Day Camp is over. Whew. ;)

The week actually went well, it was just long. And hot. And buggy. I will have to get pictures from Tracy, but I didn't do that before the week was over, and she's leaving tomorrow for a week, so it might be a while before I have any to post...

We wrapped up our week yesterday by attending a reception/celebration of the marriage of my little brother and his wife. They had a private wedding a few weeks ago, but wanted a chance to celebrate with their loved ones. It was a lot of fun! They had a beautiful cake, got some gifts and enjoyed the time with everyone.

The happy couple. :)

This week we hope to enjoy some quality down time together. I am trying to mentally prep myself for my kids' vacation with my parents the week after next. I know they will have fun, but they are going to be about 10 hours away from me for a few days. That's hard for this helicopter mama, lol. At the end of the week, the hubs and I will be joining them. It'll be a nice weekend at the beach.

As far as school goes, they are going to play some games, do some reading...probably an experiment or two. Sound familiar, lol? That's our summer. Light and laid back. Braeden is enjoying playing HangMouse (which is basically hangman for kids) on VSC. Bailey is learning a little more about simple machines and how to build them. I am still trying to decide on a core high school program for Bailey to start on in the fall. Ugh. I wish it weren't so hard...

Okey dokey. Time to get off here and spend the day with all three of my guys. We haven't had a day together since last Sunday! That may not seem too bad to most people, but we aren't most people. :P

Enjoy the start of your July and have a happy 4th!

Day Camp...

Tomorrow starts our week of Cub Scout day camp! My boys aren't really involved in Scouts anymore, but Tracy and I have been running this day camp for several years, and just keep getting suckered in to do it again and again each year. ;)

We've got some great plans for the kids...lots of nature activities, craft projects, experiments (this is where all of that homeschool science stuff comes in handy, lol) and sports to play. It usually runs smoothly, and I expect no difference this year. I'm still working with the insurance company on getting the claim from the accident settled, so that might interrupt my week here and there, but it shouldn't be too bad.

Needless to say, the day camp will pretty much count as our school this week. Since Braeden will be doing all of the things we have planned, he's covered for the week. Bailey will be a helper, and even if he's not actually participating in certain activities, I'm going to have him document/journal the week. Yep, I'm totally counting that journaling as teaching writing. Heh.

Short post, I know. But I'm off for now. We are taking my grandmother out to lunch for her birthday, then I need to come back and get everything ready. I'm a procrastinator (I'm sure that doesn't surprise anyone), and of course I don't have a thing ready to go for tomorrow, lol.

Hope you all enjoy the last week of June! :)

Hello Jeep...

Remember in my last post, where I said goodbye to my mini van? Well we replaced it! Not with another mini van because honestly, we didn't really find any in the price range we were looking for. We are not the most financially responsible people, lol, so we are very proud of ourselves for determining what we could afford each month (we haven't a car payment since 2010, so this was a killer to figure out!), and sticking to that.

So what'd we get?

It's a 2009 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Veeeery different than a mini van, lol. We've never owned an SUV before, but we are really enjoying this one so far. We knew we couldn't get a sedan or anything because it would be too small. We looked at a Dodge Journey, which is like a crossover (between SUV and van), but we couldn't get the payments for that in our price range. As it turns out, that was a good thing. The boys love this, and so do the hubs and I.

Last week went well. My mom came up for the week, so we enjoyed the visiting with her. This week the boys will plug away at some of their summer stuff they are working on. Bailey is working on online algebra (getting ready for high school math...gulp!) and Braeden is working on handwriting. Again, lol. I swear...that child hates holding a pen/pencil!

In the afternoons, they will be working on planting a garden! The hubs has been wanting to do this with them for a while, so today they are going to buy seeds, soil, planters (for herbs and such), etc. He is more excited than they are, lol. I'm sure there will some good schooling going on too, science about plants and all. :)

Signing off to spend this beautiful Sunday with my family now...wishing a Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, with a special wish for my own dad, and the hubs!

Bye-bye Mini Van...

A word of warning: this is going to be kinda whiny, lol.

