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-Ups - Weeks 20 & 21

The week of Jan. 10th-14th is being called the snow week in the Atlanta area. We had snow/ice on the ground for more than a week. In fact where the snow was piled up, or made into a snowman, there is still snow on the ground. Public schools in our area missed the entire week of school, and in our homeschool, we just covered the basics. It was a really fun week with lots of playing in the snow, and then heading inside to warm up. 

This is what we've been learning the last two weeks:

Dillon - He continued reading the story Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor and finished it this week. He completed several writing activities with the book and had daily reading comprehension questions to answer. He really enjoyed this book and has already asked to read the other Shiloh books. I'm glad because I hope that he will enjoy reading them for his extra, non-assigned reading. In language, he's covered plurals, and this week we've been working on pronouns. In math he's been doing a lot of review work. He's also been working on time conversions and time zones. This week he worked on solving logic problems and reviewed geometric terms like points, lines, segments, and rays. This is all information that he learned in 3rd grade last year, but the review has been really good for him.

Abby - We've been reading lots of books. We finished Kit Learns a Lesson and started on Kit's Surprise. Some of our favorite picture books from the last two weeks have been All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schirtle, Fish School by Nancy Poydar, 10 Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle, Hello Ocean by Pam Munoz Ryan and Big Al by Andrew Clements. Most of these were ocean or fish books to go along with our science studies. In language arts Abby has  continued to learn about suffixes and root words. She started learning about homonyms this week and also continues to work on writing good sentences. She is doing so well with her writing. In math, she's been working on number words from 100-200, adding money, drawing the hands on a clock to depict the correct time and bar graphs.

History - We learned about the Georgia Colony and its founder James Edward Oglethorpe. We read Georgia by Craig and Katherine Doherty. Although, we've lived in Georgia for 6 years, this was all new information for me as well. I grew up in Alabama and then spent eleven years in Texas so it was fun to learn about the state we now call home.

Science - We're really enjoying learning about the ocean, as going to the beach is one of our favorite things to do as a family. We can't wait for some hands on learning over spring break:-) This week we did some supplemental learning from some great books that we checked out from the library. Our favorite was I Wonder Why the Sea is Salty and Other Questions About the Oceans by Anita Ganeri. 

We also got some science in last weekend when we went with Chris to Pigeon Forge where he was teaching at a conference. We got there a day early and spent some time in Wonderworks. We had never been to one of these before and it was really fun. The best part was that when we arrived at opening (9AM) we were the only ones there. We had the place completely to ourselves until about 10 when one other family arrived. 

Dillon pulling himself up with a pulley system

Abby getting a little windblown in the hurricane tunnel

Dillon and Abby doing some rock climbing

Abby and I trying to play "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"

The boy in the bubble

This is the awesome 4 story ropes course that we all (including Abby and I) had a blast on. I was so proud of Abby (and myself) for doing this. Heights are not our thing, but it was sooo much fun. And we were the only ones on it. It was great.

So I would highly recommend Wonderworks if you're ever in Pigeon Forge,TN. But, a little hint....get there early. 

I'm linking up with the Kris and the Weekly Wrap-Up over at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers, so you can head over there to see how everyone else's week went.

Snow Day (or should I say Days?)

About 4-5 days before we ever saw anything fall from the sky, our weather forecasters here in the Atlanta area started talking about the possibility for large amounts of snow Sunday night into Monday. I love snow, but didn't want to get my hopes up. By Saturday evening, though, it was starting to look much more promising. YAY!

Unfortunately, I had already planned a short week of school because we are leaving to go out of town on Friday. So... I hated to miss another full day of school. I gave the kids the option on Sunday morning to come home after church and do their schoolwork for Monday so that they could have a snow day on Monday with the rest of the neighborhood kids. They gladly jumped on this opportunity.

Jump to Monday morning and a whopping 5 1/2 inches of snow was on the ground. I think that is the most snow I've ever woken up to (at least in my own home). It was absolutely beautiful! And still is. We're now on Day 2 of the Big Snow. We did school this morning, but just the basics and the kids were able to head out for round 2 of fun in the snow this afternoon.

