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