Trent Family Blog

Weekly Wrap-Up - Weeks 28 & 29

Life has been moving along really fast the last couple of weeks. Hence, another weekly wrap-up that covers two weeks. We're also getting so much closer to vacation. We leave this coming Friday on a Mission Trip with our middle schoolers to Gulf Shores, AL. We will be doing school while there, because the following week we leave for a week long Disney Cruise. We'll be gone for two weeks total, and will even get to spend a day at the Magic Kingdom. We are all very excited, and trying to do school amidst the laundry and the packing has been hard. I spent Sunday afternoon preparing well for this week of school, so that it will not require a lot of daily planning and prep.

Now a quick recap of what we've been learning the last couple of weeks:

Dillon - In math, we wrapped up the unit on fractions. He took his test early last week, and got a perfect score. We moved on to decimals this week. We've had a great couple of weeks in math. In language arts we continued to work on adverbs, focusing on telling adjectives/adverbs apart. He also learned to diagram adverbs as well. He read the book Charlie's House by Clyde Robert Bulla, a story about a young boy from England that comes to America as an indentured slave. He finished that book early this week, and started reading Shiloh Season by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. It is the sequel to Shiloh which he read earlier this year. We also got the movie of the first Shiloh at the library and plan on watching it this week.

Dillon and I played a fraction feud game to practice comparing fractions. I got the idea here.

Abby - We've been reading the Felicity Books. We've read Felicity Learns a Lesson, Felicity's Surprise, and this week started Happy Birthday, Felicity. We've enjoyed reading these together a lot, and often end up reading 2-3 chapters in a sitting. In language arts, she's been doing lots of sentence writing. We've also continued to work on adding suffixes to root words, rhyming words, and homonyms. In math we've been doing a lot of review, review, review. We've been covering money, time, odds & evens, and liquid measurements.

She likes to use this money, which I've put magnetic tape on, when she's working on money problems.

History - We've been studying the Spanish and their impact on America. We read about the missions started by the Spanish Jesuit Priests in the book Life in a California Mission by Sally Senzell Isaacs. I wish that we would've know the historical impact of the missions when we were in California last summer, because many of them are still standing today. I would've loved to have been able to refer back to that. We did look at the path of the El Camino Real which was the road that connected the California Missions. We drove on some of that same stretch of roadway on our trip this past summer. We also read the book, Ancient Cliff Dwellers of Mesa Verde by Caroline Arnold. This was a fascinating look at the way these ancient Indians of the Southwest lived. Dillon especially enjoyed this book.

Science - In science we've learned all we ever wanted to know about pinnipeds (which means "fin-footed" mammals). This group includes seals, sea lions, and walruses. We also learned about manatees and dugongs. I learned something also, because I had never heard of a dugong. They are very similar to manatees with the main difference being where they live and the shape of their tails. Manatees live in North and South America and have rounded "beaver like" tails. Dugongs are found near the African coast, and have a more "whale like" or triangular tail. We have actually seen manatees at DIsney in the Living Seas area in Epcot. One of the manatees they have there has a damaged fin. We learned from our text that one of the biggest threats to manatees are boats, but they are not usually killed by them just injured. How neat that we've seen one of the rescued manatees at Epcot.

We've had some fun field trips/excursions over the last couple of weeks, too. Last Friday, we woke up early and got all of our school work done in a couple of hours, then we took off for the zoo. It was beautiful weather, and we even got to see the new baby Panda, Po and his mother. This week Dillon and I got to go to a Mother/Son event at our church. We got to see the Christian illusionist Harris III. We had such a fun night. Afterwards, they had popcorn, ice cream, and a fun photo booth. We enjoyed a fun evening together.

Dillon with Harris III

Life has been busy lately, but oh so fun. I hope things are going well for you in your homeschool/life as well. I'm linking up with Kris over at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. If you would like to see how other homeschoolers are doing this week, head over there to find out. Thanks, Kris, for hosting this each week.

  

Weekly Wrap-Up - Week 27

Spring returned to the Atlanta area this weekend, and we've enjoyed some beautiful sunshine and the outdoors. We're hoping that it's here for good now, and won't be bowing out to winter again. As far as school goes, it was just a so-so week. We got the basics done, but we all have other things on our minds and other things we'd rather be doing. Spring break is only a couple of weeks away and we're dreaming of a cruise.... a Disney Cruise. (And a pre-cruise day trip to the Magic Kingdom!) We're all so excited that we can hardly get much else done. 

What we did manage to accomplish this week in school:

Abby - We read Meet Felicity this week. We enjoyed this book and are looking forward to Felicity Learns a Lesson next week. She's also been continuing to work on ABC order, suffixes, and homonyms. We also reviewed synonyms and antonyms. In math she worked on number words to 200, solid shapes, and bar graphs. She also continues to write sentences and every Friday she does a journal writing wit a picture. Sometimes I give her the topic, and sometimes it's free choice. This week she wrote about a friend. She did a super job. I'm so glad that she likes to write and seems to really enjoy it.

