Here at the Venomous Household we’re well into our second semester of homeschooling and, as I’ve mentioned previously, the Big-Eyed Boy seems to believe that: (a) anyone who can’t wear their PJs at school is to be pitied; and (b) he’s never, ever going to school anywhere else, much less leaving home. Ever. I figure the former’s a good sign that what I’ve been doing is working, at least a little bit. I also figure there’s plenty of time to educate him with respect to the latter… 11 years, 6 months and 9 days, to be exact.

In these past few months I’ve learned a few things myself. First, I’ve learned not to order pre-packaged curricula without forcing myself to endure a 3-day cooling off period. Had I learned that earlier, I would not still be paying off last year’s bill for the Bob Jones University homeschooling curricula which turned out to be too slow-paced and too one-dimensionally unsuitable for my kinesthetic-visual learner.

Second, I’ve learned that there’s no reason to insist on school in the morning. I am not a morning person (as many of you have probably picked up). Neither is my son. In fact, both of us do best when we’re left to dilly-dally with our own pursuits for the first couple of hours each day, so that’s what we now do. Our school day starts at 1:00 p.m. and it suits us just fine. (And, yes, sometimes we’re still wearing PJs at that hour. So what?)

Third, and most importantly, I’ve learned that I can put together a scope and sequence for his classes better than anyone else. I didn’t believe it at first, but after having to spend last semester digging around for books, games, activities and experiments to supplement our pre-packaged (and unreasonably expensive) curricula, I’ve grown confident enough to frame my own lesson plans and execute them. And he’s enjoying this year far more.

But I can’t take all the credit for that. Oh, no. I’ve got a secret weapon that I’m no longer keeping secret: Edu-Track. It is, without a doubt, the best piece of homeschooling equipment I’ve found. Whether I’m planning a day’s worth of lessons or an entire semester (I don’t plan further ahead than that), this program makes it a piece of cake. And, with its nifty feature that allows me to attach files and hyperlinks to lesson plans, I have all of my materials within the reach of a mouse-click. With Edu-Track and a few insanely good eBay bargains I’ve actually pieced together a semester that’s captured the Big-Eyed Boy’s interest. Yay, me!

Now I’m saving up for a family membership at BrainPop. That, of course, means skipping martinis for a few weeks but, hey, it looks to be worth it.

However, before I do skip all those well-deserved 6 o’clock cocktails, can anyone tell me whether they’ve used BrainPop and what they thought of it?

UPDATE: As Cindy points out in the comments, I’ve got a new weapon in my fight against homeschool ennui: The Checklist, a well-planned and uber-organized topical list that helps homeschooling parents ensure that nothing in their curricula falls through the cracks.