Now, we just found out that public schools are out for a 3rd snow day tomorrow and all of our Wednesday night activities at church have been cancelled as well. Can you say cabin fever?  For my sanity, we will probably have as close to a normal day of homeschool as possible tomorrow. I'm sure though at some point, the kids will be bundling up to head out and enjoy some more play time in the snow. And I might just have to join them :-) After all it might be a while before we see this much snow again.

Home Sweet Home

Walking to the neighbor's to do some sledding

All bundled up - ready to do some sledding.

Dillon does great for his first time to sled.

Abby's turn

Love how quiet everything seems in a blanket of white.

A pretty North American Cardinal

And a pretty girl!

Thanks for letting me share about our fun days in the snow. It's been so beautiful and so much fun.

Weekly Wrap-Up (The Busy Christmas Version)

I had good intentions when I began this blog, but as a first year homeschool mom, the holidays have thrown me for a loop. Don't get me wrong, I am loving having my kids at home this time of year, but after you throw in Christmas parties, shopping, Christmas baking and decorating into the mix, there's not much time left for blogging. That being said, I did want to do a quick update on some of our Christmas happenings. We have been plugging along with our core subjects of math, language, reading, and phonics (for Abby). We have put science and history on hold for a few weeks to enjoy the season of Christmas.   

My little elves getting their work done. I came down one morning and found them already working on their boxes with their Santa hats on. Can I just say again that I love homeschool!!!

Some Christmas books we've been reading:

The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt

The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

Christmas in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Auntie Claus by Elise Primavera

The Christmas Day Kitten by James Herriot

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg

Merry Christmas, Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish 

Chicken Soup for the Soul Christmas Treasury for Kids

We also read about the tradition of the advent wreath and began our very own two Sunday evenings ago for the first time ever. We're using Lisa Welchel's book The ADVENTure of Christmas: Helping Children Find Jesus in our Holiday Traditions. This book is also great for giving spiritual meaning to many of the symbols of Christmas. We've also been doing daily devotional readings leading up to Christmas day.

The making of Christmas goodies has also consumed a lot of our time, but I've enjoyed having my little elves around to help. We made Christmas goodies last week for the GA Lottie Moon Bake Sale and this week made more to give out as gifts. The house and yard were decorated last weekend. All that's left to do is finish shopping and to get gifts wrapped and under the tree. (Oh Yeah... And to attempt to keep my house somewhat clean:-)

Abby helping me add the ingredients for our Crockpot Chocolate Covered Cashews (the easiest Christmas goodies ever) Here's the recipe in case you're interested.

 

Chocolate Covered Nuts (I've used cashews and peanuts)

32 oz. salted nuts

1 bar Baker's milk chocolate

12 oz. milk chocolate chips

1pkg. white almond bark

1 pkg. choc. almond bark

Add ingredients to crockpot in order given. Do not mix or stir. Heat on low for 3 hrs. After 3 hrs. stir well and drop by teaspoon fulls onto wax paper. Allow to cool and harden. Then enjoy!

 

Here's a closing shot of my beautiful ballerina. Abby had her Christmas recital this last Thursday night. She did an amazing job. We were so proud of her.

I'm linking up with Kris over at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers for her Weekly Wrap-Up. You can head over there, too, to check out some other homeschool blogs and to see how their weeks went.

I hope that you and your family are taking time to enjoy this wonderful Christmas season and to experience the love that God has for us in His son Jesus. Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Break

We took off to the country for an entire week to celebrate Thanksgiving with my parents. It was a much needed week of rest and relaxation. 

I think Chris and Dillon spent most of Monday fishing. Dillon caught his first bass, and together that day they caught 25. 

We spent a lot of time just playing outside. We had beautiful weather (at least through Thanksgiving Day) and the kids loved just being outdoors in the country.

Abby had fun torturing playing with the kittens.

See my little monkey in the tree. He had so much fun climbing this tree.

