Sea Turtles!!

Last night we did something really really awesome. Sunday I got a message from lady in our co-op that the state park was doing a turtle nest inventory. We had never been to one, honestly we didn't even know what it was about, but we figured it would be something interesting and possibly informative.
Little did we know that we were going to be watching the people assist baby sea turtles get from their nest to the ocean. I got a couple of pictures. Noah and Abigail (and Daddy) loved watching what was going on. They want to go back when there is another one. They are also talking about becoming volunteers at the state park so they can take part in things like this. My kids love the outdoors so much that I can't seen anything but positives about this! Other than that, things are pretty smooth around here right now. The kids are doing school while I am work, if they need help Scott helps them, then I check over everything when I get home to make sure everything is right! I am planning a week at a time right now and it seems to be working well for us. Its safe to say that we have found our groove!!!!
Okay enough babbling, on to the pictures of baby sea turtles!!

Okay first up ^ this picture is of two turtle eggs. The one on the left is an egg from which a turtle has hatched. On the right is an egg that hasn't hatched. It was really interesting with the eggs, but it was soft and kind of squishy. Which amazed me considering the amount of sand that these little things are buried under.

 

This is the first little turtle that was saved. The workers were so careful with the little guy too. They wore rubber gloves and gently laid him in the bucket and then let everyone take a peek in at him. So tiny compare to how big they get! 

 These are the two turtles that were found in the one nest they were inventorying. The little guy at the bottom had a flipper that didn't seem to be working properly, so they helped him out by putting him directly in the water instead of making him "walk" the beach to the ocean. The other little dude they put him on the beach once everyone had gotten a look at him and let him walk to the ocean. They took great care of making sure that noone moved too close to him, and kept seagulls away from him til he got in the ocean. The last picture here is probably my favorite because it shows the little guy running to the ocean! I hope that he lives a very long life! And all I can keep thinking of right now is of Crush from Nemo talking about how the little dudes make their way back to the ocean all by themselves.

The Week Ahead!

This week starts our in depth school work. We have finally found our groove and now I am adding to their workload. Noah and Abigail will probably hate me after about Tuesday. Oh the joys of being Mama and Teacher! :-)
For Noah this coming week he will be learning about nouns, multiplication facts to 12, different types of lizards and the state of Texas. He will also have his daily calendar sheet that he has do to, he will be starting a journal this week with daily journal topics to write about, then there is P.E. on Mon, Wed, and Fri, which pretty much will consist of getting outside and exercising or going to the beach. On Tues and Thurs, will be art. Since I don't know too much about art and there isn't anyone offering art classes right now that I know about, I will be teaching them the history of artists and letting them examine a specific art piece and then if I can find a coloring sheet of the art piece let them color it their way. (Oh yeah Abigail will also be doing the art stuff and learning about the state of Texas with Noah)
Abigails work load for the week involves a lot of handwriting practice, more addition and subtraction (steadily increasing the number value so she has to borrow and carry her numbers), she is going to be introduced to fossils and what they are, along with P.E. like Noah.
They really seem to be catching on quick and grasping everything that we are throwing at them!
I am really excited that they are enjoying everything, even though things are so crazy around here right now. I feel that us starting school and continuing on like normal, has made things seem more normal for them.

Good Things Ahead!

Things are looking great these days with the kids! Noah has really began to understand multiplication and I think he understands what prepositions are. So next week we move on to harder multiplication problems and another part of speech. They have enjoyed learning little things about Alaska this week, its off to another state next week! Abigail has adding and subtracting simple math problems down, she can fly right through them. Although sometimes, she forgets to look at which operational sign the problem has and does the opposite (but she gets the problem right so I don't complain too much, just remind her to watch her signs). She also understands alphabetical order now! So its time to move on to more challenging things for her also. I think Miss Jade has mastered tracing lines and shapes, so I am going to move her up to letters and see how those work for her.
I am busy trying to think of a simple science experiment that the kids can do that won't cause a HUGE mess and won't be loud. So off searching for something like that I go. I will most definitely let ya'll know what I find!
Otherwise, on the home front things look great! I have a job interview this afternoon for a part time job, (since hours are getting cut here at the hotel after next week). Still house hunting too, but right now we have learned a lot from each other and about each other being in the hotel room. It's not easy some days, but most days, we have fun being with one another. Maybe everyone should do something like this, as a way to reconnect with their family!

School is Coming Along!

