Blogging Mojo!

It seems I have lost a bit of blogging mojo. I know for a period of time I was wrapped up in promoting and doing things for the local homeschool co-op I started. Doing that entered me into the facebook realm. Prior to that I didn't have facebook. I found myself doing more and more of micro blogging on facebook. Sharing links, sharing info about the kids, homeschooling, that I didn't feel the need to come here and blog about it.

The group I started is going strong and growing and I have stepped down as a leader. I needed to step down for personal reasons.  I'm glad where the group has gone, I'm glad it's growing, and I can't wait to see what's in store for it.

So what of homeschooling? Well we at the beginning of May we called it the end of the school year so the kids have been hanging out around the house on the computer and tablets a bit more then I would like. Of course I could step up and say hey no more computer time for today and pull the plug on them or at least limit them.

I have started to plan for next school year. At the end of July I'm going to a homeschool conference. I can't wait it will be my first conference ever.   It's Catholic based so that's making me looking forward to it even more.  I don't know what I'm looking forward to the most: the speakers or the used book sale!

So that's a yet another quick blogging post? For my long time readers and fellow bloggers what do you do to prevent blogging block? Or drying up? And if you have hit a dry spell what do you do to come out of it? I look back at this blog history and I would hate for it to go totally dead. Sometimes I think about starting over and starting with a fresh blog, but I'm not sure I truly want that too.

Trades Job

I took the kids to a trades expo today. It was a simple expo with a few booths that had trade workers there to explain their jobs, what they do, and what education you need for those jobs. Over all the kids were not impressed. I think they are perhaps still a little young, but I thought I would give it a try. Some of the booths shared what you make to per hour starting out. Knowing this caused my kids to ask what would a video game designer or cartoon animator would make to start. We researched it and the kids were surprise to see that a game designer starting out after several years of college would be making about the same as a plumber that could go to school at night and work at his trade during the day. Of course with these trade jobs we are talking about union jobs. I know some are pro unions and others are not. Personally, I'm on the fence. I think for some things like trade jobs, factory jobs, and other jobs along that vain they are a good thing. For teachers, schools, doctors, hospitals and other jobs along that vain they are a bad thing. Of course that is a post for another day. In the end I'm glad we went to the expo. It open my kids up to the idea of other jobs that are out there. Jobs that still require you to have a good education and be good at things like math, but not necessary a college degree. I wanted them to be aware that there are other avenues for higher education.

Common Core Standards

Being a homeschooler one might think that CCS does not matter or it will not effect me. However this is far from the truth. We are finding that many of the popular homeschool curriculum choices are aligning with CCS. For a list please see The Educational Freedom Coalition.

What is Common Core (State) Standards? For more information on what the this is please see Michelle Malkin's Site. 

Local Job Market

The above video has nothing to do with homeschooling. I just am sharing because it's about my husband's employer and just happens to have footage of him at work. :)) I also know the video is a little bit for the format of my blog, but I'm not able to edit it size. :((

Netflix and Hulu Plus

In an effort to cut our monthly bills we have cut out Cable TV. We had done this once before and after a year without cable TV we added it back and have had it for the last several years.

The first time we cut it was because we were seeking to get out of debit. This time was just to truly reduce our bills. We have looked at an alternative cell phone company as well. Any suggestions?

We might not have cable TV but we do have Netflix and Hulu Plus.  Do you have Netflix or Hulu Plus? Are there any shows you like to watch? Do you use any of the shows for your schooling?

I have found the first season of Drive Thru History and Mythbusters on Netflix. We watch Once Upon A Time on Hulu Plus. We also have watch various documentaries on both Netflix and Hulu Plus.