My brother Andy, his wife Tiffany and their two boys Caleb and Andrew got to Grandy and Pappy's on Wednesday. They live really close to us here in north Georgia, but we rarely get to spend this much time together. The cousins had a blast playing together and we adults enjoyed visiting, too. On Friday, we were stuck inside all day long due to the never ending rain, but the company was great (even though the ball game-the Iron Bowl-stunk).

Grandy and Pappy with my nephew, Andrew.

Wrestling with Uncle Andy

Chris re-living his childhood on my uncle's Big Red 3-Wheeler

Our traditional "after Thanksgiving dinner walk in the woods"

My brother, Andy and nephew, Andrew 

Some front porch sittin' and pickin' (after our walk)

Caleb and Abby had so much fun playing together. And Caleb is such a trooper. A few weeks ago, he broke both wrists after a bad fall. If you didn't see the casts, though, you wouldn't even realize it. He gets around great.

We had promised the kids that on Friday we'd have a bonfire and make s'mores. Little did we know that it would rain all day long. So we compromised and had s-mores under the carport. We roasted our marshmallows on the big green egg. They were so yummy!

We are so thankful for our family. We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving break.

One more shot of my two kiddos:

Weekly Wrap-Up - Week 10

We had a wonderful vacation last week at Disney, but are really glad to be back home getting back into everyday life and school. This has been a great week. For some reason our workboxes in the morning have been taking a little longer for the kids to complete. I'm not sure if they're having a hard time getting back into the routine of school after a 7 day break or if they're distracted (like me) by the gorgeous fall weather outside. We're still getting our work done, but we've had a couple of outdoor lessons this week.

Dillon - While on vacation Dillon read the book Red Dog by Bill Wallace. It was a slow start for him, but once he got into the book he couldn't put it down. This week he began a new novel, Because of Winn-Dixie, by Kate DiCamillo. He's really enjoying it, and would be done tomorrow if I didn't limit his reading everyday, and if he weren't doing other activities with the book. This has been a hard thing for me to balance in home-school. I would like for his novels to last 2-3 weeks, but I don't won't to inhibit his love for reading by limiting him to only 1-2 chapters a day. I would love some input if anyone has any on how you do reading in school. He reads other books (just for fun) throughout the day, but we reserve his novel reading for just during school.

In math, Dillon has been focusing on making change using the least amt. of coins and properties of multiplication. We also continue to drill multiplication flashcards a couple of times a week and take a timed speed drill. He also read a fun book this week on roman numerals. It's called Fun With Roman Numerals. I checked our copy out from the library. Horizon's math for awhile was doing a lot of roman numerals and this was not something he had studied very much before. The book showed (in a fun, colorful way) how roman numerals are often used in real life and explained how to read them. This week's language lessons were a review of all things capitalization and punctuation. He was a little tired of all the review by the end of the week.

In extra-curricular activities, Dillon's flag football season is well underway. He practices on Monday afternoons and has a game every Saturday. 

Abby - This week for reading we read several poems about fall and we started an American Girl's Chapter Book, Meet Kit. In language she has been learning about antonyms, compound words and syllables. Math has really picked up speed and she is learning something new almost every day. We're having to spend a little extra time on telling time right now. I think this is just one of those things that she needs daily review on and sometimes she will go 3-4 days without it showing up on her workbook page. I'm learning that when she doesn't remember how to do something, it is usually because we haven't practiced it together enough. I made her some magnetic coins to help practice money. This girl loves anything that gets her out of her seat.

Abby is in her third year of Worship through Dance at our church. She practices every Thursday and will have her recital in December. I sat in on this past week's class (I was the room mom) and I was really impressed with how well she's doing. Can't wait to see the finished product in December.

In history, we continued to learn about the Indians of the Northeast. We read about their customs, their homes, their language, and their everyday lives. Dillon wrote me a great letter using just symbols that he got from a book of Indian Picture Writings. He had fun writing secret "codes" throughout the week using the book. We all had fun trying to figure them out.