Last week started off great. Monday we went to Six Flags, and had a blast! Tuesday, we went to see Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone at a local theater. That was fun...I hadn't seen that movie in the theater since it's opening weekend in 2001 and the boys, obviously, have never seen it in theaters. After the movie we enjoyed lunch with some great new friends, and hung out at said new friends' place and played, swam and really had a great time.

And that is where super fun week ended. :(

On the way home Tuesday afternoon, I was involved in my first major (major to me) car accident. Someone was in an awfully big hurry to turn into the Dollar General, and tried to turn left in front of me. I guess a more accurate description would have been to say "tried to turn left ON me."

This is what happened:

Yup. That's what left of my van. My PAID OFF van. :( I'm still waiting on the insurance adjuster, so I don't know that it's actually totaled. But the auto repair guy that came and towed it said it was totaled, as did the officer on the scene.

As sad as that makes me, I am beyond grateful that my boys suffered no injuries at all. A little soreness where their seat belts were, but even that was very minor and really only bothered them Wednesday morning (the day after). I have bruising and soreness/stiffness where my seat belt hit and some injuries to my legs, but they were very minor compared to what could have been. Something (I honestly have no idea what really) came through under the steering column and hit my legs. Abrasions, some 1st degree burns and some pretty nasty blood pooling/bruising.

This is right after the accident, at the hospital. Believe it or not, the burns and abrasions are healing really well. My legs are still super swollen, and more shades of red/blue/purple/black/yellow than I have ever seen, lol, but all in all, I got away lucky.

Yep. Very grateful and blessed.

Needless to say, the remainder of the week didn't go as planned. We actually got nothing accomplished. Nothing around the house. No school (other than some lessons on force and motion, a la "this is what happens when your car is in motion and going this fast and hits something wth this force," which the hubs thought was a funny joke, lol). No grocery shopping. Nuttin.

We will try again this week. I will be dealing with accident reports, insurance claims and adjusters, but between that, we should have some good time at home. Fingers crossed.

For now, I'm going to attempt to do some stuff around the house. Wear myself out really good, then pretend to be a sloth on the couch. :)

If you're perusing the blogosphere, and you're looking for less whiny and more schooly, you should should head over to this blog I follow, about military homeschoolers. No, we aren't military, but she is homeschooling 3 boys and really seems to manage her time well. I enjoy taking a peek at her life, and I'm sure any of you would as well. It's called Homeschooling My Three Sons.

Okey dokey...hope errbody has a great week! Please wish me luck with everything... :D

When did June get here?

Geeeez. Already?

Last week went just as I hoped it would. Very low key. Yay! We hung out at the house, spent time with new friends at the park, and just enjoyed not having a lot to do. School went well for the boys, and we are looking forward to summer fun stuffs coming up!

Tomorrow we are going to Six Flags for the first time this season, and that should be fun. I'd rather go to White Water, lol, but we are saving that for when the hubs can join us. He could care less about Six Flags, so the boys and I are going to go with Tracy and her boys. We are also hoping to hang with friends throughout the week, so traditional school-ey things will probably be less.

At Barnes and Noble yesterday, the boys picked up a cool little book... 101 Things to do Before You Grow Up. There are a lot of things/projects/science activities they can do; make their own kite, make a battery out of a potato, learn about survival skills and more. Looks really cool, and they are VERY excited about working out of that book over the summer. By the way, this book was in the bargain price books, plus I was able to use my Educator's Card to get 20% off. Woot! ;)

They are also going to work on making their own little grill. This will be loads of fun, but it will also be incredibly useful. I follow a Roadschooling page on Facebook (seriously...one day we WILL become roadschoolers. I just know it.), and they had a little DIY grill activity.

Looks super easy, and it's a great way to recycle our coffee cans, of which we have waaaay too many. Knowing my kids, they will try to cook everything on their little grills, but I think I'm looking forward to some s'mores. :)

Other than these fun projects, I'm not going to ask a lot of them. We are really enjoying "life learning" rather than scheduled learning, and I don't want their enthusiasm to wane, lol. I might make flashcards with words they are using in their projects, but those are fun and we can really whip them out anywhere. :D

For now, I'm off to fight with the laundry demon. Then, we are going watch some movies and get caught up on Supernatural. I love my couch time...

Have a great week, errbody!