With a brand new pet comes brand new things to learn. So far we have watched our lizard shed his skin, bit Noah numerous times, because Noah won't leave him along. And we figured out that he isn't nocturnal because he sleeps when we sleep. Nice learning lesson it is.
Now as for our actual lessons, Abigail is busy brushing up on her ABC order. She has it down pretty good, but she forgets that if the first letter is the same, then you have to move to the second letter to figure out which comes first. I introduced her to 3 column addition and that really confused her, so we are back down to 2 column and we moved up to three digits in each column. Slowly working our way up. I am hoping to have her learning basic multiplication by the end of the school year. Her handwriting is something else that I am working on with her. It is horrible and I am not sure how to help her improve it. I am busy researching different methods. If I find one that works I will make sure to share with all of you!
Noah on the other hand is doing pretty good. We are learning parts of speech and this week is prepositions and seems to understand it pretty well. He is continuing to work on his multiplication and is steadily improving on it. I am hoping to be ready to introduce him to division by Christmas.
They both have started learning about states for social studies and this week is Alaska. They are learning basic facts about the state (the state flower, flag, bird, etc).
And I am still busy trying to figure out how to go about doing science with them. Right now they are learning about reptiles, mainly lizards considering we have one as a pet :-)
Jade has been improving with her hand writing. I have her tracing lines on a page and she is getting better and better at it. And can now trace shapes. Oh and for a funny story that Scott and I in stitches last night
Jade went to the potty and pooped. She yelled for Scott to come help her and once he got in there, I heard him laughing loudly. So I went to see what was so funny. He had Jade tell me. My two year old proceeds to look at me and say "I pooped my name" Coincidentally, her poop laid in the bottom of the toilet and looked like the letter J, which is what her name starts with. So I will say that she is learning wonderfully, even if it is through her poop !

Finally Friday!

And so wraps up another week! YAY! Weekend is here, beach time, no sleeping in, cartoons in the morning!
This week I learned a lot about what the kids know. I found this awesome site www.scootpad.com and within the first two lessons that each of the kids did, I realized that while they are ahead of the game in a lot of areas, they have difficulty in other areas. For example, Noah has issues understanding possessive pronouns and nouns. And Abigail has issues with when to capitalize a word and when not to. (Awesome little site, that is going to be a great tool for me assessing them, and them not realizing it lol) So now I know what our learning objectives for the next little while needs to be.Extremely helpful, because I was grasping at straws for a minute, because I was basically just reviewing things that they already know, getting back into the routine of things. So now I have to plan out everything for the next couple of weeks over the weekend! (Gonna be busy this weekend!)
Otherwise, everything else is looking great. We are house hunting and found a couple of possibles that we are talking to the owners about renting. So we are just kind of playing it by ear. But most definitely hoping to have a house by the end of the month!

Learning Learning Learning

After taking yesterday off to enjoy everyone (we went shopping, had a car tire changed, went to the pet store just to look at the animals.) And there we saw a HUGE python, a snapping turtle, a couple of puppies, bunnies, hamsters, oh yeah and that thing called a freaking COPPERHEAD (yeah copperhead snake, as in poisonous). Noah was so amazed with it. He was watching it and inspecting every inch of it. I loved watching him watch it. He is so intrigued with reptiles and loves watching tv shows that has them. He loves watching the Crocodile Hunter in the morning and his favorite is Call of the Wildman. His new favorite hobby is catching lizards (I think have already touched on this a little bit lol) but he loves it. So today, we went out and bought him a critter carrier, so he can catch it and put the lizard in it to observe it. He knows that its not for keeps and that he has to let it go back outside, but I think it will be a great learning experience for him. Here's a picture with one that he caught the other day
I think he named him Buddy, or Little Guy, or Fred. I'm not sure. But I do know that he has a gift for being able to catch them and not hurt them and them not hurt him.

Abigail is still trying to find something that she is interested in, but I honestly think its going to be food. That child loves food. Eating it, watching it, cooking it, reading about it. I can't get her to read a book, but she will read recipes. So now I have to figure out how to incorporate that into her learning. This has been a learning challenge for me, because I don't know to do that with cooking. But I'm researching it and figuring it out.

Jade loves airplanes, helicopters, anything that flies. We live a couple of minutes from the airport and we can see them going overhead all day and night, and she has to run and watch them. She is so amazed with them. She even builds them with her blocks! SEE:

As for Braeden, he is finally talking. He has several words that he is saying.  A few of them are
Mama and Daddy (finally)
more, ball, Noah, Abby, awesome, yes, up, out, stinky, diaper, spongebob


I think that's all for right now. I have several posts in the works, one is an update on my grandpa and another is mine and Scott's top 5 reasons why we homeschool! Keep a look out for them!

We were featured on a blog carnival!!!

Richelle over at Under the Golden Apple Tree has featured Largent Learning Academy on her Back to School blog carnival!
http://www.underthegoldenappletree.com/2012/08/carnival-of-homeschooling-back-to-home.html
We are so excited to share this news with our readers! And a big thanks goes out to Richelle!