Science this week was all about birds and their nests. We learned about all the different kinds of nests birds build. We even tried to build a cup nest, which is the most common type of bird's nest, but this was a complete flop. We just used it as a lesson on how awesome it is that God gave birds the instinct and the ability to complete such a difficult task. We're also still absolutely loving all the bird activity in our backyard. We added a bird bath a couple of weeks ago that our birds are now enjoying. Here's a few of our favorite bird pictures from this week.

Chris had left some wood chips soaking in this old butter tub, and the Cardinal was helping himself to a drink.

A Blue Jay enjoying our new bird bath.

And we think this is a Brown Thrasher, which I just read is the state bird of Georgia. Please correct us if we're wrong.

We did two fun art projects this week. We made torn construction paper fall trees.

And Chris and the kids did an art project Friday afternoon while I was gone to get a haircut. They did a Fall Leaves Painting that I got from Deep Space Sparkle. I think this is the 2nd or 3rd project I've gotten from this fun art site. Their finished projects turned out great.

Well, that's our week in a not so little post. Hope you have had a wonderful week with your families as well. 

I'm linking up with the Weekly Wrap-Up over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers, so you can head over there to see how everyone else's week went.

 

Disney World

Those of you that know us, know that we love Disney World. We took our first trip as a family in 2005 when Abby was only 2. Since then we have gone on four other trips averaging out almost once a year. We do Disney on a budget. The last three trips, we have taken advantage of Disney's free dining offer, and we stay at Pop Century, which is considered a Disney value resort. 

Some pictures from our last trip. 

How many days 'til Disney? Zero... Yay!

We stayed at DIsney's Pop Century Resort.

With Stitch on our first day.

This was Dillon's first trip as an "adult". He got to order all of his free meals off of the adult menu. This made him one happy boy.

The Festival of the Lion King Show at the Animal Kingdom. This show is wonderful.

Our lunch at Teppan Edo in Epcot's Japan was one of our favorite meals. So yummy!

Chris was picked to be a part of the Indiana Jones' Stunt Show in Hollywood Studios.

Chris and Abby on the Toy Story Midway Mania ride.

 Abby meeting Cinderella before our dinner in the castle.

We even got to meet Jiminy Cricket at Rafiki's Planet Watch in the Animal Kingdom.

Abby on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin

 Our last day at the Magic Kingdom we enjoyed the Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade. Bye, Mickey!

Thanks for sharing in our memories with us. Sorry for such a picture heavy post, but considering we took over 1200, I think having only 12 on here is not too bad.

 

What We've Been Up To!

I've missed a few Weekly Updates, but wanted to fill in the blanks for those of you that are wondering where we've been.

 

Weeks 8-9 were very full. 

-We celebrated Abby's 7th B-Day with a pool party.

-We hosted a baby shower for some good friends who we serve with at church. (They've since had a beautiful baby boy)

-We washed clothes, packed, and prepared for a 10 day trip to Disney World.

AND we did school every day. (sorry, I won't be sharing all that we did during weeks 8 and 9, but I'll be posting a weekly update for this week, Week 10)

 

Last week, we vacationed. I don't know if I can say that we rested, after all it was Disney, but we did have a wonderful time as a family.

At Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

We're happy to be home and so far are having a great week. It'll be even better when the cooler fall temps. arrive later this week. Happy Fall Y'all!

Abby's 7th Birthday

Abby has always wanted a pool party for her birthday. And this year, she got her wish. When the local school system added a week long fall break to their calendar for the school year, our neighborhood board made the decision to keep the pool open through the fall break (which is this week). And it was about 92 degrees out today, so it was perfect swimming weather.

 She had lots of friends to share in her special day, and family, too. Uncle Andy, Aunt Tiffany, and cousins Caleb and Andrew were there and her Granny, PaPa Dave and Megan drove in from out of town. We had yummy cake and ice cream (and lots of fun!).

Blowing out the candles!

Opening a few gifts.

Megan cooling off in the pool.

Abby's cousin Andrew.