Dillon - This week for reading, he got to choose each day from 2 or 3 books that were in his box. Most of them were on ocean animals to go along with science. Next week he will begin another novel from the colonial period of history. We both enjoyed the break from the norm for the week. In language, he's been working on adverbs. In math we're still working on fractions. This week we've been adding and subtracting, like fractions and then unlike ones. I think he enjoys it better than long division, but only marginally. In geography/map skills he's been learning latitude and longitude this week. He is also continuing the Typing Instructor program.

Science - We started Chapter 3 of our Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. We started learning about seals and sea lions. It was neat to study them because this past summer we spent time in California along the Pacific Coast. We were able to see the Sea Lions up close and personal in Monterey and in San Francisco. We enjoyed learning more about these fun animals this week.

On Friday, I went to the scrapbooking class at my church that I facilitate once a month. Chris is off on Fridays, so he was the "substitute" teacher. He also got some help from Abby when it came time to give Dillon his spelling test. :-)

Hope you and your families have had a wonderful week. I'm linking up with Kris over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for her Weekly Wrap-Up. You can head over there, too, to see how everyone else's week went.

Weekly Wrap-Up - Week 27

Spring returned to the Atlanta area this weekend, and we've enjoyed some beautiful sunshine and the outdoors. We're hoping that it's here for good now, and won't be bowing out to winter again. As far as school goes, it was just a so-so week. We got the basics done, but we all have other things on our minds and other things we'd rather be doing. Spring break is only a couple of weeks away and we're dreaming of a cruise.... a Disney Cruise. (And a pre-cruise day trip to the Magic Kingdom!) We're all so excited that we can hardly get much else done. 

What we did manage to accomplish this week in school:

Abby - We read Meet Felicity this week. We enjoyed this book and are looking forward to Felicity Learns a Lesson next week. She's also been continuing to work on ABC order, suffixes, and homonyms. We also reviewed synonyms and antonyms. In math she worked on number words to 200, solid shapes, and bar graphs. She also continues to write sentences and every Friday she does a journal writing wit a picture. Sometimes I give her the topic, and sometimes it's free choice. This week she wrote about a friend. She did a super job. I'm so glad that she likes to write and seems to really enjoy it.

Dillon - This week for reading, he got to choose each day from 2 or 3 books that were in his box. Most of them were on ocean animals to go along with science. Next week he will begin another novel from the colonial period of history. We both enjoyed the break from the norm for the week. In language, he's been working on adverbs. In math we're still working on fractions. This week we've been adding and subtracting, like fractions and then unlike ones. I think he enjoys it better than long division, but only marginally. In geography/map skills he's been learning latitude and longitude this week. He is also continuing the Typing Instructor program.

Science - We started Chapter 3 of our Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. We started learning about seals and sea lions. It was neat to study them because this past summer we spent time in California along the Pacific Coast. We were able to see the Sea Lions up close and personal in Monterey and in San Francisco. We enjoyed learning more about these fun animals this week.

On Friday, I went to the scrapbooking class at my church that I facilitate once a month. Chris is off on Fridays, so he was the "substitute" teacher. He also got some help from Abby when it came time to give Dillon his spelling test. :-)

Hope you and your families have had a wonderful week. I'm linking up with Kris over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for her Weekly Wrap-Up. You can head over there, too, to see how everyone else's week went.

Weekly Wrap-Up - Week 26

We took off the last week of February with our local schools for winter break. We had a beautiful week with warm temperatures. We spent a few days on a retreat in the North Georgia Mountains with our middle schoolers at church. It was absolutely perfect. I forgot to take my nicer camera, but the trusty I-phone came through for me. Here are a few pics. from Winter Retreat.

Sharp Top Cove

Some of our middle schoolers did the zip line into the lake (which was still crazy cold)

Dillon and Abby (with Chris) about to climb the rock wall

We had such a great time on this trip. We really have an awesome group of middle schoolers. I also enjoyed some much needed time away from school and housework that sometimes seem unending. It was very refreshing to get away for a few days.

We returned home just in time to celebrate my birthday, my 40th birthday. When did that happen? We enjoyed a fun evening with friends and family. I feel completely blessed and am so thankful for my family.

Well, needless to say, after a week off from school with lots of fun times with friends and some really fabulous weather, getting back into the routine of school this week has not been that easy. We managed to get it all done, but there was not a whole lot of enthusiasm. (from Mom or the kids!)

Our learning week:

Dillon - He read the book The Printer's Apprentice by Stephen Krensky. This is a fictitious book that uses the historical facts and figures surrounding the trial of Peter Zenger, a newspaper editor in the city of New York in 1734. In this book we follow the career of a young apprentice named Gus who witnesses some of the events surrounding the trial of Peter Zenger. This book went along well with where we are in our study of American History. This week in language, he began working on adverbs and the questions they answer. In math, we're still working on fractions, which is good because he still needs a lot more practice. He also continues to work through his lessons on Typing Instructor. He's really enjoyed this program. To practice his typing skills this week, he wrote a couple of e-mails to grandparents.

