Trent Family Blog

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.

Weekly Wrap-Up - Week 23

This was another short week for us. My wonderful in-laws came over on Wednesday afternoon and took my two kiddos back with them for a long weekend in the country. Chris and I headed out of town on Thursday morning to Chattanooga, TN for the Southeast Conclave Conference for youth ministry. We had such a great time at this conference attending seminars, wonderful worship with Aaron Keys and David Platt, and some much needed couple time for the two of us. We picked up our kids this afternoon on the way home, and our ears are once again filled with the noise of a busy house. So thankful for our quiet weekend, though.

Our learning this week:

Dillon - He started a new book this week. It is from the My Name is America series and it is called The Journal of Jasper Jonathan Pierce. In language arts he continued to work on pronouns and learned how to diagram compound subject and compound verbs. In math he's continuing to work on geometry. This week we focused on circles and perimeter. He's also been working on map skills, and this week worked on a physical map of the state of Georgia.

Abby - Some of the books we read this week included Dancing with the Manatees by Faith McNulty and All Kinds of Habitats by Sally Hewitt. We also read a couple of Fancy Nancy books just for fun. Abby especially loves the Ooh La La, It's Beauty Day one. She also loves to talk in what she calls her "French" accent after reading these books:-) In language, she's continuing to work on suffixes -ed and -ing. We're also getting much more into sentence writing. In math she's been working on measuring with centimeters, shapes, even & odd numbers, and sequencing. We've also been really working hard on addition flashcard drill and she is getting so fast. I'm really excited about the progress she's made since I decided we needed to drill, drill, drill those facts.

In history this week, we studied the difference between indentured servants and slaves, and we began reading the book Amos Fortune: Free Man by Elizabeth Yates. This has been our read aloud this week during/right after lunch. So far we are enjoying it.

Both kids also took some review work with them to Granny's house this weekend. It was mostly in the form of worksheets, but I wanted them to do at least some school over the two days they were missing. It ended up raining almost the whole time they were there (and even sleeting, at one point), so it was good that they had something to help keep them occupied.

I'm leaving you with a few pictures that Abby took on our trip to the Zoo last Saturday. Hard to believe that it was sunny and 67 that day. This week/weekend has been so cold. Hope Mr. Groundhog was right and that we're in for an early spring, because we're ready for it.

Chris and Dillon

We've never seen the lion so close to the glass. He was so big and beautiful.

A Giraffe Family (At least that's what we were calling it)

Thanks for reading along as I shared our week. I'm linking up with Kris over at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and her Weekly Wrap-up. You can head over there to check out what other homeschoolers have been up to this week. Hope you and you're family are managing to stay warm wherever you are and that you're enjoying your weekend.