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!!!
Follow my blog with Bloglovin

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

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!

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)!!!

Hectic Week Behind and Ahead!

This past week has been a crazy one. We have been settling into a new schedule (which seems to be working out quite nicely) along with house/apartment hunting. We finally found us a two bedroom apartment that is right across from the beach in our price range! So hopefully if everything works out we will be moving around the 15th of October. School went great this week. Noah is really grasping the parts of speech, he is also writing better. Not his handwriting but his actually writing content. He's starting to build stories instead of just writing a bunch of sentences together. Abigail on the other hand is driving me nuts with her lack of paying attention. I know that it is difficult to focus when everyone is in the same room as you and the little ones are going crazy, but its not always quite out in the world so it is something I feel that she needs to learn how to deal with. Also her handwriting is horrible still. Its legible as compared to when she finished kindergarten, she couldn't even read her handwriting. But she just writes so sloppy because she isn't paying attention. Her excuse for everything is "oops I forgot" and I know the child doesn't have any memory problems, she remembers everything that is important to her. Its the non-important to her things that she conveniently forgets LOL Like not touching things in the grocery store or focusing on her handwriting.
Next week we are taking the week off from school. Its our FALL BREAK!!! With us having to leave out Wednesday afternoon to drive the five hours back to our home town, then all the meetings and seeing family that we have to do between Thursday and Friday on top of court Friday morning for the judge to finalize Scott adopting Noah and Abigail and then the drive back to the home Saturday morning, it is just going to be easy to take the week off. And it wouldn't do any good to try to do any type of school work next week, even if it was just simple worksheets, because the kids are so excited about court that it would be hard for them to focus.
When we do get back and calmed down from our trip, school is going to get kicked right back into session. Noah is wanting to learn geometry so I am trying to figure out how to teach a 3rd grader something I didn't learn til 8th grade lol But he already knows multiplication, so it might not be too hard once I explain the concept and formulas to him.
Abigail is getting ready to move up in math also, I just haven't figured out which direction I want to take her. This trip back to our hometown is going to be helpful, because that is where our storage building of stuff is, which has all my lesson plans in it. So I will be able to start with those once we get back too. Which will help with figuring out what to teach Abigail in math now lol
I think that's it for the update at the moment.

Weekly Wrap Up!

I know, I know, I am slack on posting. This past week has been an adventure. I started a new job, so we are having to readjust our schedules again. Luckily the kids are resilient and can adjust to almost anything. But then, just as we get use to the new schedule, we are going to be leaving for a few days, to go back to our hometown of Gaffney, to finalize Scott adopting Noah and Abigail. The closer it gets the more excited the kids get. They are so excited to go to court and finally become Largents!
Other than that, school has been going pretty good. I have learned more about the kids and what they know and what they don't know.
Abigail is still having problems with ABC order and her handwriting is still horrible. She has moments when it is beautiful, I know she has to potential, but I haven't been able to get her to keep it up. So I am trying to encourage her by telling her that she can learn cursive once she gets her handwriting to legible status lol Her math skills are exceptional, she is very good at math, which is great, because I'm not.
Noah is the master of handwriting though, he taught himself how to write in cursive in three days last year lol He is doing great at math. He has mastered multiplication. We are introducing basic geometry this week, because he wanted to do something more challenging. He is also learning parts of speech. This week it is adverbs. He is catching on pretty quickly to them. (And Daddy is learning with him, which is a cool benefit of all of this)
They are also learning the flower, flag, bird and capitals of all the state. We will put it all into a notebook as soon as we get a bigger place and have room to spread out. Science is our subject that we are having issues with, because we don't have the space to do experiments or anything, but we have been able to do some cool things like observe alligators in their natural habitats, watch sea turtles leave the nest and go to the ocean, and watch what happens as the tide comes in and out and the effects it has on the beach.
Things are coming along wonderfully with school. The kids are enjoying school and absorbing everything like little sponges. Even Jade and Braeden are learning things. Its a beautiful thing to be able to watch.

Just a quick post!