So go check her out at http://www.underthegoldenappletree.com  Tell her we sent ya!

The Week Ahead

Hopefully this week will be a typical normal week for us. Yet it is already starting off strange, because I was suppose to work today and have tomorrow off and that got switched around and I got today off and have to work tomorrow. But that worked out well, because I fixed my broken printer! It was a small piece of crayon stuck in the printer causing it to jam and not work! Yay for finding crayons in the printer! I really didn't want have to go buy a new one :-)
(You can read about the broken printer here:  http://largentlearningacademy.blogspot.com/2012/08/what-do-you-do-when-printer-dies.html  )
As for this week we have a few things in the works. I am thinking about planning a trip to the aquarium and getting them enrolled in the classes there. Its an awesome thing to be in a town that is semi-homeschool friendly. A lot of the places around here offer 'specials' to homeschoolers, which is so COOL for us! We will be making several trips to the beach, as always, but each trip is so different and something new is always learned.

Here are our learning objectives for this week

Noah:
-math- continue working on multiplication facts and work out word problems
- language arts- story writing; using more descriptive words and making it story format, not just sentences, it needs to mesh together
- science- continue learning about animals, their eating habits and their habitats. (REPTILES MAINLY)
-social studies- start learning about states, and their capitals, interesting facts etc.


Abigail:
-math- continue working on addition and subtraction with carrying and borrowing
-language arts- reading comprehension and handwriting
-science and social studies- same as Noah

Jade:
- continue working on writing skills, tracing lines etc.


We are most definitely finding our groove and enjoying this as a whole! Its a learning experience as much for me as it is for them! And I love watching them as they figure something out.
For example this morning, Noah was doing multiplication facts. He still has problems with them, but he has been getting better. And today he was doing a worksheet of them, and he slowly started to get them, it finally clicked that multiplication is addition worded differently. So once the lightbulb went off in his head, he was able to do his problems easier. This is something that parents don't get to experience because they aren't there with their children. I am so happy that I get to be a part of this!

Field Trip to the Pier!

 It's picture day! And to start everyone off on a beautiful picture, here is one of Daddy and three of the kids walking along the beach. One of my favorites right now!

Since we couldn't get our printer to work, we took the day off and made it a field trip day. We took the kids to the Apache Pier here in town, in hopes of finding some cool fish being caught, but all we got was blown away by the wind! To prove this, here is a picture of Braeden, sporting the wind blown look:
Yes the wind was that bad, but we didn't let it stop us. We walked the pier, enjoyed the music being played, the kids danced their little hearts away. Did we see any cool fish? Nope, fish weren't biting because of it being so windy, but we had fun!
Here is a link to where we went and enjoyed yesterday afternoon/evening:
http://apachefamilycampground.com/pier.php

And since nothing much is happening today, because of storms blowing through, I figured I would post a couple of pictures. I don't have a whole lot, because I don't have the cord to connect my camera to my computer, but I have gotten a few goods ones from my phone and well here ya go! Pictures of my crazy crew!



This one is very symbolic for me at the moment, especially with everything going on. It is kind of a reminder that even though it's storming like crazy right now, there is always beauty to be found. This was a beauty that the kids found on our way to go grocery shopping one day. It was so bright and beautiful as if to say to me "Just wait, it is almost over!"

 

This is my dapper little dude, enjoying his time at the beach. He is the cutest little beach bum that I have found yet! 

 

 

 Here are the other rugrats on a typical school morning, from left to right you have Abigail, Jade and Noah.They miss having school desks, but I like the idea of having them all at one table. Jade enjoys sitting with the bigger kids and she is picking up on what they are learning to. It definitely goes back to the days where there was only one classroom and the older kids helped with teaching the younger kids. Everyone learned everything together. And honestly, it seems to me children were smarter and more educated during those days, than some children are these days.

What do you do when the printer dies?

Friday is getting off to a wonderful start around here. Usually at night before I go to bed, (after the kids are in bed and its all nice and quiet) I make a list of things the kids need to do for the next day. Set it to the side and print it out first thing in the morning as I have my first cup of coffee. I am on my third cup of coffee and nothing is printed out yet. Why? you ask! Well because my printer has decided to take the day off. I am not sure what the problem is, but it keeps getting jammed up. So we are taking the day off from worksheets and doing some notebook stuff (writing our letters, writing stories and drawing pictures) and then we are taking a spur of the moment field trip to the pier later this afternoon and going to do some investigating.
Hopefully I will be able to get my printer up and running before Monday, because I have a lot of things in the works for the kids next week. I am not looking for to handwriting this worksheets out on notebook paper, but if I have to I guess I will. I guess this is one of the cool things about homeschool, you can always figure out a solution to a problem (whether you like the solution or not is questionable lol) but there is always a way to improvise and make the best of any situation and make it an awesome learning experience.

