7 Days of Blogging Freebies - Sign Up Today!

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Updates!!! And What's Been Going On With Us!

The biggest update is our adoption is finally final finalize.... yeah I know a few too many words on the FINAL. But this is something that we have been pursuing for almost 3 years now and its nice to finally have that chapter closed. We are able to move forward with our entire lives and not having to back track to a darker time and relive certain things. More me, than Noah and Abigail, but its still nice knowing that its over.
Now that we are back from that trip out of town (it was nice to see family and friends that we haven't seen in a few months), its time to start getting ready for birthdays and holidays. On top of actively searching for a new home. We are planning on having a BIGGER new place in two weeks if everything goes according to plans! This way we can have family and friends to visit for the holidays! Its my favorite time of the year right now and I can't wait to start getting ready for the festivities!!!
On to school because I am getting sidetracked a little bit! Noah is doing wonderfully, we introduced basic geometry to him (well calculating perimeter) and I realized (I had forgotten lol) that you need to know division, in addition to, (haha no pun intended I swear) multiplication in order to calculate geometry. So we decided to spend this week learning division. He is doing pretty good at that and has the basic idea of it down. But I am realizing that he doesn't have his math facts memorized. He can't tell you right off the top of his head that 3x3=9 he has to sit there and count by 3's three times. So I have him reviewing his math facts again. On top of that he is learning his parts of speech, this week it is adjectives. He is learning the different types of adjectives and how they are used in sentences. He picks up on this stuff very well;much like his mother does. Math on the other hand, is my weak subject also lol
Abigail is excelling at math. So she and I and Daddy talked about moving her up to basic multiplication. There's no where but up to go once you can add and subtract. She knows how to count money, she can tell time on an analog clock (most of the time lol), she knows her shapes (both 2d and 3d), so multiplication it is for her. She seems to be grasping it pretty well, but this time when I teach her I am going to make sure she memorizes it, so we don't have to go back and do it again, like with Noah.
Yet again another reason I love homeschooling, if there is something that we need to backtrack and do over again, we can. Abigail told me yesterday that she wants to homeschool forever and doesn't want to leave and go to college. I had to remind her that she can do college at home too, just like I am! It is so nice to see that they are thriving and learning and enjoying it!

Monday, October 8, 2012

Small Space Homeschool!

I have been working on this post for a while now. And I figured now was the time to post it. As you know, we have been living in a hotel room for the past four months now. It has been a challenge considering there are six of us in this room, along with some of our belongings (the rest if divided up between two storage buildings in two different cities, sometimes I think we are gypsies or nomads or something lol) But we have been making the best of it with storage containers/devices. I usually spend Sundays printing out everything we are going to need for the week. And then each kid has a folder and I put their worksheets in their folders. I label each worksheet with a day of the week, so they know which ones to do when. Speaking of worksheets they have been a lifesaver these past couple of months, because all of my stuff that I had spent the beginning of summer planning is in a box in a storage building 5 hours away. So I have had to improvise everything that I was planning on teaching the kids this year, which is okay, because they are still learning no matter how I had planned on teaching them.
Ok back on topic, we have a small table that the older three kids use as an eating table and as their school table (I also use it as my desk, it is extremely multipurposed) The kids have small bookbags to keep their folders and notebooks (with pencils, etc) in. They hang in the closet on a coat hanger so they are out of the way. Also in the closet is where we have a hanging shelf Neatkids 6-Shelf Organizer (Google Affiliate Ad) This is like what we have. And then we have a small metal that the kids keep their books on. It is a little cluttered, but we get it done. Its been a huge learning experience for us, but we have learned a lot from it. Especially the little kids. Jade is picking up on a lot of things from sitting in with the big kids during school, and Braeden is talking so much now. Its almost as if he didn't have a delay. And I honestly feel that being all together in one room has a lot to do with that.
I will try to get some pictures posted of our small space once I get it cleaned up (we just got back from our trip to finalize our adoption - thats another post - and its a mess)!!!