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.
Happy birthday! Looks like a great week--thanks so much for sharing it.
Posted by: MissMOE | March 05, 2011 at 06:13 PM