A Post About Braeden

I figure its been long enough since I updated you all on my Little Dude. And dude he is hell on wheels lol He finally found his voice and never ever shuts up. After being officially diagnosed with a speech delay but not delayed enough for therapy, we worked with him and talked to him every chance we had. A few months ago he started talking more and more and while we were staying with our friends he started developing two and three word sentences. My favorite was when he was tell my friend's dog 'No Buddy hush up' it started building from there and now he is speaking in full sentences he knows what his name is and will very quickly tell you that No he didn't do something. It's been so much fun watching him figure things out and being able to have conversations with him. Especially after working for so long and him not talking til he was almost two years old.

Now we are taking on the task of potty training him and this is proving to be more difficult than we thought. I truly feel that we missed that window of opportunity with him and he is just going to be difficult to get along with. He will go to the potty but its only once or twice a day. Which is better than nothing but I am sooooo tired of diapers lol Or how about a funny little story about Mr. Braeden. I tell him to sit on the potty and he does, with it closed, or he will stand on top of the closed potty and pee in the floor! OH THE JOYS, of having a child that has a sense of humor and thinks its funny to watch himself pee. This is going to be a fun journey, so be on the lookout for very entertaining stories involving those lovely bodily fluids :-)

Here's a pic of Mr Braeden with us over Easter!

Why I like Homeschool by Abigail

It is fun and we do not have to wake up early ever. Sometimes we get to take a break for water and sometimes we do not even do school at all. That is why my dad's legs hurt. But when he is not we will be doing school. But it is the best oh and it is fun. My mom goes to work and my dad is my teacher. What I have learned is art and math and I do home work by myself.

Very different takes on both the kids' views of homeschool isn't it? (you can read Noah's entry here http://largentlearningacademy.blogspot.com/2013/05/turning-it-over-to-kiddos.html )    Her handwriting has improved so much since we first started this journey two years ago. Yet she still has a long way to go. Yet I am beginning to think that its more her attention span and not her ability to write. :-) Also we are beginning to think that she is mildly dyslexic so this is something that we will be working on over the summer with her.

Summer Is In The Air Tonight.....

Or was it love is in the air??? Either way summer or love, its all the same to me, I love warm weather, grilling out and being outside all day. We are a little disappointed that we aren't going to be at the beach this summer, but we are in an awesome spot that has lots to offer for the summer.
And while other kids are out of school for the summer, we spend the summer exploring and learning more than ever. Next week, we have a couple of trips planned to a few different libraries in the area. We are going to see who has reading lists, reading programs, etc. We are doing these as field trips, since we are new to the area and still learning our way around. I have noticed that there is a larger homeschool population here, so I am hoping this means more options for the kids! I am also planning on putting together a reading list of my own for the kids to do over the summer.

We have an awesome book store a few miles from us in Chattanooga (again McKay's you have to check them out, they are awesome awesome awesome!), just last week we went in and spent just 6 dollars and came out with probably more than 300 dollars worth of books. So worth the trip if you ask me!  So I am going to put together the list for the kids, give them a spending budget and let them go shopping. Its multitasking at its finest :-)

I am very excited to say that Abigail has finally taken an interest in reading. She reads books to Jade at bedtime until Jade falls asleep. She finished her first "big" book last week, it was one of the Diary of a Wimpy Kids books. It was a HUGE accomplishment for her and us! So I am hoping that this carries over into the summer so she can further develop her love of reading!

Right now I am open to suggestions on what books to put on their reading lists, so send them in! Also if you are interested in reading lists, Barnes and Noble has a few on their website http://bn.com
Or you could check out a couple friends of the Academy's and see what they are doing for summer reading!

 
http://naturallypersnickety.com/?p=230


http://ajewelinthemaking.com/2013/05/summer-reading-lists-and-programs.html

 http://freedomacademyonline.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/summer-reading-programs/

Another quick update!

Lots of changes are coming to the Academy! We have gotten a few new partnerships up and going this week, we are in talks with a couple of other companies to start a partnership with them! We are working on a new design and layout for the blog, making it easier to navigate and all that cool jazz!!! Oh and there is a big secret in the works right now with Daddy Scott and I... so stick around, its going to be an exciting summer!!!
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Turning it over to the kiddos

I asked Noah and Abigail to write what they like about homeschool. Today I will be posting Noah's thoughts about homeschool. Needless to say I think he has a future is satire and sarcasm and he's a bit like his mother in a lot of ways. Enjoy!

Why I Like To Homeschool?
Why do I like homeschooling, for one thing I don't have to wait for an hour or more for anyone to get done. Second, I don't have to sit in a hard wooden chair all day long. Well I also like homeschooling because it is fun. I learn different things and harder things everyday. It don't take as long as you think. Usually it takes about two or three hours to do homeschool. If you are reading this you better put you kids in homeschool because it is easy and it is fun and its better learning. I again think its easy for kids who are three to eighteen years old. Just look at my handwriting, I have been writing like this for five years.