Starting school!

First of all, things never go according to plan, so to say that the start of our school year has been nothing like I planned it is a complete understatement. Yet we pushed through all of the things that happened over the summer, got settled and started school this week. Since all of our stuff we had started putting together at the end of last school year is in storage, we are mainly doing worksheets. I would like to personally thank the Internet Gods for the ability to search for anything and be able to print it out. Noah is busy learning multiplication (which he can do easier than addition lol), and he loves the little science sheets I have found for animals. One of his favorite things to do here at home is to go outside and look for lizards. They are everywhere around here. We have caught a couple, looked them up online and figured out what kind they are, if they are boy or girl, and then set them free. We might possible getting the stuff together and make a terrarium and see if we can keep one for a couple of days and observe it. Lots of learning going on and they don't even realize it.
Abigail is pretty much reviewing from last year. She is still having problems with handwriting so that is something that we are working on daily. Other wise she is doing worksheets on animals, cooking, etc. She enjoys going to the beach and playing in the sand. We are still working on building a sandcastle, but that is difficult, even for me.
Jade is learning how to write, she is very good at tracing lines and attempting to write the letter J. She likes matching things also.
As for Braeden, we are working on teaching him more signs and getting him to speak more. He has picked up a few more words, but he is still very behind on speech. Yet he understands us very well, we just don't understand him lol Hopefully, with a little more work, he will start talking soon !
Thats about it for today! I got something bouncing around in my head, I just have to figure out how to get it out and into word format.

An Extended Break

       So its been just a few days shy of three months since I last updated. Its been a long three months. Let's start with the small stuff first. In June I received a call for a job in Vermont. I accepted it and we all started making plans to move to Vermont. But as the days grew closer to that, the kids decided they didn't want to move, along with Scott and I having our doubts about it. Yet we pushed past that and encouraged the kids it was going awesome along with encouraging each other. The day came to get the moving truck, pack it up and tell everyone good bye. Yet that didn't happen. The Uhaul place didn't have the right size truck, we were getting  a smaller truck than anticipated, so we gave away a lot of our stuff (kitchen table, microwave, a tv and a couple of other smaller things), then we loaded the truck up. Moving time was here, we had all shed some tears, but otherwise we were looking forward to a new place with new people and friends. Then my van died on me. After that, we took it as a sign that we weren't meant to move to Vermont. (Honestly this was the second time in two years that we had attempted to move to Vermont and it not work out).
      That first night, we split the kids up among family members while Scott and I got a hotel room and talked about everything. We admitted the guy feelings each of us had about it not being the right thing and how everything was working against us. We discussed different things, but we knew that we couldn't go back where we were at, because the gentleman that we were renting our house from, had rented it to someone else. So here we were, all of our stuff loaded in a moving truck and technically homeless. What do we tell the kids? How are we going to be able to move forward? A million questions ran through our minds.
       We finally decided to go to the beach for a few days to relax and regroup with the kids. We put all of our stuff in a storage building and hit the road. We found a nice little hotel to stay at for a couple of days and we found ourselves taking a liking to the beach and the area and the people. (There is most definitely a bigger homeschool group here than from where we were originally at) So on Monday morning, June 26th (just a week after everything went to hell in a hand basket for a move to Vermont) I started job hunting. After a few phone calls, I found a job doing housekeeping at a hotel about two miles from the beach. I started work the next day. The day after that, we moved into a room in the hotel. And two weeks later Scott had a job here at the hotel.
          Flash forward to today: We are still living here in our hotel room, Scott and I both have a job.
Our room is a little crowded with us all loaded in it, but we are making do with it. We have a small kitchen with a full size fridge and apartment sized stove in it, so we get to cook (which makes any place a home to me because I love cooking). We moved one of the beds out and bought a couch to move in, so there is room for the kids to play, they rotate who sleeps in a sleeping bag and who sleeps on the couch. Then there are the 5-7 visits a week to the beach. We are most definitely meant to be beach bums. LOL Being here just feels right, we have made a few friends, joined a great homeschool association and group (impatiently waiting on our first 'field trip' with them! And we are slowly getting back into the groove of school. With all of our stuff being in a storage building 5 hrs away, we are doing lots of worksheets and life skills lessons right now, but I am a firm believer in it doesn't matter how you learn as long as you learn. And we make sure to learn at least one new thing a day!
     Now that we are settled into our new routine I will most definitely get back to updating and blogging more often! I have missed it a lot and can't wait to share our journey through homeschooling and our crazy life with you!