We are slowing down a little due to all the other activities taking place this time of year. April and May will be filled with graduation preparations (we have a high school senior graduating in addition to Trenton's K graduation). The highlight this week was spending two days in New Orleans with some friends. The kids enjoyed the aquarium and the zoo.









Other learning tidbits for the week: Subtraction (intro to double-digit), language arts, spelling, reading, some lessons on dolphins, BrainPop, French, and piano.

Spring Break!

Trenton was out of school this week, which afforded us a little extra time for enrichment. We did make it to our Indian mound field trip. There was a small museum where we learned about Indian dwellings, art, weapons, food, and some death rituals. Trenton left with a few keepsakes of his own (an arrowhead and dreamcatcher).









Trenton also made a teepee out of sticks from the backyard, and playdough. Turned out so cute! His favorite dwelling type was a wigwam, but the teepee was an easier design for us to duplicate. :)



Since this was Spring Break, we decided to try something new.... we went camping! 20 bug bites later, we survived and Trenton had a blast. We hiked around the area, cooked hotdogs and s'mores, attempted ghost stories, and slept on the ground (ouch!).



Other activities for the week included continuing to watch the eagle and her eggs (http://www.farmyou.com/falcon_cams/index.html), enjoying the PianoGuys on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/ThePianoGuys), piano lessons (first piece that uses both hands simultaneously), symmetry practice, language arts, addition, subtraction, BrainPop, place value, reading about the Tuskegee Airmen during WWII, AND....

Angry Birds Space, of course!



Trenton had been anticipating this release and is over-the-MOON about it!

Next week we'll talk a little about spring, continue with our Indian lesson, and maybe read about dolphins to tie in with the Magic Tree House book he just finished.

We are slowly getting back into the swing of things. We have wrapped up our lesson on WWII, although Trenton would like to continue learning more about atomic bombs. This week we read a little more about the war, colored a picture of the Allied leaders, and enjoyed a field trip to an aviation museum where Trenton was able to see what life was like during the war. He also saw some WWII era planes and what the interior of a carrier looked like back then. Some other areas of focus this week were double digit addition, odd/even numbers, language arts, a little spelling, Magic Tree House reading (dolphins), watching piano masters on YouTube, viewing an IMAX on helicopters, and BrainPop (as always). We also viewed some photos of the solar flare.







He enjoys coloring things in silly ways, but I did stress him color the flags properly. :) We colored this together.



Trenton has requested to study all types of Indians next.

Laissez les Bons Temps Rouler!!!

Let the good times roll! Living way down here in the deep South, not far away from the biggest Mardi Gras festivities, I guess it is no wonder Trenton caught the party bug. We had an exciting day trip/field trip this week to a Mardi Gras museum. Armed with a camera, Trenton enjoyed snapping shots of sparkly costumes and ornate decorations. He left with some beads, a mask, and a new stuffed animal in traditional Mardi Gras colors - purple, green, and gold.

Mardi Gras Float


Mardi Gras Queen Gown


Colorful Decorations


Trenton's Lego Mardi Gras Float


The rest of our learning activities included math (subtraction, time, and money), French (colors and numbers 1-20), a couple chess games, some Scratch programming, lots and lots of BrainPop videos, a spelling list, continent & ocean games, various language arts and reading activities, and journal writing. Of course piano and riding lessons are a part of every week.

Since our Mardi Gras lessons are coming to an end (still have a parade and some King Cake tasting to go), Trenton has requested to explore WWII next. I think we will start by focusing on a light overview with a deeper focus on Pearl Harbor and what everyday life was like during that time in history.

Lexy (that is my sister) and I were out of school for the week. Mom and Dad took off of work so we had a lot of fun together. Here are some of the things we did...

• Went to see STOMP! They would not let Mom take a photo of the stage so here I am in my seat so excited for it to begin!
  


• Went to an airplane museum. There were jets, old planes, hot air balloons, blimps, bombs, model ships, and space ships.
  



• Ate at a fun restaurant where money hangs down from the ceiling. Mom let Lexy and me write on a dollar bill and Dad hung it up. I wrote an 'A' for Alexis and a 'T' for Trenton.
  
  



• Went to a local museum where I saw soldiers, vintage toys, and got to play in the discovery center for kids. It was set up like a coloniel village. I pretended to sail a ship, row a canoe made out of a tree, and sleep on a bed made of ropes.
  



• Hunted for eggs at an Easter celebration at my church.
  



• Played in my new sandbox under my fort. Dad finally filled it up with sand and I am so happy! I can play with my garbage and construction trucks all day now.
  

Mom and Dad took me on a field trip today to the landfill. I rode on a big bus. It took us to see hazardous waste such as paint cans and I saw a machine crush one. I saw piles of sorted recycling like paper, cardboard, plastic, and aluminum. Then we went to the top of the landfill! We were up so high. A truck with a blue cab was dumping all its waste and compactor tractors were rolling right over it. I saw lots of WM garbage trucks too. wmwmwmwmwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwmwmwmwwm (I really love Waste Management)

I had fun at the dump.

Bye,
trenton

Yesterday Mom and Dad took me to the beach for a couple of hours. I played in the sand, buried my feet, built a castle with Dad, and found some sea shells. The water was very cold so we did not swim.