Abby - We began reading Happy Birthday, Kit this week. She loves these American Girl books. We're actually going to go back and read the Felicity books starting next week, because they will go along better with our history study. In language arts, she's been continuing to write sentences and small 2-4 sentence "stories". She loves to write and does a really good job on her "stories". In math, she's been doing subtracting without a number line. I've been teaching her to count up. We've also been working a lot with our magnetic money, and learning to count nickels/pennies, dimes/pennies, and quarter/pennies.

History - We read the story of John Peter Zenger: Free Press Advocate by Arthur M. Schlesinger. This one was not as interesting to the kids as some of the other books we've read, but I did not remember ever having read about Peter Zenger in history, so I really enjoyed it. I think the whole idea of free press and the reasons behind Zenger's arrest and trial were hard for my children to follow. They did ask a lot of questions, and I was constantly having to stop to explain something to them in a way they could understand it better. So hopefully, they retained a little of it. 

Science - On Wednesday, we headed to the Georgia Aquarium with some good friends for a fun field trip. It was our best day at the aquarium yet. It was so empty that we were able to see so much more and really take time to experience the exhibits. One of our favorite things of the day was watching the Sea Otters being fed. The trainer had them perform for their food, and it was fun to see them following the commands. Another one of my favorite parts on this day was the big ocean theater room. In the past it's always been so crowded that it's hard to enjoy. On this day, our kids were the only ones at the window, and it was so peaceful just to sit their and watch the fish. Once again, I left my big camera at home, but here's and I-phone shot.

If you'd like to see some really excellent photos and hear more about our day at the Georgia Aquarium, you can head over to my friend Jamie's post on our day at the aquarium at See Jamie Blog. Her hubby Ken got some great fishy photos!

I hope that you and yours have had a wonderful week. I know the winter blahs hit us a little this week, but we're still plugging along. I'm linking up with Kris over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and her Weekly Wrap-Up. You should head over there to check out what everyone else has been up to the past week.

Weekly Wrap-Up - Weeks 24-25

I started to title this entry "Too Beautiful to be Blogging" and, no, I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about the weather. Spring has arrived a little early here in the Atlanta area, and even if winter decides to return, we've had a definite case of spring fever around the Trent house lately. If we're not enjoying the beautiful weather outside, we're doing spring cleaning/organizing inside. So blogging has definitely taken a back burner, but I did want to post about our last couple of weeks of school and life.

What we've been learning:

Abby - In math, we started learning liquid measurements and estimation. We've continued to review time and money and to drill addition facts. On Valentine's, she did  a bar graph using conversation hearts.

In language arts, Abby's been working on sentence writing, ABC order, and reading comprehension. We've been reading lots of ocean and Valentine's books. A few of our favorites have been Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle, Ocean Hide and Seek by Jennifer Evans Kramer and The Whale's Song by Dyan Sheldon. We also enjoyed Valentine Mice by Bethany Roberts and The Valentine Bears by Eve Bunting.

Dillon - In math last week, we finished the geometry section in our Horizon's math book by studying area and volume. This week we moved on to fractions. We've studied equivalent fractions, greatest common factors and lowest term fractions. We also continue to drill multiplication facts. On Valentine's Day, we played Valentine's Battleship.

We used 2 Valentine's 100's charts that I found here. We each had 10 candy conversation hearts that we randomly placed on our chart (each heart covering one number). To make a guess of where your opponent's hearts are, you must give a multiplication problem or a division problem. For example to guess #48, you might say 4 X 12 or 6 X 8. We just x'd out the numbers we called, so that we wouldn't call them again. If you guess correct, you get to have the heart. Whoever gets all the hearts first wins. Dillon won our game, but it took about 30 minutes to finish the game.

In language arts, he's been working on adjectives and diagraming adjectives. We've also been working on writing and worked on alliteration and main idea. He finished reading The Journal of Jasper Jonathan Pierce from the My Name is America series. He read several books this week on ocean animals as well.

Science - We wrapped up our chapter on whales in our Apologia Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day book. The kids completed the first part of an art project on ocean animals. Hopefully next week, I can share the completed project.

History - We finished the book Amos Fortune: Free Man by Elizabeth Yates. This was such a good book, and I am so glad that we were able to read it. We love how Amos trusted in the Lord for everything. There were so many wonderful life lessons to learn from this book.

Last weekend, we celebrated Valentine's with our kiddos. On Friday night, Chris and Abby attended the Daddy/Daughter Valentine Dance at our church. Dillon and I always go out on a date as well on this night, and we got all dressed up and headed to O'Charley's for a yummy dinner.

 Abby with her beautiful flowers from Daddy

Abby and Daddy

Me and my handsome date

We're actually taking a break this week with the local public schools. We're going on a winter retreat with our middle schoolers at church to the beautiful north Georgia Mountains for a few days. I'll spend the rest of the week continuing to do some spring cleaning, and getting ready for our next three weeks of school. I also have a birthday next weekend, one of those "big" ones. I'm looking forward to celebrating with my friends and family.

I hope that you and yours have had a wonderful week. I'm linking up with Kris over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and her Weekly Wrap-Up. You can head over there to see what everyone else has been up to the past week.