And just so you can see his awesome handwriting, here is a picture of his writing of this post!

Just a quick post!

We have a new affiliate partnership with Educents! They have recently opened and have great deals on educational products and it is awesome for homeschoolers! I will say that I haven't had the chance to purchase anything yet, with all the craizness that has been going on. But I do have a shopping cart full of items that I will be buying as soon as I can't! And as soon as I do, I will definitely let you know how wonderful they are!
If you have purchased something from Educents and would like to leave a review for them, you are more than welcome to email it to me at ashleylargent0427@gmail.com

Check them out!

Long Awaited Update!

It seems like it has been forever since I sat down to start a blog post, and to be honest it has been quite a while. A lot of things have gone on and we have made a couple of different moves in our lives for the better and I think we have finally settled into an almost normal way of life again.
When we left off on the Crazy Life of Mine and the Kids lol we were just coming down from the high of having our adoption finalized, getting ready to move to a bigger place and preparing for the holidays. And that is exactly what we were doing. We moved for our tiny little hotel room (and it took three trips in our van to get all of our stuff moved, I still have no idea how we got that much stuff in one room) and moved into a two bedroom apartment right across from the beach. While it was still too small for us in all honesty, it was HUGE compared to the space we had been living in. Plus we were right across from the beach. We started getting ready for Thanksgiving, birthdays, family visiting and all that fun stuff we do that time of the year. Then we got hit with a road block from hell. My ex sister in law decided to sabotage our lives, she started calling and emailing the hotel where I was working at and had her friends do the same thing complaining about me. It didn't matter that she nor her friends had never stayed there, they were getting complaints and ultimately I had to be let go. So here we were back at square one, no job, no money, no way to take care of anything. So what did we do? We loaded everything we had up in the van, put the other stuff in a storage building and came back to the Upstate and stayed with a friend of ours from two months. We did this on Christmas Eve. Our Christmas was literally ruined by this and thanks to family and friends stepping up, the kids didn't miss out. During this, Braeden got RSV and we spent three days in the hospital with him. Thankfully again friends and family stepped up and helped out with the other kids during this time.
But the arrangement with the friends didn't work out too well, due to issues that I will not discuss here, sorry. :-) And we made another move to Georgia where my mom lives. And as always, nothing can be easy for us, we thought we had an apartment, but got here and the lady had done rented it to someone else, even though I told her the day before that we were leaving and heading this way and that we would be there by a certain time the next day. Back to a hotel we went... for two weeks... YAY US! But I am a positive person and there is always a silver lining to everything. I got a call back for a job at the mall in Chattanooga, TN (just five minutes up the road from us) and I took it. So while getting started in the new job, we were looking around for places to rent and found a quaint little three bedroom house and we took it. So we FINALLY have us a house again after almost a year of living in hotels and small spaces and too little apartments. We have a puppy!!! I will post about her later :-) And things are looking up again. I also got another call back about a job with a Realtor and I have taken the leap into real estate. I just finished up my 60 hours course last night and I have a 30 hour course to take then I will take the test (cross your fingers and toes that I pass) and I will be licensed. We are finally settling in, does that mean things are calm, nope things are always crazy around here, but it is a little less stressful.

As for the kids, they are super excited to be near Nana and PawPaw and their cousins, we are busy planning a trip later this year to Virginia to see my sister and her husband and kids, and as for homeschool it kind of got pushed to the side a little bit during this. What they haven't kept up with in book study, I feel like they have gained so much in life skills. They have learned how to make a negative situation into a positive one like we did when we were staying with our friends, they have learned how to push through and make the best out of anything thrown at them. And that is someone that is invaluable, because kids today don't get a chance to learn these things because their parents shelter them from reality. Guess what? We don't around here, the kids know everything (age appropriate of course) that goes on in our lives and they help us work the problems out. As far as school work, they are reading books like crazy (there is an awesome book store in Chattanooga called McKays, if you are ever in the Chattanooga area (or Knoxville, and maybe Nashville areas) check them out, they are awesome!!!!) they are working on multiplication still and memorization, and we started learning the basics to writing a letter last week. We will be working on how to address an envelope and mail our letters this week.
After much deliberation and discussing, Scott and I have decided to go back to Connections Academy for their schooling. Because I am not going to be home as much as I was and Scott is going to be full-time teacher, he feels that he can teach them best if its mostly laid out for him and then him add to it. Which is okay with me, I am super happy he came to me and told me that he wasn't feeling confident enough to do it himself. One of the many reasons I love him and love parenting with him.

So now that you are all up to date on the craziness, bare with me as I get back into the swing of things. LOL