I just wanted to share my newest found website. We are utilizing worksheets to the fullest right now until we can get a bigger place and set up our classroom. I was busy searching around on Google today and found www.worksheetworks.com
So far I love them! Go check them out!

Longer post coming later I promise

Alligator Pictures!

I promised I would post some pictures of the alligator that we saw the other day. Well it turns out that while we were at the state park this evening, we saw another one (and this one was HUGE) Scott said about 7 - 8 feet long. Noah decided he wanted a closer looks and started making duck call sounds. Well I guess the gator likes ducks because he started swimming closer and closer to us, until he was about 10 feet away. There was land and some water between us, but he was really big and a little too close for my comfort, so I got my little group peoples together and we left. lol
But here are some pictures. The first two are of the little gator that we saw earlier in the week and the other ones are of the gator in the water. You kind of have to look carefully to see it, but you can see it I promise :-)

***Okay for some reason I am having issues putting pictures into the post. Its more likely me, than Blogger itself lol But the pictures on the bottom are of the little gator and the pictures on top are of the big gator! Enjoy!!!!***

Alligators!!!

Alligators... I never ever thought that I would just be walking along a path and look out to my left and see a 5 foot 'gator... Guess what people?! I did just that Monday afternoon! The days and nights are getting cooler around here and its almost too cold in the water at the beach or the pool (especially for my cold natured self lol) So instead of doing our usual beach outing we rode up the beach to Barefoot Landing. It is an awesome place where there are a lot of shops, different vendors for delicious food and its all situated on lake, with several piers connecting you to each side of the lake. So we are busy walking along one side of the lake looking at the ducks very innocently when all of a sudden Noah and Abigail and spazzing, I mean seriously freaking out over something way cool. Leave it to my silly kids to have a coronary over an alligator. Yes you have read that right, 10-12 feet away from me and my little crew of kids was an alligator. It was a small one, probably 5 feet or so. Noah kept wanting to go pet it. I kept telling him that he could go pet it, but if he came back missing a hand or a foot, I wasn't going to help him LOL And if that wasn't exciting enough, as we were walking on one of the piers there was another alligator in the lake, floating along. All you could see was his eyes and nose and top of his head. Scott said he looked to be about 7 or so feet long. That was enough for me to keep a closer eye on the older kids and tighter grip on the younger kids.
BUT.... as not cool as it was for me, it did turn into a great learning lesson. They got to 'gators in their natural environment (as compared to a zoo). We had an awesome discussion on the way home from there, which involved the other animals we saw there. Those were turtles, fish (carp, koi, and brim), seagulls and pelicans.
Then later on that night, Scott and I were sitting outside and we saw a mama raccoon and her two babies sneak up and attack our trash can. Needless to say even though we are in a big ole city, we feel like we are in the backwoods with all the animals around us. I do enjoy every minute of it, because I am a huge animal lover (although I prefer furry ones to scaley ones lol) and the kids love animals to, so it is always fun to watch them as they see these different animals.
As for the alligator, yes I did get pictures, I just have to get them uploaded. I am hoping to do that this weekend, but things have been so crazy around here the past couple of days that I haven't had the time to focus on the blog. Which I really need to get back into the habit of doing!!!

Sorry for not updating!

This week has been a week for the books. Sunday night I had everything planned and ready to go for Tuesday morning (we took Monday off for the holiday). And then Wednesday came and I was told that I was being let go from my job, because the summer season had ended and they had to cut back on people and I was the one who had to go. Luckily, the guy is willing to keep Scott on to work, so not all is loss. So with that, school kind of got pushed to the side. They did worksheets just to keep going with stuff, but I have been busy looking for another job. The hard part of that, is that it is the end of the season at the beach and well jobs are hard to come by. A lot of the places close for the winter, other places have already hired winter staff, etc. So I'm not sure what is going to happen at the moment. We have been discussing Knoxville again, but I am not sure of the job market there. Chattanooga has come up in conversation. The R.V. conversation is back on the table too. So there are a lot of talks going on between Scott and I and the kids. What we are going to do, I am not exactly sure, but whatever we do will be an awesome learning experience like always.

And I promise to update more next week, because I have to get back to our routine next week!

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!