After the party, we headed home for dinner and to open a few more family gifts. Here she is with DIllon, holding her new Labradoodle Webkinz that he got her. She had a wonderful day and at bedtime was sad it was over. 

I know people say this all the time, but it really is hard to believe that my baby is seven. Where has the time gone? Earlier today, I got all sentimental and sat at the computer looking at pictures from her first year. I'm not even sure when she went from being a baby to a toddler, much less a toddler to a beautiful young girl. She brings so much laughter and joy (and lots of attitude) to our family. We are so thankful for you, Abby Girl!

 Abby at 10 months.

 

Weekly Wrap-Up - Week 7

Highlights of Week 7:

This week started off on Sunday night when we allowed our kids to stay up as late as they wanted to to watch the Dallas Cowboys play football. We had an indoor tailgate party complete with mini sausages, pizza rolls, chips and queso, and IBC root beer. Abby and I only made it 'til about 10:30, but Chris and Dillon were up until the bitter end when the Cowboys lost the game due to a penalty. We slept in on Monday morning and didn't get started with school until 10AM. Have I mentioned lately how much we love the flexibility of homeschooling?

 Ready for the big game.

Dillon began reading the book Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry this week, and is enjoying this fictional book based on the wild horses of Assateague Island in Virginia. In language, he's still working on reviewing the mechanics, punctuation and capitalization. He's been working on adding money and learned how to write a check this week. He thought that was kinda cool. We're also continuing to drill multiplication facts, and he has greatly improved the time it takes him to complete 50 problems on a speed drill. For fun this week, he did a pattern block symmetry game and did a Mind Benders logic puzzle.

 

Abby read several different books this week, Chicken Chuck by Bill Martin Jr., Oliver and Amanda and the Big Snow by Jean Van Leeuwen, When Hugo went to School by Anne Rockwell, and a Magic School Bus Chapter Book, Butterfly Battle. She's also still working on compound words and rhyming words. She did a fun compound words file folder game that I got from File Folder Fun. In math, she was introduced to several new concepts this week: counting dimes, counting dimes and pennies, the calendar, and measuring in inches. Horizon's math is moving very fast, but so far she's doing great. We did a lot of hands on practice this week counting dimes and dimes and pennies. We also continued to practice time to the hour and half hour.

In science this week we started studying how birds fly. We learned about how a bird's bones are designed for flight. We also discussed takeoffs and landings. We studied the albatross a little more in depth and watched some on-line videos of this graceful (in flight) bird trying to take-off and then land. The albatross has the longest wing span of any bird in the world (up to 11 feet).

In history we continued our study of the original 13 colonies discussing Maryland and Connecticut. We also read The Thirteen Colonies by Dennis Fradin. I had hoped to finish up the 13 colonies this week and start our study of Native Americans next week, but I think we need to give one more week to the colonies. Dillon did a map of the 13 colonies this week and Abby made a flag of the original 13 colonies. I'm enjoying TruthQuest History, but it requires so much reading and I have to work extra hard to include fun learning activities. 

Our Bible verse for this week was Prov. 3:5-6, "Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight." Chris put the words to music and the kids learned it on the very first day. It became one of our very favorite songs this week and was "stuck" in our heads. Here they are singing it at breakfast.

 

On Thursday morning we had a field trip at our church. Our homeschool group brought in a beekeeper who did a fabulous job of teaching us about honeybees. We learned so many amazing facts about honeybees and even got a free sample to taste.

 Dillon and Abby with their friend Kathryn waiting for the presentation.

 The beekeeper giving his presentation. It lasted for about an hour, but it was so interesting that the kids were attentive the entire time.

 Afterward, we got to check out the observation hive close up. We were even able to spot the queen.

We've had a fun, but very busy week. We had a play-date, a birthday party, a field trip, and I got to scrapbook with the ladies at my church today. Next week is fall break for the public schools here, but we're schooling through the week because in about 2 weeks we're headed to Orlando to visit Mickey. Can't wait!

I'm linking up with the Weekly Wrap-Up over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers, so you can head over there to see how everyone else's week went.